Boing Boing alum John Brownlee writes about an atrociously ugly Super Mario Bros. clone that hits players up for $500 worth of in-app purchases on the first screen.

I bet you’re itching to play it. Sadly, though, you can’t. Apple’s already yanked it from the App Store. You probably didn’t want to play it anyway, though: it has to be the most shamelessly abusive examples of in-app purchases that mortal mind can comprehend.

…

The amazing thing here isn’t that Apple banned it, it’s that they didn’t catch any of this to begin with! Especially considering the fact that the developer, Mario Casas, seems to reupload this exact same game to Apple — with the exact same in-app purchase scheme — every couple of months with a new name and new graphics, scamming players until he’s caught. And thus the cycle starts anew.

This Crappy Game Is The Most Shameless Abuse Of In-App Purchases You’ll Ever See

This Cult of Mac video makes it look pretty easy to jailbreak your iPhone or iPad. What is a good reason to do it? If you have jailbroken your iOS device to do something cool that you couldn't have accomplished with a non-jailbroken device, please tell us about it in the comments.

The game is deliberately cryptic, challenging you to figure things out for yourself. There are no instructions. Instead, the game’s levels gradually introduce gameplay elements. The first level is almost insultingly easy, with only a single circle, but the challenges soon grow to include more circles, linked circles, burstable bubbles, and hazards like value-destroying buzz saws.

A riddle minigame adds to the mystery, with a new riddle unlocked every few levels. The riddles can be accessed by tapping the center of the main menu. Solving conundrums such as “A MOUSE HAS ONE SNOUT BUT A HAND HAS FIVE,” earn players Game Center achievements. The riddles are a nice distraction, and it’s impressive that the developers were able to fit a minigame into such a simple game.

Solving every level and riddle requires zen-like patience. In fact, later levels often feel as though they rely on patience and luck more than wits or skill. Fortunately, the game’s neutral grays and relaxing soundtrack (by Loscil) help prevent you from throwing your iPhone across the room.

Despite being conceived as a Flash game, Hundreds feels like it was made for iOS, with its simple, elegant design and inherent touch-friendliness. On larger iPad screens, the game can even be played co-operatively with a friend.

Hundreds is a well crafted time killer, and like its predecessor Canabalt, impressively crafted, if often frustrating. For those seeking a stylish, challenging puzzle game, it’s worth every penny of $4.99 in the App Store.

Hundreds [itunes.apple.com]]]> http://boingboing.net/2013/01/21/hundreds-is-a-stylish-ios-puzz-2.html/feed 6 http://boingboing.net/2013/01/17/my-great-ghost-glass-machin.html http://boingboing.net/2013/01/17/my-great-ghost-glass-machin.html#comments Thu, 17 Jan 2013 17:34:58 +0000 Xeni Jardin http://boingboing.net/?p=206346 REWORK_. ]]>

Here is a video of My Great Ghost, whose remix of "Music in 12 Parts" is the first track on the record, performing an entirely new track using the app.

More about the app:

The studio has built a REWORK app that includes interactive visualizations corresponding to 11 of the remix songs with visuals that range from futuristic three-dimensional landscapes to shattered multicolored crystals and vibrating sound waves. The app also includes an interactive “Glass Machine” that allows users to create their own music inspired by Philip Glass’ early works by simply sliding two discs around side-by-side, generating polyrhythmic counterpoints between the two melodies.

“This is a way for people who don’t have the experience of manipulating music material to see what it's like,” says Glass.

The app is available via the iTunes store here and more info can be found at the Snibbe Studio website here.

And for those in the NYC area: My Great Ghost is playing at the Studio at Webster Hall on Monday 1/21.

]]> http://boingboing.net/2013/01/17/my-great-ghost-glass-machin.html/feed 5 http://boingboing.net/2013/01/02/apps-for-kids-35-chip-chain.html http://boingboing.net/2013/01/02/apps-for-kids-35-chip-chain.html#comments Wed, 02 Jan 2013 23:46:55 +0000 Mark Frauenfelder http://boingboing.net/?p=203725

Click here to play episode. Apps for Kids is Boing Boing's podcast about cool smartphone apps for kids and parents. My co-host is my 9-year-old daughter, Jane Frauenfelder.

In this episode of Apps for Kids, we talk about Chip Chain, a fun spin on the match-3 genre. We also talk about the Magic Treehouse series of books.

If you're an app developer and would like to have Jane and me try one of your apps for possible review, email a redeem code to appsforkids@boingboing.net.

Listen to past episodes of Apps for Kids here.

To get a weekly email to notify you when a new episode of Apps for Kids is up, sign up here.

