Macgasm

Slingshot Cowboy (previously $0.99, now free) is a fun game that, if nothing else, helps you kill time. Your job is to use the slingshot to knock down cows in varying environments, from green pastures to caves and deserts. If you hit the gopher, you get bonuses that can help you score more points when slinging rocks at cows (such as bombs).

This game reminds me of the early Adobe Flash games; I wouldn’t be surprised if I learned that this game was ported over from Flash. I personally think it would be better played via mouse than thumb. Having a good aim isn’t as easy as it seems, which can add to the challenge and can make this game more fun and exciting for some.

If your aim isn’t perfect, you’d appreciate the “laser” feature that helps you hone your skills. It’s definitely helpful and makes the game last longer, but you have to be careful; the cows run away and that laser aim might not help you much.

Personally, as much as I thought Slingshot Cowboy was a blast from the past, there are so many games in the App Store that I’ve reviewed and I’m not sure this really stands out as much of a game. That’s why I consider it a time waster — you can enjoy it while on a business call and still be able to focus on what’s being said — but there’s not much to it besides that. It’s still fun, but you’re not missing much if you don’t play. However, it just so happens to be a $0.99 version for free, so you might as well grab it while you have the chance and see for yourself if it’s worth it.

The coolest eBay mashup I have ever seen is a site called PicClick. PicClick is a visual eBay shopping experience and allows you to see every single listing in a very cool grid (with resizable icons) before you click and buy. PicClick lists millions of products, but you can then narrow down by category. For example, the search query that generated the screenshot above was the Macbook query in the Computers and Networking category (which had over 27,000 products). If you want to see before you buy, you can narrow down to geographic location. You can also narrow down to price points.

If you use eBay, and I’m sure you do (for holiday shopping, perhaps), you’ll absolutely love using PicClick to make your product search a more tolerable one. With hundreds of images showing up on one single page, you don’t have to drill down to the deep hidden pages of eBay.com. Just go to PicClick and let it do the hard work for you.

Appvent Calendar is offering a great giveaway of iPhone/iPod touch goodies this month. Check out their calendar (today, they’re offering 33rd Division free; that app was previously a top Paid app) every single day to see what goodies they have in store. Every day from December 1st until December 22nd, there will be a giveaway of games and all fun of sorts. Blacksmith Games, the masterminds behind the project, promise special surprises on December 23rd and December 24th — but that time, you won’t be seeing free games. One can only wonder what goodies they have in store.

In any event, check out the Appvent Calendar and grab the freebies while they last. Remember, each game is only available for one day, so act quickly!

Happy Thanksgiving! We’ve discovered that not all Black Friday deals are physical; the virtual space is having a few of its own.

So far, we’ve discovered the following great sales:

• Defender Chronicles: Legend of the Desert King (regularly $3.99, now $0.99)
• Cocoto Kit for Kids (regularly $1.99, now $0.99)
• Secrets of the Mysterious Island (regularly $6.99, tomorrow $0.99)
• Super Shock Football (regularly $1.99, now free)
• Snood (regularly $2.99, now $1.99); read our review
• TETRIS (regularly $4.99, now $2.99)
• MONOPOLY (regularly $4.99, now $2.99)
• Surviving High School (regularly $2.99, now $1.99)
• Auditorium (regularly $2.99, now $1.99)
• Command and Conquer Red Alert (regularly $9.99, now $6.99)
• NBA Live (regularly $9.99, now $6.99)
• Rock Band (regularly $9.99, now $6.99)
• Mystery Mania (regularly $1.99, now $0.99)
• FIFA 10 (regularly $9.99, now $6.99)
• Madden NFL 10 (regularly $9.99, now $6.99)
• Boggle (regularly $2.99, now $0.99)
• Zombies & Me (regularly $1.99, now $0.99)
• Wolfenstein RPG (regularly $2.99, now $1.99)
• Mass Effect Galaxy (regularly $2.99, now $1.99)
• The Sims 3 (regularly $6.99, now $4.99)
• Anytime Pool (regularly $2.99, now $1.99)
• STAR TREK (regularly $1.99, now $0.99)
• American Idol (regularly $1.99, now $0.99)
• Need for Speed Undercover (regularly $4.99, now $2.99)
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour (regularly $4.99, now $2.99)
• Pandemonium (regularly $2.99, now $1.99)
• Trivial Pursuit (regularly $4.99, now $2.99)
• SimCity (regularly $4.99, now $2.99)
• MONOPOLY Here and Now (regularly $4.99, now $2.99)
• Spore: Origins (regularly $1.99, now $0.99)
• Scrabble (regularly $4.99, now $2.99)
• SUDOKU (regularly $1.99, now $0.99)

Grab them while they’re still hot!

