Some people are fond of saying that it isn’t the Earth that needs saving—the Earth will be around long after we’re gone. No, it’s we humans who need saving from ourselves. (Need evidence? Look no further than the Gulf, where another oil rig just caught fire.) 6th Mega is a new indie game developer dedicated to preventing the sixth mega extinction. Their flagship product is Puff Puff , an underwater arcade game, and they’re contributing 30% of net proceeds to ecosystem restoration with a focus on the Gulf of Mexico marine habitat. A new version of Puff Puff just hit the iTunes store this week Puff Puff screenshots: the coral reef and the Gulf oil spill. Click to enlarge. In Puff Puff , you play a diodon holocanthus , the spiny pufferfish, navigating your way through coral reefs or the Gulf oil spill. The game has an interesting control system, combining the accelerometer with pinch/squeeze gestures. Pinching and squeezing causes the puffer to deflate and inflate, which then affects its buoyancy and moves it up or down on the screen. Tilting the screen makes the puffer move forward or back, though there’s a constant automatic forward movement. Grab power-ups for a speed boost, keep your energy levels up, or temporary shield, but avoid the obstacles—three hits and you die (unless you find the extra lives). Enemies will float by as well—sharks in the coral reef and robo-subs in the Gulf—but you can hit them if you’ve got your spines extended. Puff Puff is nicely designed and the graphics really do a great job of putting you in an underwater world. I haven’t seen any other games with this sort of control, so it’s a cool use of the iPhone’s capabilities. The goal of the game is simply to get as far as possible, so it can get a little monotonous after a while, but an upcoming update will add some new enemies, and the two levels give you a change of scenery. Here’s a little video of gameplay (from version 1.0, which doesn’t have the Gulf Spill level): What’s also neat is that 6th Mega is releasing Puff Puff as “goodware”—they’re distributing the source code for free and encouraging remixes . I’d love to see what somebody else can do with the app as well. Puff Puff is $.99 in the iTunes store. Of course, if you really want to help save the humans, 6th Mega encourages you to donate to The Nature Conservancy’s Adopt a Coral Reef program . Wired: Unique controls using pinch/squeeze and accelerometer give the game a different feel; 6th Mega donates 30% of proceeds to conservancy efforts. Tired: Could use a little more variety along the way. Disclosure: 6th Mega provided a review copy of Puff Puff. Read the rest of this entry »

The many faces of Dee Bradley Baker, a GeekDad exclusive image. (c) Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved. Photo by Joel Aron. Dee Bradley Baker needs no disguises. By voice alone, the actor leaves Fletch and his list of aliases in the dust, and his credits are stacked with geek power: From roles in the Halo and Gears of War franchises to regular parts in animated standouts like Batman: The Brave and the Bold to GeekDad favorite Perry the Platypus on Phineas and Ferb . Baker’s also the voice of Captain Rex and every other clone trooper on Cartoon Network’s Star Wars: The Clone Wars , which is how he wound up at Star Wars Celebration V this month in Orlando – though you get the sense that as someone who meticulously re-marked his Star Wars soundtrack as a kid to match the movie sequences, Baker probably would have been here anyway. In an enthusiastic interview at the convention, the father of two talked about his career, raising his kids and being a geek (and > ahem!< a GeekDad fan!) as well as teasing some neat insights into the next season of Clone Wars and Nickelodeon’s upcoming cartoon spinoff of its animated Avatar: The Last Airbender series. Before we even sat down, we started chatting about geekdom and fatherhood, and the conversation was off and running before I had my recorder switched on, which is why the interview starts right in the middle of things: Dee Bradley Baker: I’m a middle-aged dad, which means I have no social time or life to speak of, and so I connect with my buddies with my Xbox. We play, actually, two of my favorite games which I’m on, which are Gears of War 2 and Left 4 Dead 2 . I’m three new creatures on Left 4 Dead 2, so we kill me while catching up a little bit. GeekDad: So, how many kids do you have? DBB: Two. I have five-year-old and 10-year-old daughters. And actually, we watch a lot of my cartoons. My 10-year-old loves Clone Wars and Phineas and Ferb , and my five-year-old loves Phineas and Ferb as well. GeekDads gotta stick together, you know. Image: Jim Carchidi DBB: I am a geek dad, believe me. I’ve got my iPad with me; I’ve got my iPhone 4; I’ve got my Xbox. I love technology and I want to feel like I’m living in the future, and these devices help me feel that way. GD: When you talk about being a geek dad and having those kinds of interests, does it just happen that you get this work and a lot of it has that geek appeal … or do you naturally gravitate to those projects? DBB: The way that I’ve followed my life is actually more of the latter. When I was a child, I thought I was going to be a paleontologist because I loved dinosaurs. I loved monster movies and sci-fi, and then Star Wars came out, and I was completely out of my mind with that, with Close Encounters , and then I thought maybe I was going to go into special effects makeup, which I thought was awesome. But really, instead of drawing monsters or studying dinosaurs, I just continued