One of my favorite iOS games is Kingdom Rush, a medieval fantasy tower defense game. It's free to play on the Web. I talked about it on Jesse Thorn's Bullseye radio show here, and Jane and I reviewed it on Apps for Kids here. Here's what I said about the game in an earlier post:

The cartoonish art is very appealing, as are the monsters and towers. The goal of the game, like all tower defense games, is to prevent the invading hordes from making it through a gate to your kingdom at one end of the display. You do this by placing towers staffed with archers, knights, magicians, and cannoneers along the path that the monsters run down (the monsters appear from a trail emanating on the opposite side of the display). As you kill the monsters, you collect gold, which can be used to buy more towers. Even though there are a few more bells and whistles, it's a simple game -- but addictive.

For today only, the iPhone version is free (regularly $.99). There's an HD version, too, but that will set you back $2.99

Click here to play episode. Apps for Kids is Boing Boing's podcast about cool smartphone apps for kids and parents. My co-host is my 9-year-old daughter, Jane Frauenfelder.

In this episode of Apps for Kids, we talk about The Big Big Castle!, a game where you build and destroy castles. It's 99 cents in the iTune store.

If you're an app developer and would like to have Jane and me try one of your apps for possible review, email a redeem code to appsforkids@boingboing.net.

Listen to past episodes of Apps for Kids here.

To get a weekly email to notify you when a new episode of Apps for Kids is up, sign up here.

The lovely and talented M. Ward and Zooey Deschanel have released a simple and fun free iOS app called "A Very She & Him Christmas: Yule Log." Cozy up to the fire and listen to "I'll be Home for Christmas" from their now-classic A Very She & Him Christmas album.]]> http://boingboing.net/2012/12/10/she-hims-yule-log-app.html/feed 6 http://boingboing.net/2012/11/15/tyra-banks-has-an-app-that-tea.html http://boingboing.net/2012/11/15/tyra-banks-has-an-app-that-tea.html#comments Thu, 15 Nov 2012 23:08:53 +0000 Mark Frauenfelder http://boingboing.net/?p=194480

John Koetsier of VentureBeat: "Tyra Banks has released a new iPhone app to help other women -- and men -- learn the secret that she teaches America’s Next Top Models: how to take sizzling hot self-portraits by “smizing.” Smizing, as I learned today, is the art of smiling with your eyes."

Smizing with Tyra Banks

Based on the popular National Geographic Channel TV show by the same name, Doomsday Preppers challenges you to prepare for a new (and even more fabulous) life below the ground. Design a multi-level dream bunker complete with everything you need for post-apocalyptic bliss, from a gym to a greenhouse to a disco bar! Flush out your subterranean palace one floor at a time while measuring and improving your survival skills along the way, so that you can extend your underground lifespan – and keep on building!

Plasma Orb looks like a fun marble maze game for iOS. But beware -- it has "Infrequent/Mild Simulated Gambling." (Via App Spy)

(Thanks, Fipi Lele!)

(Image: source unknown -- if you know it, please leave details in the comments) ]]> http://boingboing.net/2012/09/21/advisory-ios6-maps-on-the-tub.html/feed 20 http://boingboing.net/2012/07/20/spacecraft-3d-nifty-robotic-s.html http://boingboing.net/2012/07/20/spacecraft-3d-nifty-robotic-s.html#comments Fri, 20 Jul 2012 18:45:21 +0000 Xeni Jardin http://boingboing.net/?p=172345

I recently had a chance to visit NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory with Miles O'Brien. At the NASA center in Pasadena, engineers are readying for the long-anticipated landing of the Mars Curiosity rover on Aug. 5. During our visit, we met with the team behind a cool new iOS app from JPL: NASA's Spacecraft 3D, an augmented reality application that allows users to "learn about and interact with a variety of spacecraft that are used to explore our solar system, study Earth, and observe the universe."

Using a printed AR Target and the camera on your mobile device, you can get up close with these robotic explorers, see how they move, and learn about the the engineering feats used to expand our knowledge and understanding of space. Spacecraft 3D will be updated over time to include more of the amazing spacecraft that act as our robotic eyes on the earth, the solar system and beyond!

The app is really a ton of fun. You can download it here for free, iPad and iPhone and iPod Touch. Here's the JPL press release announcing its release. ]]> http://boingboing.net/2012/07/20/spacecraft-3d-nifty-robotic-s.html/feed 3 http://boingboing.net/2012/07/16/171339.html http://boingboing.net/2012/07/16/171339.html#comments Mon, 16 Jul 2012 15:00:52 +0000 Rob Beschizza http://boingboing.net/?p=171339 GameDock is an iPhone dock that comes with game controller ports. Kyle Orland:

"At $125 per Dock (plus the cost of an iOS device), the GameDock at first looks a bit less attractive than the $99 Ouya, which is self-contained. But the creators note the power of Apple's iOS devices and the existing library of proven, working games as benefits, and say they think keeping the TV interface separate from the actual mobile platform is actually the better way to go."