If you’re like me, you like using multiple computers at any given time, but you don’t want to have one monitor (or two) per computer in addition to separate keyboards and mice. I’m a Windows user who wants to take advantage of using both Mac and Linux without extraneous hardware. I don’t need 4 keyboards for 4 desktops, do I? Having the StarTech SV431DVIDDU 4 Port StarView Dual DVI USB KVM Switch with Audio, thus, is an opportunity to get the best of both worlds (or three worlds, or four) since I can connect up to four computers via one console to two DVI monitors, a USB mouse, a USB keyboard, and even 2.1 speakers.

First things first: before using this device, you need to get the right hardware for it. Your VGA video cards should definitely also be DVI compatible, and you should have a solid 24-pin DVI cable at the minimum (a 20-pin DVI cable won’t work on any KVM switches from my experience). Furthermore, you need to resolve to use either VGA mode or DVI mode, not both. Most likely, your video card manufacturer has set this limitation, so if you’re planning on testing out functionality like this, you’ll need to do a complete reboot to get full functionality.

Once you get the computers hooked up, though, you’re well on your way to becoming a multitasking guru. I was able to successfully connect a Linux machine using Fedora 11, a Windows XP desktop, a Windows XP laptop, and a Mac Pro to the KVM switch without a hitch, save for a few frustrations with the Linux box (see below). Further, and something I was especially appreciative about, I was able to connect USB devices that aren’t even recommended by their manufacturers, such as the Logitech MX Revolution mouse which is completely wireless. Even on Linux, the mouse just worked. (On Linux, it was actually the only thing that worked flawlessly.)

The Linux box was the only real issue, but if you’re using Windows and Mac, you should be fine. In the graphical user interface, I often ran into horrible blinking of the screen (on, off, on, off) which was not predictable at all. I’m not sure if it was isolated to the graphics card I had or the KVM, but in the end, I plugged the monitor directly into the graphics card and did not encounter the issue any longer. Occasionally, I encountered a “sticky keyboard” in the sense that when I typed on the keys as expected, the computer thought that the keys were still being pressed and I had to interrupt the inputs which would normally stop myself from writing “zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz” or “hhhhhhhhhh.” Again, I’m not sure if this was a KVM or keyboard issue, but it’d be interesting if the latter because I encountered two oddities with the setup.

I don’t have the KVM switch sitting right next to me, so while I can press the buttons to get to another terminal, StartTech has hotkeys that you can use to get access to the desired terminal. For example, to get to my Windows XP machine, which is specified as PC 1, I just needed to rapidly press ScrollLock+ScrollLock+1 (default) or Ctrl+Alt+1. These are user-defined through software, though, in case you have any interest in using an alternative configuration.

What if, say, you use your Linux box like I do, for a “server” rather than a regularly-used OS? When I’m playing music on my XP PC but want to switch over to Linux for some quick diagnostics, I don’t want the sound on my Linux box to take over. That’s fine — you can select a default computer for the music through the software to avoid losing that great song. (Of course, you can also just keep the speakers plugged into the main computer, but we’re talking about unleashing the potential of this StarView KVM switch here).

There are several useful hotkey configurations as well that can be done directly from the keyboard, so you may not need the extra software at all. To that end, the manual comes handy so that you can get familiar with the various options. Once you’ve set up the KVM switch to your desired settings, you no longer will need to use it anymore.

What did I think of output and inputs? As mentioned, it worked with everything except for a computer I use on the command line via SSH anyway. No image was distorted. In the end, the StarTech SV431DVIDDU 4 Port StarView Dual DVI USB KVM Switch with Audio was a solid performer for DVI and USB output across multiple devices — with a slight hiccup.

Wolfram|Alpha, the computational knowledge engine, has recently launched a mobile counterpart in the Apple store. Much to the typical iPhone/iPod touch users’ surprise, though, the app was launched at $49.99. Some have claimed that the app itself is overpriced, especially in light of the fact that the majority of iPhone apps are $3.99 and under (with most being a mere 99 cents). John Gruber of Daring Fireball, on the other hand, has made a powerful statement as to why the cost should be set high:

There’s widespread consensus that the current race-to-the-bottom in App Store pricing discourages the development of deep, significant applications. If all anyone is buying are quick-hit apps, then all anyone will make are quick-hit apps. We can’t have it both ways, folks. By pricing the app at $50, Wolfram is clearly saying, “This app is significant.”