doing things I liked to do. I didn’t really target how it was going to pay off. And so, because I just followed these things that I liked, it led me to producing sounds for these things, and being involved with them in that way. It’s from a pattern of me continually doing things that I really loved to do, and then trying to get money while doing that. And it’s led to this. I mean, I cannot tell you how ecstatic I am to be involved with Star Wars . I twittered yesterday about how sad it is that a kid now can’t see Episode V and not know up until that moment when Darth Vader says, “I am your father” how it rewrites those two movies with one sentence. They can’t know that surprise now, and I think that’s a little sad. You go to a movie, and you’ve seen it already. The trailer shows you the whole thing, you’ve read all the reviews, you can pretty much know every single twist. But back then, when I saw that, I remember sitting in that theater in Denver, where I saw it, and just the electric feeling of right up to that moment. GD: So, as far as showing your daughters Star Wars , how have they been exposed to it? DBB: I started showing my now 10-year-old the Star Wars stuff … and started with Episode IV when she was probably about seven or eight. I thought she’d be OK for it then. When she was nine, I had shown her IV , V and VI , and then I and II , but I was holding off on III , because that one, that’s pretty rough. That’s pushing the border. You want to protect your kids, you want to be a good dad, and even though I make this stuff, I don’t just throw everything at them. And we’re watching that episode – and she’s a sharp kid: She’s watching it, and halfway through it, she said, “Daddy, I don’t think I want to see the end of this movie. I think I’ll wait ’til I’m 10.” And I said OK, that’s good. I’m very proud that my kids can tell me things like that, and that she can see that coming. But also, I mean, she had been watching the television series … and it’s established that the clones are heroes, and that Anakin is a hero, and in Episode III , everything falls apart, and it goes south, and the good guys become bad, and frankly, that’s a lot for a little kid to handle. You’re establishing what’s good and what’s bad and just the foundation for them to have a bigger perspective on the world, but I don’t need to shoehorn that into her childhood. I want her to have a childhood, which I think is harder and harder for kids to have these days. I was very proud of her for that (decision), and I felt very good about it. GD: (As a parent), you’ve got to know your kids. DBB: The main thing is that you’re present. That’s what it gets down to, to me. People, they kind of conjure a lot of fear about the media or about video games, and fo rme it’s about, “You know what? Just parent your kids . Don’t let the device babysit your child. You’ve got to be present. If you’re present, you can talk them through stuff, and they can tell you if they’re uncomfortable, and you can check their reactions. Right now (my) kids are working through Nickelodeon’s Avatar series, which I’m very proud of and which – it’s something that’s really important to me: Clone Wars means a lot to me, and Avatar means a lot to me too – I did all the creatures in that. Well, the new Avatar, they put out an audition and they wanted a flashback for the younger Avatar – who is now a girl – from when she was this little fireball five-year-old. I had my 10-year-old audition for it, and it was just two sentences, and, well, my five-year-old said, “Daddy, I want to audition. I want to try this, too,” and so I let her give it a shot. And she booked it. And the name of the series is The Last Airbender: The Journey of Korra – and my daughter’s name is Cora. It was just kind of an odd serendipity. To have her involved, with her playing a namesake, the heroic character of the show, that’s pretty cool. Pretty wonderful. ( Note: Nickelodeon announced the spinoff will be called The Legend of Korra in a July 21 press release , and Baker has confirmed he’s working on it, too.) DBB: But here I am (at Celebration V), in the middle of this thing that was just my dream as a kid, to be involved with Star Wars . I drew a lot of monsters and creatures, and I wanted to send them to George Lucas and say, “I’d like to design your next Cantina bar creatures,” but I never did. I’ve still got the drawings, though. My folks made me a Jawa costume for the Halloween after Star Wars opened in ‘77. In ‘78, when it was re-released, I was hired by the local cinema to be the Jawa: to dress up all summer long, and I could frighten people with my Jawa sounds and my Jawa outfit and watch Star Wars Episode IV all summer long and get paid with movie passes. I really feel like I am living the dream of the thing that I loved so much as a kid. It’s ridiculously exciting. We saw the first two episodes of the new season of Clone Wars – just mind-blowingly good. It’s a prequel of the “Rookies” episode, which is all clones. One of my favorites. And it’s showing them getting their training and getting certified as clones, and in the second half, they’re attacked by Ventress , and Kamino gets this major attack, and there’s this big battle, and it’s incredible , just to be such an integral part of this thing. Dee Bradley Baker’s birthday is coming up on Aug. 31: You should give him a Twitter follow and a Perry-style “ Prrrrrghhht!” Read the rest of this entry »

