Playman Track & Field App for iPhone...and some other goodies

When the App Store was launched last year it completely changed the way I used my phone. For several months I was very successful in my "don't pay for apps" policy. It was all new, and there were so many free apps to choose from that it was a pretty easy rule to live by.

Early this year the success of my policy began to waver. The first app I bought was Koi Pond from the Blimp Pilots. At only 99 cents, the graphics, sound effects and the sense of equilibrium achieved through playing with the little Japanese fish, the app was well worth the cost. In fact, I was so thrilled with the app that I searched for other Blimp Pilots apps and ended up purchasing the Distant Shore app. At first I really liked this app. I thought it opened up a yet to be explored social networking niche. Whereas most social networking sites focus on your friends, Distant Shore focuses on connections based on chance and anonymity. I don't think I've launched the app in a month or two.

Back to the apps.

After those first two, I still attempted to follow my no-pay policy. I still felt pretty good about scrolling through my screens for friends and saying I'd only paid for two. It helped that some fantastic apps were released for free, the best possibly being the google earth app. The useful apps from the big guys were almost always free, AIM, google voice search, facebook, seadragon etc.

Over the last month or so my policy has more or less evaporated. So much so that I usually check the paid apps before the free ones. I've realized that, big boys excepted, you get what you pay for.

I wanted to share with you one in particular today (and I have the feeling more will follow), the Track & Field App from Playman. Unbelievably intuitive, you can participate in five different events, 100m dash, 110m hurdles, long jump, pole vault and javelin. The game's "fun factor" reminds me of the original Nintendo games. The graphics aren't breathtaking but they get the job done. There are only two buttons to press and some timing. It's one of those easy to play, impossible to master apps that seem to be a rarity in the app store.



The other thing worth mentioning about this app is it is great for quick play. It loads quickly and you can pick up right where you left off as there is a top notch auto-save feature. So, you can whip out your phone on the can, pass a level or two and feel like you accomplished something...you know, multitasking.

If you happen to have an iPhone or iPod touch and end up getting the Track & Field app I offer perhaps THE tip to help you do well: The alternative green dots you have to press are a seemingly randomly generated sequence, switching from left to right and back again. However, the green light will never appear on one side more than twice in a row. As such, if you get two green lights on the right side, you can immediately click the left side and gain some valuable time. You WILL need to use this strategy to get past the second round!

I'm looking for some more app buys, let me know of any you recommend!

Twitter Wars vs. Facebook and Myspace

After rereading my thoughts on the recent cultural explosion known as twitter, I thought it would be prudent to look at real numbers on the subject of social networking competitions. Who's REALLY your social daddy?

I used google trends (you might remember we used to call it zeitgeist) to see how the toddler twitter is truly fairing against big brother facebook and ugly uncle myspace. And yes of course using google trends is fool proof, providing real, tried and true scientific results. If you don't believe me - Google it! If you don't believe in sarcasm...then you should look it up on wikipedia.



As you can see (actually you can't, really, so you'll need to click on the graph above to get a clear image), twitter barely ammounts to a blip on the screen when compared to facebook. Before you go getting your panties in a bunch and burry twitter remember that facebook is a giant multi-billion dollar institution which makes comparisons using it as the basis difficult for all but things like "Obama" or maybe "Limbaugh".

I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, but Ryan, you just said Twitter is a cultural phenomenon, how can it only be a blip on the screen? While the search results for Twitter have only skyrocketed compared to themselves and remain a blip against facebook, the number of news stories about Twitter eclipsed that of facebook for a brief period of time during April 2009.

Why did this happen?

Freakin' Ashton Kutcher! Part of the draw of twitter for many is the fact that you can feel "at one" with the celebrity community. You can tweet "@aplusk wow its great what you are doing for world malaria day" and you can feel like you are friends with someone famous and, after all, thats all American society wants these days: to be a celebrity or a youtube sensation.

I guess the irony in this whole thing is that it was that very same obsession with celebrity that made twitter is what it is today. Twitter is the Paris Hilton of Social Networking: It is famous for being famous.

What's Paris doing these days anyway?

And feel free to follow me on twitter @rybupsp If you're interesting I'll even follow you back.

Tweet it

I have participated in social networking for about five years. It started with facebook. After that it didn't take long before I had a myspace page.

When I finished college, facebook was still a bit of an elitist network. Not everyone could join, you had to be part of an existing network such as a college or university that was affiliated with facebook. Eastern Michigan University didn't agree to be a facebook network until after I graduated, however, since I still had an emich.edu email account I was able to use that and join before many of my friends who had graduated before me.

Myspace at the time was the undisputed social network king at the time. Tens of millions of profiles! Once facebook opened its doors to high schools, the general public and then business and "things and places" it qrew much faster than myspace and has taken over as king particularly on the networking end. While myspace certainly provides more customization, facebook displays tons of information about many people in a way that is extremely easy to navigate.