He’s right. But is the app significant? We took it for a test drive and we’re letting you know what we’ve found.

To answer the question, I’m inclined to say yes, Wolfram|Alpha is pretty darn significant. As a computational knowledge engine, they have a pretty lofty goal in an “ambitious, long-term project to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable by anyone. Enter your question or calculation and Wolfram|Alpha uses its built-in algorithms and a growing collection of data to compute the answer.” The app takes this online knowledge and presents it in a fashion that’s both fun and shareable (verbally, that is, and on Twitter). Compared to the web frontend itself (which is totally not optimized for mobile devices), the iPhone app presents data in an easy to read fashion, and you’re definitely asking for more.

Let’s take a look at a few of the queries that can be computed or discovered using Wolfram|Alpha. Can you tell which one was computed on the web interface? The app presentation is clearly much more powerful and aesthetically pleasing.

More than that, though, this app is great for knowledge discovery. I know I’m not done unleashing its potential. Thankfully, they even have a gallery to show me what I can potentially discover on the application.

So, is it worth the $50? That’s hard to say. In comparison with the pricing of the other apps in the store, it does sound like a bit much, especially since this information is mostly for knowledge enthusiasts but it’s not one of those apps or games you’d be using religiously. Truth be told, I don’t know how many people would buy it for such a high cost either. You can clearly tell that the significance of this app is there, though; there was a lot of hard work poured into the development of this application, but that’s not to say that other cheaper apps have had any lesser dedication put forth into their development. It’s a fun app to have, though, but unless you’re absolutely finding this data useful on a regular basis, it’s hard to justify the cost, at least right now in comparison to the other applications. If other app developers followed in Wolfram|Alpha LLC’s lead and raised the cost of their own applications, the cost of this app wouldn’t be so hard to swallow. Until then, though, it’s an expensive addition that might not provide more than an hour of utility — but that utility will be extremely powerful if taken advantage of.

That said, if you are a knowledge buff, BUY this app. You’ll absolutely love it. First, try out their search engine online and see what kind of potential it has (there’s a lot). Then see what you can harness in the palm of your hand. You’ll see how incredibly immersive it is to those of you knowledge aficionados. But if you’re not a knowledge buff, the web version (that is, on your computer, not your iPhone) will serve you just fine.

iCurfew is a great $0.99 iPhone application for parents who want to be “in the know” about their children’s whereabouts. In short, the app works by determining the user’s location via GPS and then letting them send this information to their parents (up to three recipients can get the message) so that their parents can feel safer knowing where their child is. Further, the app’s simplicity is what makes this less of a chore (and not too complex for the multitasking kid who would want to “check in” and then continue texting his friends). You open the app, hit “check in now,” let the app find where you are and tap “send my location”, and then send the application to a preselected contact or new person.

The iCurfew app is limited to iPhone users only. iPod touch users cannot take advantage of the capabilities since GPS is needed. However, it’s a great way for parents to keep tabs on their kids without having to go through drastic measures and implant some kind of data board in their kid’s skulls (I used to think that when my son is older that I should invest in this sort of technology!) You kind of wonder how we survived when we were younger! iCurfew takes out the guesswork of locating your child since you can’t fake the location (and I can imagine that it’d be a lifesaver if you were lost, perhaps). The only thing that’d make this better is if it was a full-blown GPS tracker with a way to check in via website at your child’s location. However, Apple doesn’t allow multitasking on the iPhone, making that an impossibility for the time being. Plus, this application assumes that there’s some trust between parent and teenager, and it certainly does a great job.

I didn’t have high expectations for the first iPhone game I played that was based on a new movie in theatres. Zombieland is a free app that actually does build momentum for the flick – though it’s good for all zombie lovers alike.

In each level, you’re faced with the worst enemies of your time: hungry zombies hunting after you. You must use the weapons available to you (a chainsaw, a gun, an axe pick, and even a banjo, among others) to hack them to death and progress to the next levels. All the while, you’ll run into more zombies and more challenges. And you’ll also see that you must multitask to survive; this is a two-hand game no matter how hard you try to get by without it.

As you may see, there are a good number of controls. Thankfully, the game features a very detailed tutorial that lets you acquaint yourself with the controls, which even change depending on the circumstances. And yes, you need to be familiar with all of them (and use them when necessary).

I already heard that Zombieland was a good movie. (I’m planning on seeing it.) I didn’t expect the game itself to be good too, but I was pleasantly surprised. Zombieland’s iPhone companion gives you an experience that keeps you entertained with progressively harder levels of attack, hack, and blasting fun.