Illusion Labs [based in Sweden] makes one of my latest favorite iPhone games, Sway. Cutest game ever!

You start off with Lizzie the Lizard, and as you progress, you unlock her friends [the part that keeps me playing]. The graphics are quite impressive on this game, and you spend your time swinging from block to block, collecting stars and dodging obstacles. My favorite character to use is Ninja Man, but some of the other characters have longer arms [Monkee and Scarlet] and prove to be a bit more useful on some levels. Box boy is extra springy too! Using your left and right thumb, you control the swaying action of the character. When you let go of the screen, your character takes off, and when you put your finger back on the screen, your character will latch on to the nearest block. The objective of the game: Collect stars as quickly as you can to the finish line of each level. Rescue friends on the “Save a Friend” levels.

Yup, I shelled out $4.99 for this one after doing a test run of Sway Lite. Some of the levels are quite tough, but there are checkpoints on each level to save the spot you’ve reached in the level. You also have unlimited number of deaths, so you can keep on going. Quite entertaining and fun! I’ve gotten really into the game, and my fingers get all sweaty. Oops! It looks cute, but it is still tough.

Well worth the $$ spent. I’m down to one more friend to rescue, but I’m hoping there will be future updates with more levels + friends.

With all the free time I have now, I may spend some of it crocheting Ninja Man – see pattern here!

Here are screen shots of some of the friends:

Fairlady Media brings to the iPhone world a mobile version of the popular arcade game, Whac-A-Mole.

Is it just me, or does it seem like I find joy in playing games where the cute and cuddly creatures on the little iPhone screen are smacked around? Just this one and that Crazy Penguin Catapult.

It’s one of those games that keeps me on my toes and makes my fingers spastic! Each level is about 30 seconds long [there are time bonuses if you whack a clock], and you can’t miss any or there are penalties.

Whack ‘em All! is for all ages and tests your hand-eye coordination. You have to whack those goofy-looking moles, rabbits, gophers, and skunks, while watching out for kittens.

The silly music will stick to your head as you advance from level to level, knocking the animals out with the mallet. You get extra points for multiple whackings at once, and when you shake your phone, there’s a special mallet that takes care of all the pests in the garden.

Best of all, the game is free if you’re not afraid of a few ads. Otherwise, contribute the 99 cents to check the game out!

Originally, I downloaded the Lite version of the Crazy Penguin Catapult game from Digital Chocolate just to have something to play around with. After beating it, I deleted the app and moved on with my life. But then not too long ago, I re-downloaded the game. Catapulting penguins at polar bears was back in my life.

RV caught the penguin-catapulting bug and ended up downloading the paid version for $4.99. There are many complaints that the $4.99 version is too short, and I’ll have to agree. For such a short game that can be beaten in a few hours, $4.99 is hefty. However, it has actually provided RV and me quite a few hours of entertainment. Yeah, we’ve beaten the game several times, but the silly power-ups have kept us coming back. Gotta love the Rubber and Super Bounce Penguins, Ninja and Double Ninja Penguins, Ice Breakers, Twins and Triplets…

CUTE, right? Oh, casual games. They’re the next big money maker…

Side note: The rain boots didn’t make it again. One more try by the delivery guys before I can call them to arrange a pick-up or something.

So I went and bought an iPhone in January. The main reason for switching away from my reliable network at Verizon was the wide variety of applications available. Carrying the iPhone was like carrying a mini computer around. Since I don’t spend a lot of time talking on the phone, only having text messages and applications [useful and not] seemed like a great idea. I don’t regret the decision to switch, even if it means a few dropped calls here and there with the parents.

Ever since I started using the phone and downloading applications, I’ve been meaning to write reviews of the applications downloaded. Once the reviews are written, I’m deleting the apps I’m not actually using. I hate the clutter!

For this first review, I went ahead and found four free Twitter applications. For the most part, you can do the same things within each application. So I’ll just focus on what I like/don’t like about each.

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TwitterFon from Naan Studio: This is my favorite of the bunch. It loads quickly and is very easy to use. It’s fairly simple in design and doesn’t clutter the page. You input your account information on the Settings page, and you are set. Clicking on an individual Tweet brings you to the user info page. If there are links within the tweet, clicking on the tweet on the user info page will bring you to all the links in the tweet. I like that it doesn’t open up into a new browser, and you can easily navigate your way back to TwitterFon.

