PianoWow

An addicting PopCap flash game turned iPhone game that will most likely prove to be my latest iPhone game addiction.  I haven’t been playing many games on my iPhone, and were really just taking up space, so uninstalled all my games recently.  This app should prove to drain my battery more quickly, should I become addicted.

I like this style of tower defense type game.  While the multiple-queue style (as opposed to the free open area where enemies can end up walking at any angle) is somewhat simplified, it does have some interesting strategical differences to the open version.  Towers placed in different queues have no effect on enemies on all the others.

Something else I liked was the theme.  Zombies are always fun.  And carnivorous plants rock.  The animations, sounds, and music add a lot to the enjoyability.

This was an easy decision, prompted by the recommendation of a friend.  I will enjoy wasting time playing this app, when I get some spare moments.

Balance: $26.07

Days Remaining: 12

So there I was, thinking my severely media-handicapped iPhone 3G would never be able to record video.  Apple has a history of not approving apps that record video.  But, today I discover iVideoCamera, an app that does exactly that.  I just recorded my first video with this app.

The quality was not that great, which was expected.  Apple didn’t build video recording capability into this phone for a reason.  The video size was 200×160 by default, which is the low quality option.  The frame rate was low, but the frames themselves were fairly good.  I imagined the video being much worse than it ended up being.   When I switched to the high quality mode, the frame rate didn’t seem to drop all that much, but the resolution became 400×320.  The aspect ratio, on both low quality and high quality, 5:4, is unusual for video, but I suppose it could be cropped.   I wish I could choose between 4:3 and 16:9, which is more standard for video.

Some of the sharing features were pretty cool.  Upload directly to many websites, email, save to picture library.  One option I really loved is the ability to share over the network.  I was able to download the video I recorded over WiFi much faster than if I had emailed the video to myself.  This would allow me to copy the file to my Mac, edit it, and upload to youtube very easily, without all the fuss of syncing my iPhone with my Mac or emailing the video file to myself and downloading from there.

The effects button looks like an eject button, which I thought was weird.  I’m not all that interested in the effects, because iMovie or Final Cut will allow me to do that faster after I’ve copied the video over to my computer.

For $0.99, I believe this app will be one of the best values of all the apps I have bought in this mission.  I will be using this quite a lot, I’m sure.

Balance: $29.24

Days Remaining: 13

Looks like I’m going to need to spend more money more quickly, if I’m to meet my deadline.

First I bought Geocaches Near Me, for $0.99.  This is a ridiculously simple app that simply linked to a website with my current GPS location.  The website would provide a list, based on the coordinates, of the closest geocaches in the area.  This was a disappointment, but still helped me find my first geocache.  I was able to realize that I liked geocaching.

So I bought a more expensive, more full featured app, from the same website: Geocaching, for $9.99.  This was much more interesting.  It had an interactive map, and location-aware directions to the nearest geocache, in real time.  My second trip didn’t prove to be successful, but it was still fun.  I think part of my problem was that I went after dark.  I’ll keep trying, probably only during the day.

Balance: $30.29

Days Remaining: 15

An album by Chick Corea, Jack DeJohnette, Jan Garbarek, John McLaughlin, and Miroslav Vitous, released in 2003.

When I realized that I was stuck in finding things I wanted to buy, I decided to just go to the iTunes store to find an impulse buy.  The genius recommendation section had this album as its first choice.  As soon as I previewed it, I was amazed at the level of playing by this mature group.  Chick Corea will always be one of my favorites.  Listening to this album is a joy, in so many ways.

I’m very impressed by Genius’s ability to create good playlists and its suggestions on the store.  Well done, Apple.

Balance: $45.10

Days Remaining: 24