The many faces of Dee Bradley Baker, a GeekDad exclusive image. (c) Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved. Photo by Joel Aron. Dee Bradley Baker needs no disguises. By voice alone, the actor leaves Fletch and his list of aliases in the dust, and his credits are stacked with geek power: From roles in the Halo and Gears of War franchises to regular parts in animated standouts like Batman: The Brave and the Bold to GeekDad favorite Perry the Platypus on Phineas and Ferb . Baker’s also the voice of Captain Rex and every other clone trooper on Cartoon Network’s Star Wars: The Clone Wars , which is how he wound up at Star Wars Celebration V this month in Orlando – though you get the sense that as someone who meticulously re-marked his Star Wars soundtrack as a kid to match the movie sequences, Baker probably would have been here anyway. In an enthusiastic interview at the convention, the father of two talked about his career, raising his kids and being a geek (and > ahem!< a GeekDad fan!) as well as teasing some neat insights into the next season of Clone Wars and Nickelodeon’s upcoming cartoon spinoff of its animated Avatar: The Last Airbender series. Before we even sat down, we started chatting about geekdom and fatherhood, and the conversation was off and running before I had my recorder switched on, which is why the interview starts right in the middle of things: Dee Bradley Baker: I’m a middle-aged dad, which means I have no social time or life to speak of, and so I connect with my buddies with my Xbox. We play, actually, two of my favorite games which I’m on, which are Gears of War 2 and Left 4 Dead 2 . I’m three new creatures on Left 4 Dead 2, so we kill me while catching up a little bit. GeekDad: So, how many kids do you have? DBB: Two. I have five-year-old and 10-year-old daughters. And actually, we watch a lot of my cartoons. My 10-year-old loves Clone Wars and Phineas and Ferb , and my five-year-old loves Phineas and Ferb as well. GeekDads gotta stick together, you know. Image: Jim Carchidi DBB: I am a geek dad, believe me. I’ve got my iPad with me; I’ve got my iPhone 4; I’ve got my Xbox. I love technology and I want to feel like I’m living in the future, and these devices help me feel that way. GD: When you talk about being a geek dad and having those kinds of interests, does it just happen that you get this work and a lot of it has that geek appeal … or do you naturally gravitate to those projects? DBB: The way that I’ve followed my life is actually more of the latter. When I was a child, I thought I was going to be a paleontologist because I loved dinosaurs. I loved monster movies and sci-fi, and then Star Wars came out, and I was completely out of my mind with that, with Close Encounters , and then I thought maybe I was going to go into special effects makeup, which I thought was awesome. But really, instead of drawing monsters or studying dinosaurs, I just continued doing things I liked to do. I didn’t really target how it was going to pay off. And so, because I just followed these things that I liked, it led me to producing sounds for these things, and being involved with them in that way. It’s from a pattern of me continually doing things that I really loved to do, and then trying to get money while doing that. And it’s led to this. I mean, I cannot tell you how ecstatic I am to be involved with Star Wars . I twittered yesterday about how sad it is that a kid now can’t see Episode V and not know up until that moment when Darth Vader says, “I am your father” how it rewrites those two movies with one sentence. They can’t know that surprise now, and I think that’s a little sad. You go to a movie, and you’ve seen it already. The trailer shows you the whole thing, you’ve read all the reviews, you can pretty much know every single twist. But back then, when I saw that, I remember sitting in that theater in Denver, where I saw it, and just the electric feeling of right up to that moment. GD: So, as far as showing your daughters Star Wars , how have they been exposed to it? DBB: I started showing my now 10-year-old the Star Wars stuff … and started with Episode IV when she was probably about seven or eight. I thought she’d be OK for it then. When she was nine, I had shown her IV , V and VI , and then I and II , but I was holding off on III , because that one, that’s pretty rough. That’s pushing the border. You want to protect your kids, you want to be a good dad, and even though I make this stuff, I don’t just throw everything at them. And we’re watching that episode – and she’s a sharp kid: She’s watching it, and halfway through it, she said, “Daddy, I don’t think I want to see the end of this movie. I think I’ll wait ’til I’m 10.” And I said OK, that’s good. I’m very proud that my kids can tell me things like that, and that she can see that coming. But also, I mean, she had been watching the television series … and it’s established that the clones are heroes, and that Anakin is a hero, and in Episode III , everything falls apart, and it goes south, and the good guys become bad, and frankly, that’s a lot for a little kid to handle. You’re establishing what’s good and what’s bad and just the foundation for them to have a bigger perspective on the world, but I don’t need to shoehorn that into her childhood. I want her to have a childhood, which I think is harder and harder for kids to have these days. I was very proud of her for that (decision), and I felt very good about it. GD: (As a parent), you’ve got to know your kids. DBB: The main thing is that you’re present. That’s what it gets down to, to me. People, they kind of conjure a lot of fear about the media or about video games, and fo rme it’s about, “You know