Let’s see. What else? There are no advertisements. It’s open source. While your Twitter page will only show the most recent tweets, you have the option to load all stored Tweets. I also like that you have the option of setting it to scroll to the first unread tweet on the page. The background color for the tweet is different, so that you know which ones are new. Makes for easy following. NEAT.

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Twitterific from Iconfactory: First off, a cute icon! They try to be user-friendly by having helpful hints that pop up with instructions on how to use the application. Double-clicking takes you to individual Tweets. You can scroll through these individual tweets by sliding along the page. It’s an option to have, but I think for me, the list view is more useful. There is a mini browser within the application, which allows for browsing while you’ve got the application open. However, there’s also the option of opening up a page in Safari.

Twitterific Premium is $9.99, which seems a little hefty for a Twitter application. There are advertisements in the free version, but they are not so annoying that I’d readily spend $9.99, even if it was to support artists and developers. I’ve read other reviews. It’s not significantly different from the free version.

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Twinkle from Tapulous: Again, cute icon. When you turn your iPhone sideways, a world map pops up, showing the latest tweets. It does a live update as it receives each of the tweets, which is neat to watch. I like that there’s a whole network of Twinkle users in addition to the people on Twitter that you can send messages to, even though I’d probably not use the option. The application is more colorful than the others and has cute little chat bubbles, which is alright, but doesn’t really add value.

There is one thing I don’t like though. It doesn’t show all of your tweets. If you have a lot of them and you haven’t been checking them, they don’t all show up on the page. I don’t know which ones are included for viewing… As of 13 hours ago, the response from Tapulous is that the number of tweets displayed, as well as tweets already read, are not YET an option. Sounds like there will be more changes coming. For now though, I’m not all that intrigued by the fancy colors and twinkling.

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Twittelator from Stone Design: This was a last minute download as I hadn’t heard of it until today. Of the four, the name of this application is the one I like least… The Groups page is rather plain looking, but it takes you to: Friends’ Tweets, My Tweets, My Replies, Everyone’s Tweets, Featured Tweeters, Bookmarks, etc. The pages are simple and not too cluttered. Pleasant to the eye. You have the option of sliding your finger along the screen to scroll, OR use the down arrow.

There is a paid version of this application – Twittelator Pro for $4.99. It’s got Dingbats fonts you can add to your tweets, several themes you can apply to the application, and sub-groups for quick messages to a group of friends.

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After trying all four of these out, it’s clear which one is my pick – Twitterfon. I wanted something simple and functional. I wanted something quick and sleek. I didn’t need the fancy bells and whistles. But who knows? Others might.

Now to delete the excess!

In case none of the four are appealing, I’ve also heard good things about Tweetie too.

A great time last night at the Computer History Museum! Some of the gang came down from San Francisco, so I didn’t feel completely out of place. Anytime I’m at these Silicon Valley events, I feel a little lost. There was a photo booth, so we all took some pictures in front of a very pink background. Photos: here. Here’s part of my review of the museum:

It was not only the perfect venue for a gathering to celebrate my love of all things geeky, but it has inspired a change in my life. From this point forward, I have added a new requirement for future boyfriend[s]: Must be able to appreciate the Computer History Museum. Take note – hah!

The lower level features an awesome room called “Visible Storage,” where you’ll find unique artifacts, from mechanical calculators and old school keyboards to the vintage PCs, historical firsts and exotic supercomputers. One of the docents pointed out the Honeywell 316, a $10K computer to assist housewives of the late 60s in the kitchen, assuming that they took a course to read binary. Very amusing.

This room is also where you will find the PDP-1 [Programmed Data Processor-1] Restoration Project. Got to meet Peter Samson, one of the original students/hackers/programmers who got to work with it back in the day.

I didn’t look closely at everything. I must return. Most likely, a weekend since their hours during the weekdays aren’t very long. There is a lot to see and the hour or so spent looking around was not enough. The next time, I will definitely take a docent-led tour. Lots of nifty info for a computer geek and non [me!] alike!