Then here comes this twitter thing...again. I say again because twitter is not a new thing. I created a twitter account a year or so ago but it had been around a while before that. All twitter really is is a website that lets you send quick text updates to your subscribers. Now, facebook has something similar, It used to be called "status" but a couple months ago was strangely changed to "share". As strange as that move seemed, far be it from me to criticize changes to the facebook layout as they continue to increase the efficiency by which you can gain information about those you wish to learn about. While facebookers almost always complain against these changes with complaints about the "new stalkerbook" everyone...EVERYONE comes around in the end. Whatever it is that facebook calls it, it really has the same functionality of twitter but its only a small piece of what the book has to offer.

So, anyway...the reason for this post was to talk about how twitter has come back on the seen. The way I see it, it happened in the blink of an eye. I left for Africa in the middle of March, came back in mid April and all of the sudden CNN is in a tweet war with Ashton Kutcher and every radio show I listen to along with sports organizations and even Coach Rich Rodriguez are tweeting away.

I mentioned this at work today to a colleague and he commented on how amazing it was that a minor cultural phenomenon could appear, or reappear as it were, on the scene, during the course of a vacation.

Needless to say, I'm paying much more attention to my twitter account and tweets.

So we have facebook for the networkers, myspace for the high schoolers and twitter for the tmz/gossip loving Americano yuppies.

And then the old people and come and mess up everything.

Geo Challenge Tips and Tricks Part II - Map Mayhem

This is the second in a series of posts on the Facebook application Geo Challenge. This post will give you a couple of pointers on getting your score up in the second discipline, Map Mayhem. Again, our goal is to get you to 30,000 points.

Remember that these tips will help you increase your score, these are not cheats, but rather techniques to help you nudge your score just a touch higher. Nothing replaces a basic knowledge of Geography. HOWEVER, learning the ins and outs of how the game works can make you a BETTER player and earn a higher score than even a seasoned globe trotter. Who cares if you can't find Cambodia on a map? What you need to know is that when you see the straight line on the right side of the circular country you click the Ca...... on the right side of the screen!

This level displays the outline of a country and you have to pick the name of that country out of a list of four. Since there are only four choices this level can move fast and thus be a great point generator. However, this level is very tricky.

When you are looking at a map you have several cues to help you with what country you are looking at. The big two cues are location relative to other countries and size. At the beginning of each Map Mayhem round, these two cues are removed and you are left to base your decision by shape alone. This is harder than it sounds.

The good news is that, much like the Suitcase Shuffle round, you don't need to know every country. You're not going to need to know the differences in shape between Rwanda and Burundi. You will however need to be able to differentiate between Japan and New Zealand. While that may be easy on a map, with none of the normal cues, this is pretty hard.

So here are a couple of pointers.

1. Repeats of correct answers are infrequent - The exceptions I can think of include South Africa and South Korea. In general though, once you pick out a country, it won't be the correct answer again. So if you've already found Slovakia, you can pretty much forget about it for the remainder of the round.

2. Go to your home, that's your home...are you too good for your home? Answer me! - Cursor placement is again critical. You have to be ready to deliberately move to any of the four options. I suggest your home position in this discipline to be just off the left side of the country names, just above the middle of the third country down. This way you can see the whole country and read all the answers and still have to make a deliberate move both up or down and slightly to the right.

3. Don't think, react - This can backfire on you but to get a top notch score you have to rely on a little luck. When the country appears, if you know it, say the name in your head. If you see that is is Ireland, scan the choices for an I. You'll sometimes get Iceland, but the time advantage you can gain from a touch of luck will be what helps you get a higher score.

4. Associate shapes and names - This is probably just a fancy word for learning. Figure out a way to remember the shape and the word you see on the right. With practice this becomes like second nature. You probably do this in your daily life anyway. Italy is a boot, Michigan is a mitten, the state of ohio is a joke, etc. This game is no different except you don't need to know where these countries are, you just need to learn the names of some new shapes. Just like in Flag Spotter, you aren't going to need to know every country, only about 60 or so.

Here are a couple examples of how I relate shapes to names

Croatia looks like a C
Kyrgyzstan is the backwards C
Ecuador is the goldfish that swims to the top
Latvia is that f'ed up L
Austria has the panhandle
Afghanistan is the backwards Austria


You don't need to use these, this is just to give you an idea of how it all works.

5. Don't waste your time. The longer you wait, the more the cues on location and size come in to play. By the time this occurs though you're already losing valuable time. If seeing that Zambia is to the East of Angola is really going to help you, then go ahead and wait but chances are if you don't know it....you don't know it. I always struggled with Mongolia for this reason, it doesn't look like anything and without a size reference I could never figure out what it was. So, to fix this I've added it to the list in number 4 and now when I see "the one I don't know what it is" I click on Mongolia. Even Steven.

6. Trial and error - In the end you're going to have to learn, the key is to not realize that you're learning. For the purposes of this round and this game its not about knowing the countries its strictly learning the names of new shapes.