what? Just parent your kids . Don’t let the device babysit your child. You’ve got to be present. If you’re present, you can talk them through stuff, and they can tell you if they’re uncomfortable, and you can check their reactions. Right now (my) kids are working through Nickelodeon’s Avatar series, which I’m very proud of and which – it’s something that’s really important to me: Clone Wars means a lot to me, and Avatar means a lot to me too – I did all the creatures in that. Well, the new Avatar, they put out an audition and they wanted a flashback for the younger Avatar – who is now a girl – from when she was this little fireball five-year-old. I had my 10-year-old audition for it, and it was just two sentences, and, well, my five-year-old said, “Daddy, I want to audition. I want to try this, too,” and so I let her give it a shot. And she booked it. And the name of the series is The Last Airbender: The Journey of Korra – and my daughter’s name is Cora. It was just kind of an odd serendipity. To have her involved, with her playing a namesake, the heroic character of the show, that’s pretty cool. Pretty wonderful. ( Note: Nickelodeon announced the spinoff will be called The Legend of Korra in a July 21 press release , and Baker has confirmed he’s working on it, too.) DBB: But here I am (at Celebration V), in the middle of this thing that was just my dream as a kid, to be involved with Star Wars . I drew a lot of monsters and creatures, and I wanted to send them to George Lucas and say, “I’d like to design your next Cantina bar creatures,” but I never did. I’ve still got the drawings, though. My folks made me a Jawa costume for the Halloween after Star Wars opened in ‘77. In ‘78, when it was re-released, I was hired by the local cinema to be the Jawa: to dress up all summer long, and I could frighten people with my Jawa sounds and my Jawa outfit and watch Star Wars Episode IV all summer long and get paid with movie passes. I really feel like I am living the dream of the thing that I loved so much as a kid. It’s ridiculously exciting. We saw the first two episodes of the new season of Clone Wars – just mind-blowingly good. It’s a prequel of the “Rookies” episode, which is all clones. One of my favorites. And it’s showing them getting their training and getting certified as clones, and in the second half, they’re attacked by Ventress , and Kamino gets this major attack, and there’s this big battle, and it’s incredible , just to be such an integral part of this thing. Dee Bradley Baker’s birthday is coming up on Aug. 31: You should give him a Twitter follow and a Perry-style “ Prrrrrghhht!” Read the rest of this entry »

Meg Cabot admits it. She’s a total geek. I had the pleasure of interviewing the bestselling author while attending the Romance Writers of America conference in Orlando in late July. In person, she’s is like a grown-up version of her writing voice: friendly, open, irreverent and very smart. Cabot is the author of the Princess Diaries series and the young adult paranormal Mediator and Avalon High series. Her latest book for adults is Insatiable , a modern retelling of the Dracula story from Mina Harker’s point of view. We talked about her books, her readers, Harry Potter, e piracy and her love of Macs, not necessarily in that order. I had heard her speak at a previous RWA luncheon where she talked about her love of science fiction, so the first question I asked was if she considered herself a geek. Her answer was affirmative. She’d just visited the new Wizarding World of Harry Potter attraction at Universal Studios in Florida which she enjoyed very much, with some reservations. “You have to tell them [Geek Dad's readers] about this because they’ll want to know,” she said. “The ride through Hogwarts [Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey] is not in HD and if you’re going to wait two hours, the video shouldn’t be fuzzy.” She wished  the ride had included more of the fun stuff from the books along with the scary stuff. “There was no dining hall, no moving stairs, no Harry & Ron’s bedroom.” She did decide to sort herself into Hufflepuff during the ride, however. She has a longer review of the entire visit at her blog. When we moved onto her books, I told her that I’d noticed something of a transformation trend in her writing: for young readers and  young adults: the girl on the outside, sometimes a geek, is transformed through adventure and experience to a person with more confidence. Or, in the case of the Airhead series, is literally transformed into a supermodel. Sorta of a geek fairy tale. I asked her if this was based a bit on her experiences. “I was a freak, I had no friends,” she said with a smile. “You could say some of the heroines in my books are like that too. But that doesn’t mean the beautiful girls are always bad and the others always good. Sometimes, it’s complicated. You could say that you can’t always judge things from the outside.” Cabot isn’t a mother herself but she did once work as a resident assistant in a dorm and now she’s sort of the de facto cool aunt to many of her readers. (I certainly got a zillion cool mom points for interviewing her from my eldest daugher.) I asked Cabot if she felt responsible to her underage audience because her books have influenced so many. “I do get so many emails, tweets, and messages from my readers and there are a lot of questions about boys and all the other issues growing up. We try to get to as many as we can. Unfortunately, some of them are fleeting questions that we don’t get to in time, like ’should I ask this boy out