Mobile Apple Me

Warm up your cricket bat—the zombies are back! The good news is this time they only want to play checkers.

What is it?

In Z! Checkers, the black and white marble checkerboard is home to either: 1) you versus the computer or 2) you versus another human (unless he’s been bitten by a zombie, and we all know what happens then). If you opt for another human player, you have another set of options: 1) two players on one iDevice or 2) use Bluetooth to play between two devices (because “everything’s better with Bluetooth”). The game board and pieces are rendered for a 3D appearance.

On the iPhone / iPod Touch the squares are a bit small, but selecting the exact piece you want isn’t too difficult.

How does it work?

Tap your zombie, then double tap the square you want him to move onto. If you have a multiple jump you can take, tap the zombie, then single tap the landing squares, in order, and double tap the last landing square to execute the move. When you tap your zombie the square will highlight blue and the square you tap to move to will highlight yellow.

I can remember playing checkers with my grandfather, and he always beat me resoundingly. He used a rule that this game does; if you have a jump, you must take it. Z! Checkers will let you ignore a jump in favor of another move. This can work either way for you. My grandfather was expert at “letting” me have one, then taking two or three of mine.

You have the option to set your pieces as regular zombies, really ugly zombies, tank/crawler machines, etc. There are the ever present color upgrades you can purchase with points you win in the game or you can use real money to purchase points to customize the look of the game.

Once you settle on what variety of zombie you want to be, the game starts when the computer randomly picks who goes first. I think it’s random, but the CPU went first most of the time.

Is it contagious?

The game is just checkers, but the zombie twist is cool. The game is not very difficult for adults to beat even on the “hard” setting, so two multiplayer may be a more challenging option.

If you need a game to pass the time, Z! Checkers is OK, even if the zombies all sway in the same direction. The uniform swaying reminds me of country line dancing…take your partner by the hand (and hope it doesn’t fall off). The zombies aren’t too gross, so this may be a good option for the kids to get into a non-boring version of good ol’ checkers.

Category: Game
Developer: Nevonix
Cost: $0.99
Download: Z! Checkers

Remember back in 1982 when you were playing Circus Atari on the 2600 at your uncle’s funeral home and thinking, “Man, I wonder what this game is going to look like in 30 years?” Was that you or me? Regardless, that day has come now that Atari has announced the launch of Circus Atari for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. This free, universal puzzle platformer places you in the role of a circus clown blasting out of cannons and flying through the air in a vertical climb to record heights.

In the ascent to the top of the arena, players will tilt their mobile device to guide their clown, popping balloons to launch higher while gathering power-ups and coins along the way and avoiding the many hazards and obstacles of the arena. Players can enhance their circus experience with coins, collected or purchased in-game so that players can pick up new clown characters as well as safety nets to help with performers’ high-flying antics.

Circus Atari is dompletely free-to-play with the option to purchase in-game items and customizations such as unique clowns with special attributes (convict clown, hippie clown, and I’ll stop there because it’s getting disturbing).

• Avoid pitfalls, ledges and bumpers during exciting and challenging gameplay
• Collect or purchase in-game coins to unlock additional content:
• Unique clowns with special attributes – Convict Clown, Hippie Clown, and more

Game Center and OpenFeint integration is supported for score leaderboards and achievements.

Product Circus Atari

You just never know when you’re going to need to DJ, right? Dorm party, bus station, Starbucks when you simply can’t take any more of that that coffee house music. IK Multimedia has your impromptu mixing needs covered with the iRig MIX, an ultra-compact DJ and audio mixer for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch.

The iRig MIX can be used with the IK’s DJ Rig FREE app and other DJ apps to create a complete, highly portable DJ system for practicing, rehearsing, performing and recording. The iRig MIX’s miniaturized form factor and exclusive features bring new meaning to the concept of mobile DJ-ing.

iRig MIX has everything a pro DJ needs, including full EQ adjustment, crossfader, headphone cue and a mic input. Using DJ Rig or other popular DJ apps, users can record their performance and share with friends, publish or distribute at the event. DJs can choose either a traditional setup with two devices (one plugged into each of the independent channels) OR a single iOS device.

This flexibility, combined with iRig MIX’s portability gives aspiring and pro DJs a compact system that can be used everywhere…anytime. House parties or in the yard, after-parties, and impromptu dances are perfect environments for the iRig MIX. Planes, trains and automobiles used to mean that your DJ gear was inaccessible and unusable. Now, no matter where you are or where you are going, you can mix and rehearse sets.

Plus—for the first time on any mixer—iRig MIX can be used for mixing any type of audio source (coming from mp3 players, CD players, etc.) with an iOS device using automatic tempo matching and beat syncing. This is accomplished with X-Sync, a feature that works in combination with the DJ Rig FREE app from IK Multimedia that is included* with iRig MIX.

But the iRig MIX is not just for DJs. It’s versatile enough to provide a portable mixing solution for solo musicians or small ensembles that use one or more iOS devices to play live.

Along with compatibility with four free IK Multimedia apps—DJ Rig, AmpliTube, VocaLive, and GrooveMaker—iRig MIX features:

• 2 stereo inputs with gain, bass, treble and volume controls, independent cue on each channel with LED indication and channel crossfader
• Instrument/microphone extra input, with volume control, can be processed by iOS real-time effects apps (such as AmpliTube, VocaLive)
• Stereo output with RCA connectors, master level and LED meters
• High quality, pristine sound
• Quality headphone output for master or cue monitoring with independent volume control
• Input switch splits Input 1 into dual-mono for use with DJ mixing apps on a single iOS device
• “X-Sync” mode allows auto-sync with any audio source using the included DJ Rig free app
• Can be powered with the included AC adapter, battery pack and laptop USB ports 

iRig MIX costs $99.99/€74.99 (excluding taxes) and is available from electronic and music retailers around the world.

Product iRig MIX

It’s going to get rough ahead for iPhone users on Verizon’s network. Not only is Verizon Wireless eliminating the option of an unlimited data plan (like AT&T), they are also moving their “grandfathered” 3G data users to new family data-share plans for those moving to 4G LTE smartphones. Fierce Wireless reports that Verizon Wireless will push their upcoming shared-data plan system to those users still using 3G devices starting this summer.

Verizon Wireless CFO, Fran Shammo, said at the 40th J.P. Morgan Technology, Media and Telecom conference: “As these 3G unlimited data plan customers migrating to 4G LTE, they will move off the $30 per month unlimited data plan.” Shammo expressed at the conference that, “A lot of our 3G base is on unlimited plan… When they migrate off 3G they will have to go to data share, being beneficial to us.” He stated that with LTE as the driving force behind this new plan, it could cause people to sunset their unlimited 3G data plans in favor or newer 4G devices.

This news from Verizon Wireless could certainly leave bad taste in people’s mouth, specially after all those rumors of Apple updating their future iPhone to 4G LTE. Verizon Wireless stated that while no price has been given to their shared data plans, it will bring long-term benefits for families using multiple-connected devices on their account.

Via Fierce Wireless