I hope this helps boost your score in Map Mayhem. Remember we still have TWO more rounds to get you to 30k points in Geo Challenge. Keep practicing and come back soon for not only more tips and tricks but a study guide I'm working on.

Happy Geoing.

For more Geography fun and a place to test your new found knowledge check out www.geosense.net

Geo Challenge Tricks of the Trade - Suitcase Shuffle

The good people at Playfish have created an amazingly addictive game called Geo Challenge which can be added as an application to your facebook page. Simply search "Geo Challenge" in the facebook search box and your first result will be the Geo Challenge app where you will see that there are more than 4 million active monthly users. Those are serious numbers, even for Facebook.

As a geography buff myself, I found this game to be not only entertaining but also quite challenging. The game tests your knowledge and reflexes on four different disciplines: Flags, country name, city location and landmark location.

As of this moment my high score is 45,687, much higher than my less nerdy friends that I have convinced to play along. But that's only because they haven't followed my advice!

While you won't find me on any high score boards, (which you will find are all filled with cheaters) I've learned some tricks to the game. With practice and a little advice I'll teach you how to score over 30,000 points on Geo Challenge legitimately!

This post will give you some tips to improve your score on Suitcase Shuffle. I'll come back with posts on the other disciplines soon and ultimately I plan to include a study guide post.

This discipline tests your ability to pick out the flag of a named country against a field of three (for the first three rounds) or six (everything after the first three).

1. Make sure you have a fast internet connection. Anything less than a high speed connection will not load fast enough for you to get a high score. With practice, your aim for this level should be near 10,000 - but don't get discouraged.

2. Find a "home" spot for your cursor. I use the middle flag and later the middle lower flag. After you click on a flag, immediately place your cursor in your home position. It's more important that your moves are deliberate and accurate than fast. Far too often I would try to move the cursor too fast, over shoot the flag and click on empty space. When you get faster, a click on nothing is a high score killer.

3. Sometimes what you don't know can help you.

Notice that earlier I said you need the ability to pick out a flag against a field, NOT know the flag. Knowing the flags certainly helps but it is not the only way. For example, I constantly mix up the flags of Spain and Mexico (I'm waiting for some interesting comments on that) knowing them doesn't' help me at all. I know both of them but something in my brain seems to mix them up.

This is most helpful when you get in to the later rounds. Remembering the difference between the flags of Senegal and Congo might be hard but if you need to find the flag of Congo, you'll be able to eliminate the ones you do know, giving you a much better chance.

For the first ten or so rounds, you'll want to have a pretty good base knowledge. Here's the ones you need to work on actually knowing and memorizing and they'll help you later on. United States, United Kingdom, England, Canada, France, Italy, Spain, Mexico, China, Japan, Germany, Albania (trust me).

4. Its written all over the flags

This is not only the easiest tip but will likely help you the most, especially in the early stages of practice. Most of the more obscure flags have hints about their name right on the flag. Central African Republic has a stripe down the middle, making it stand out from all the rest of the African flags. Solomon Islands has stars to represent islands. Most of the countries with two names i.e. St. Kitts and Nevis have something that denotes "2". Tonga has pluses on the flag that look an awful lot like a "T". This isn't a sure fire measure but it will greatly improve your chances of guessing right. Antarctica? The flag used in this game is just a picture of the continent. The Vatican...money in the bank.

5. Continental divide

For a continent so diverse, the flags of Africa sure look an awful lot a like. Many of those used in the game incorporate green yellow and red/orange. Just by looking at a flag in this game, you can guess with about 80% certainty if it is from Africa. The good news is that most of the time there aren't two African flags in a series of six.

The same is true for many Central America flags. I couldn't pick out the flag of Honduras vs. the flag of Nicaragua but you can spot a flag from Central America in less than a second and the chances of two flags from the same area being in a grouping of six are slim. Use this to your advantage.

The trick is that you have to use these tips together. When you come to a screen, pick out the ones you know its NOT, figure out if the country name sounds like it is from Africa or Central America and if so, pick one of the African flags or the Central American flags. Be deliberate and take your time. It's probably better to let the game remove a few flags than to guess wrong blindly. But with these tips in mind your guess will be an educated one.

6. Seeing is believing - Its easy to sit back and take a passive approach to suitcase shuffle but you have to squeeze every millisecond out of each question. When the flags begin to descend so to does the name and you have to know what your looking for prior to letting your brain pick up on the subtle visual cues in each flag. Don't wait for the flags to settle before you start to read the name!

7. Don't be discouraged. Out of all the countries in the world, there are only fifty or sixty you're likely to run into. Pay attention to the ones you miss and after a few times you'll find that when you see "Palau" you know that its teal with a yellow circle even though if someone asked you what the flag of Palau looked like you might not have a clue. You will inevitably mix up the flags of Romania and Chad or Belarus and Portugal, let it go!

Good luck, have fun and let me know how you do and if you have any tips. I'll get to the other disciplines as well as more tips for here soon.