tonight.’” Cabot loves that her readers are from all over. “I also get emails from Muslim readers and girls in Dubai and other parts of the world,” she said. I related that my eldest daughter has an internet friend her own age who lives in Dubai. “They are a huge readership there and it’s so great,” Cabot said and said she had planned to attend a young adult book conference in Dubai last year that was, unfortunately, canceled. She said it’s very hopeful that New York University has opened in extension college in Dubai. “So many young women and girls are hungry for learning but their parents are naturally wary of sending them so far away to a place that seems so different. So this is good.” I asked her if she worries much about internet piracy but she said it’s hard for her to get too concerned. “I was at the Rio Book Fair last year and they don’t even have access to iTunes. They can’t download legally in many of these places so they feel they have a right to them. The publishers really need to get the answer on this and I’m totally supportive of something like iTunes for books.” I asked what type of technology she uses for her writing. “I have a Mac everything. Macbooks, iMac, iPods…” she said. “I switched after I had a whole book I was working on [on of the Avalon High stories] eaten by a PC virus.” I told her that some Geek Dad readers would point out that maybe she wasn’t protecting the PC well enough. She shook her head, animated. “Oh, no, you tell them I did all the right things and I still had problems. Now I just use Macs.” For the latest news on Cabot, check her website . She also has a very active forums page on the website where readers can ask her questions. Read the rest of this entry »

"Books. They're nice to have around." Image: Jonathan Liu It seems that the big book-related debate these days is paper vs. digital. Everyone wants to be the next Kindle, and there’s no shortage of opinions on whether the iPad is a better book reader than an e-ink version. Even children’s book authors have jumped into the fray. With all of that talk you might be forgiven for thinking that reading is everybody’s favorite pastime. So I just wanted to remind you of that other age-old book-related debate: Books vs. Movies. For some people, there’s no contest. Some folks are book people or movie people, and that’s that, end of story. I remember years ago while working at a bookstore a woman came in to return a book. When I asked (as usual) what the reason for the return was, she said with disgust: “I got it as a gift, but I don’t read .” It was as if the mere thought of having a book in her home made her shudder. On the flip side, I once tried to convince a librarian friend that Toy Story was a really amazing not-just-for-kids movie, only to be told: “I don’t watch cartoons.” Granted, that’s not all movies, but it seemed odd to me to just paint all cartoon films with the same brush. I mean, that’s like making a blanket statement that videogames aren’t art. At any rate, if you’re one of those people described above, this Great Geek Debate isn’t for you. I’m talking to those of you for whom it is a debate, people who have shelves full of books and DVDs. Time investment: Even with the trend of longer movies, you’re usually talking about something around two hours. Of course, I could throw in the time it takes to get to the theater, stand in line, buy your Junior Mints and Mountain Dew … but even then, there’s no question that you can finish a movie in a much shorter time than it takes you to read a book, unless it’s something like Goodnight, Moon . Point: Movies Hours of entertainment gained: The corollary, though, is that a book can provide multiple hours, even days or weeks (depending on your reading speed) of entertainment. Some movies bear watching again and again, but you can never watch it again for the first time. (Unless you’re Sammy Jankis.) It’s like comparing one of those “balanced breakfasts” you used to see pictured on cereal boxes to, well, a bowl of cereal. Point: Books Visual effects: Hollywood is pretty good with special effects, and they’re getting more and more realistic all the time. So good, in fact, that they’ve almost caught up to that other special effects factory: your brain. Let’s face it—everything you see on a screen is something that somebody pictured in their head first, and quite often even the best special effects still pale in comparison to the artist’s original vision, which is still trapped inside their head somewhere. A book opens up a world inside your head, where there are no limitations like computer rendering time and effects budgets. Of course, there’s also a fantastic world of picture books, which can be every bit as jaw-dropping as a summer blockbuster. Oh, you want 3-D? Try a pop-up book. Point: Books Price: A night out at the movies can be a pretty big expenditure, but so’s the latest hardcover. Depending on where you go to the movie (IMAX? 3-D? Dollar theater?) admission can be anywhere from a buck to somewhere around twenty. Add popcorn, and a drink, some candy … maybe you’re up to about $30, and that’s just for you. If your friend wants to see the movie, double it. A new hardcover book is generally around $25 to $30, though that’s cover price. You can often find it cheaper online; and if your friend wants to read it, you can loan the book for free (or split the cost, if that’s how you roll). But then again, both movies and books can be had cheaper: renting DVDs, streaming online, or using Netflix can save you bucks on movies, and there’s always the library for both as well. I’m sort of inclined to give this to Books because of the average cost per hour of entertainment, but with so many different factors to consider, I’ll call it a Draw. Entertainment value: The book was better , right? Not so fast. There are times when the movie was better: 461 times , in fact. Which leaves roughly a gajillion times when the book was better. Point: Books Portability: Books are, of course, the original portable entertainment system. A paperback can fit in a large pocket, never needs charging, and doesn’t need to be shut off during take-off and landing. However, it’s hard to beat digital for portability, whether it’s an iPhone, a Kindle, PSP, or whatever else you’ve got these days—and chances are, you can read books and watch movies on it. Oh, unless it’s a Kindle. For my money, though, a book doesn’t lose as much impact as a movie does when the screen size diminishes, so it’s Books by a hair. Point: Books Quotability: You know somebody who can recite every line from “The Princess Bride.” Maybe you’re that person. You teach your kids to “do or do not. There is no try.” Whatever the situation, a good movie quote can really tie the room together, so to speak. Books? Well, I love a good passage out of a book, and when reading a novel I’ll frequently read a particularly choice line out loud to my wife … but it’s not something I’m going to remember and pull out for everyday use. Point: Movies Communality: One of the best things about books and movies is sharing them with somebody else. That’s why we still pay the big bucks to go see a movie on opening weekend even though we could watch it on a nice TV at home without all the crowds and lines and sticky floors. We want that shared experience of seeing it for the first time, with a bunch of other people who are seeing it for the first time with us. When we read books and are transported to faraway lands, we want to take others with us, like traveling through new territories and pointing out all the sights to each other. But for every Harry Potter worldwide book phenomenon, there are a dozen movies (including Harry Potter ) that large swathes of the population have seen. The recent 1 Book 1 Twitter experiment was kind of cool, harnessing social media to get everyone on the same page, literally. But books take time to read, and not everyone reads at the same pace. You don’t want somebody talking about events that take place a couple pages from now. But movies, because of the short time it takes to watch them, can be shared almost immediately. Sadly, in small towns (such as my own), the move to digital may prove to be one obstacle too many. The high cost of digital projectors is slowly killing off theaters in rural areas, and communal movie-watching may become a thing of the past for those who don’t live in metropolises. But, hey, maybe book clubs will make a comeback? Point: Movies Time to tally up the points. Books: 5, Movies: 3. Books it is! Ok, so I’m a book geek, and this is hardly an unbiased debate. But I’m also a movie geek. I work part-time at our local library, processing books (many of which I requested). I also help run our local community-owned movie theater, and for a time I booked most of the movies. I can’t imagine going without books or movies … but nobody ever asks what movies you’d want with you on a desert island. In the end, I guess I’m just slightly more of a books person than a movie person. How about you? Cast your vote in the poll or leave a comment below! GGD: Books vs. Movies survey software Read the rest of this entry »

My kids love Highlights magazine, especially since they each get their own copy (my younger daughter gets High Five ), usually on the same day, and they can’t wait to sit down and flip through them. One of their favorite pages (especially my three-year-old’s) is the Hidden Pictures — they love the challenge of looking for all the little things that have been camouflaged in the drawing. Well, now there’s an app for that! Two, actually. Mobad Games has a version for older kids and another for younger kids. I got to try out Highlights My First Hidden Pictures , aimed at the younger set. ( Highlights Hidden Pictures is the older kids’ version.) The app starts with a puzzle pack with eight pictures to choose from. The items you’re looking for appear in sequence on the screen, and then up at the top where you can scroll through them as you play. The image itself uses the standard iPhone pinch-squeeze gestures to zoom and scroll; tapping on an item highlights it and plays a sound. Completing a puzzle results in a burst of confetti on the screen. One thing I did notice is that, at least in the younger kids’ version, some items are found in several puzzles. For instance, there’s a sock hidden in many of them, quite often as a bent arm. I suppose that makes it easier for little kids because they get familiar with what an item looks like. If you get stuck, you can tap the “Hint” button, which will pan and zoom in slightly on the currently selected item. You can also use the “Hide Clues” button to hide the scrolling list of items to search for: it gives you a little more space on the screen, and can also make the game a little more challenging if your child wants to look for hidden items without the visual clues. You can get two more puzzles by registering an adult (though I opted out of this), and Mobad Games plans to release additional 8-puzzle packs throughout the year at $.99 each. Although I haven’t tried the version for older kids, it appears to use pretty much the same interface but with harder puzzles, and there are already nine puzzle packs available. I handed my iPod Touch to my three-year-old, showed her briefly how the controls worked, and set her loose on it for a few minutes. She got the hang of scrolling and zooming pretty quickly, but was having some trouble finding the images at times, even with the hints. It may simply be that looking at a large magazine page is easier than panning around a portion of the drawing at a time. However, she did seem to enjoy playing it with my help. I like the idea but I’m not sure about the price. The world of iPhone app pricing is so bizarre: sure, My First Hidden Pictures is only $1.99, which is not a whole lot. On the other hand, you can get something like Angry Birds (one of my personal favorites) for only $.99, and they keep releasing new updates for free ! It really skews my perception of how much an app is worth. I’m not sure I’d buy a lot of additional puzzle packs, but if your kids like Highlights and Hidden Pictures, then it might be worth it for when you d0n’t have the magazine handy. Choose from Highlights My First Hidden Pictures for younger kids or Highlights Hidden Pictures for older kids, at $1.99 each. Wired: Hidden Pictures just like the ones in Highlights magazine! Zoom and pan to find all the hidden items. Tired: Additional puzzle packs cost $.99 each, on top of the $1.99 base price. Disclosure: I received a free download of My First Hidden Pictures for review. Read the rest of this entry »

What happens when ogres take over the kingdom and kidnap the Princess? Well, if you’re Chuck Gnome, you go out and take back your kingdom by catapulting copies of yourself at the enemy and destroying them. Or maybe Chuck is tossing lawn gnome statues? Or his friends? Honestly, I don’t even really know. And I don’t think it’s that important. In Movable Sprites’ new iPhone game Chuck Gnome , the point is to destroy ogres–and targets and mushrooms and lots of other stuff — as quickly as you can. Here’s how it works. Chuck stands at the ready, right in front of his slingshot. When a target appears, you pull him back and release. Do it gently, and Chuck only goes a short distance. Pull him back a lot and he’ll fly further. You’ll get a special targeting aid, called Gnome Vision, that predicts where your shot will land, but the game is far too fast-paced to rely on it for much. Each target has a point value and you get multipliers by hitting as many of them in a row without missing. Chuck Gnome is simple, with a whimsical, cartoony look and a lovely soundtrack to match. The action is quick and there’s not a lot of thought to the game. You have 100 seconds to blast as many targets as you can. Certain targets add time to your clock and you try to rack up as high a score as possible in the time available. The first level, First Flight, serves as a playable tutorial. You learn how to tilt the phone and employ the accelerometer to sneak a few last-ditch throws at targets about to disappear off the screen. What isn’t immediately apparent, however, is how to unlock the levels. The Help section, under Extras, claims that “Key targets unlock new episodes” and that “a key appears after Chuck destroys a specific set of targets.” What it means is that you have to score a certain amount of points, at which point a target shaped like a golden key appears. Hit the key and you unlock the next level. I consider myself a fairly apt iPhone gamer. I made it over 10,000 meters in Canabalt and my high score in Doodle Jump is in the 50,000s. But evidently I am terrible at Chuck Gnome. After racking up a score of 615,000 on the first level, where targets range from 85 to 150 points and there are only two targets that grant bonuses to time, I have yet to discover the golden key which will supposedly unlock the next level. This is exceptionally frustrating. My four year-old, who is admittedly a bit young for the game, had a lot of fun with it nonetheless. He loved the sounds of Chuck being launched at the targets and squealed with delight when he finally smashed a mushroom. He began to adjust his swipes at the iPhone screen for better accuracy, but even so, his high score on the first level never got above 2,000. After about half an hour, he was getting a bit tired of the two starter levels. He asked me, “Can I do another level, Michael?” (He refuses to call me “daddy”). I’m working on it, kid. While I’m waiting at the doctor’s office, at traffic lights, and any other chance I get. Chuck Gnome is $1.99 on the iTunes App Store . Wired: Simple, fun, addictive carnival style game. Amazing music and art style. Perfect for short burst gameplay. Tired: Repetitive gameplay. Confusion and high difficulty in unlocking new levels. Disclosure: TriplePoint PR provided an advance download of Chuck Gnome. Read the rest of this entry »

Last month, I got a chance to review IK Multimedia’s recently released iRig and AmpliTube combo for the iPhone. Not only did it sound great, the AmpliTube software looked awesome, providing access to numerous authentic effects boxes and amp combos that emulate their real-world counterparts. Now IK Multimedia is back with a version of AmpliTube for the iPad that is even more impressive. Spacious is how I would use to describe my initial impression with Amplitube for the iPad. When considering just how perfect this version is, it’s useful to consider the iPhone alternative. Comparing with the above screen shot, the iPhone version display is really only as big as just one of the stomp boxes. Accessing the various options include hitting buttons and popup menus in an interface that while extremely functional, feels fairly cramped. With the iPad app, all of effects, amps, and control knobs are displayed on one screen, with the same attention to detail that I loved about the iPhone version. Fortunately, nothing was lost in the app’s performance during translation to the iPad. All of the effects and amps sound just as great as the iPhone app, and this version offers a welcome fourth simultaneous effects pedal. The increased screen size does allow for a more logical layout with less button pushing to get to the sound you want. And accessing all of the knobs on the amp simultaneously is a welcome improvement when dialing in a great tone. So how do the two stack up head to head? If you’re both an iPad and iPhone owner, its tough at this point to recommend the iPhone over the iPad version except for its extreme portability. While the iPhone app seems more suited for practicing music on the couch, I’d say that the iPad edition approaches stage readiness. If you’re a touring musician, busker with a battery powered amp, or want to lighten your load when heading to your friend’s house to jam, it’s easy to imagine using AmpliTube for the iPad live. If IK Multimedia were to develop a foot switch and a more rugged input/output interface that connects to the dock connector, I could see a wide adoption by musicians. The app just sounds that good. Want a more in-depth review and hear how AmpliTube for the iPhone and iPad performs? Check out my previous review which includes an audio tour . Wired : Same great sounding effects as the iPhone version. Logical layout that increases usability through the iPad’s large screen. Fourth effect pedal a welcome addition. Tired : Should be a universal app so iPhone and iPad users wouldn’t have to buy twice. IK Multimedia AmpliTube iRig" target="_blank"> AmpliTube iRig Hardware Interface ($40) AmpliTube for iPad (iTunes:  Free , $20 ) Read the rest of this entry »

Bill Nye (of “the Science Guy” fame) has teamed up with VSP to teach us about eye health. In these VSP EyeFiles videos, he talks about various eye health myths and other information, all while sitting in a laboratory full of bubbling things, microscopes and other science paraphernalia. Each video is short, about two minutes, and is both silly and informative. The videos give the impression of being aimed at kids, but a lot of the content seems to be aimed at adults. So, watch these with your kids! And watch the videos in order, as the underlying storyline makes a little bit more sense that way. Do 3-D movies make you seasick? When you get a bit dizzy or disoriented when watching a 3-D movie, is it just you, or is there something more to it? Can an eye doctor detect diabetes? This video contains some images disturbing to the squeamish (like me), but gives some important reasons to see your eye care professional. Can wearing your old glasses, or glasses belonging to someone else, damage your eyes? Everyone has heard this one. I hesitate before letting my kids try on my glasses. But should I worry? Will eating carrots help my vision? Carrots are healthy, but will your eyes improve, or keep from getting worse, if you eat more carrots? Watch the video and then visit these two sites for more information on nutrition and eye care . The end of each video directs you to visit VSP’s website for more information on eye health. Ironically, the site is in Flash, which won’t play on the iPad that Bill Nye uses in each episode. Huh. But on a non-iPad/iPod/iPhone, you can do things on the site such as create your own eye chart , learn some eye care tips and more. For those not in the know, VSP stands for Vision Service Plan and is apparently the largest of the vision insurance companies. The videos seem like commercials to visit your local eye doctor and get your eyes checked, but this is a good idea anyway, and there are plenty of interesting and useful eye facts in each video. Remember, even if you don’t need vision correction, it’s important to visit an eye doctor regularly because they can detect many health problems that aren’t related to nearsightedness, farsightedness or astigmatism. Read the rest of this entry »

Assassin's Creed Brotherhood (image: assassinscreed.us.ubi.com) I’ve got into the habit of revisiting the old versions of videogames as new ones appear. Not only is this a good way to get ready for a new release, but it also helps me catch up with games that family life has meant I’ve missed. With Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood waiting in the wings I’ve recently revisited Assassin’s Creed 2 . It wasn’t until I went back to it that I started to appreciate how different a game this was to the first outing. While Brotherhood promises all sorts of innovations on the multiplayer front I’ve really been enjoying all the side quests you can find in the second game. There is everything there from the usual collecting and fetch quests to a surprisingly fleshed out resource management game. I ended up devoting this week’s GamePeople podcast ( iTunes ) to Assassin’s Creed 2 it as I discovered the other Dad’s I was talking with had also found the second game well worth returning to. The problem was that the more we talked the more I wanted to play it some more. By the end of our conversation we agreed that this trend of playing games late was likely to continue. The demands of a young family and the high number of games being released each Holiday season mean that we can’t keep up like we used to. What games are on your list to go back and play? Read the rest of this entry »