The cartoonish art is very appealing, as are the monsters and towers. The goal of the game, like all tower defense games, is to prevent the invading hordes from making it through a gate to your kingdom at one end of the display. You do this by placing towers staffed with archers, knights, magicians, and cannoneers along the path that the monsters run down (the monsters appear from a trail emanating on the opposite side of the display). As you kill the monsters, you collect gold, which can be used to buy more towers. Even though there are a few more bells and whistles, it's a simple game -- but addictive.

Today, Kingdom Rush became available as an iPhone app. I would say that the $.99 price tag is a bargain, but if take into account the otherwise productive hours you will spend playing it, the true cost is far more.

Silent Circle's planned debut comes amid recent polls suggesting that Internet users remain concerned about online data collection (or at least are willing to tell pollsters so), with Facebook topping health insurers, banks, and even the federal government as today's No. 1 privacy threat. Yet even after a decade of startups that have tried to capitalize on these concerns, consumers spending their own money remain consistently difficult to persuade that paying for privacy is worth it.

Zimmermann hopes to overcome this reluctance by offering a set of services designed from the start to be simple to use: encrypted e-mail, encrypted phone calls, and encrypted instant messaging. (Encrypted SMS text messages are eventually planned too.)

Silent Circle | Worldwide Private Encrypted Communications (via O'Reilly Radar) ]]> http://boingboing.net/2012/06/13/pgp-founder-creates-secure-voi.html/feed 57 http://boingboing.net/2012/05/15/ipod-body-mod-magnetic-wrist.html http://boingboing.net/2012/05/15/ipod-body-mod-magnetic-wrist.html#comments Wed, 16 May 2012 00:45:42 +0000 Xeni Jardin http://boingboing.net/?p=161104

REUTERS/Keith Bedford

"I just invented the strapless watch," he said on Monday of his Apple Inc device, set to display a clock.

Hurban cheerfully recounted how he mapped out the four corners of the iPod on his arm and then inserted four titanium studs into his skin. Once the incisions healed, he popped on his iPod, which is held in place magnetically.

"It's way simpler than you think it is," said Hurban.

Below, Durban's HOWTO video for the project he calls "iDermal," explaining how he pulled it off. Not that he can just, you know, pull them off now.

Word on the Apple blogs today: in development for iOS 6, a maps application developed entirely in-house, to replace the Google Maps program running on iOS since 2007. "The application design is said to be fairly similar to the current Google Maps program on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch," reports 9to5mac.com, "But it is described as a much cleaner, faster, and more reliable experience." Sources tell 9to5Mac the new app "will blow your head off." MacRumors has more. (via AllThingsD)]]> http://boingboing.net/2012/05/11/apple-rumors-sweet-new-3d-map.html/feed 26 http://boingboing.net/2012/05/07/amtrak-users-rejoice-smartph.html http://boingboing.net/2012/05/07/amtrak-users-rejoice-smartph.html#comments Tue, 08 May 2012 00:04:44 +0000 Xeni Jardin http://boingboing.net/?p=159133 New York Times, Brian X. Chen reports on Amtrak's plans to use Apple iPhones as an electronic ticket scanner on several routes, including Boston, MA to Portland, ME, and San Jose, CA, to Sacramento, CA. "By late summer, 1,700 conductors will be using the devices on Amtrak trains across the country," and passengers can choose to print tickets or display a bar code on their smartphone screens for conductors to scan. ]]> http://boingboing.net/2012/05/07/amtrak-users-rejoice-smartph.html/feed 9 http://boingboing.net/2012/03/02/who-should-know-whats-happen.html http://boingboing.net/2012/03/02/who-should-know-whats-happen.html#comments Fri, 02 Mar 2012 20:41:09 +0000 Cory Doctorow http://boingboing.net/?p=146818 My latest Locus column is "What’s Inside the Box," a discussion of whether owners, users or third parties should be able to know and/or control what their computers are doing:

The answer to this that most of the experts I speak to come up with is this:

The owner (or user) of a device should be able to know (or control) which software is running on her devices.

This is really four answers, and I’ll go over them in turn, using three different scenarios: a computer in an Internet cafe, a car, and a cochlear implant. That is, a computer you sit in front of, a computer you put your body into, and a computer you put in your body.

Cory Doctorow: What’s Inside the Box ]]> http://boingboing.net/2012/03/02/who-should-know-whats-happen.html/feed 8 http://boingboing.net/2012/02/17/wsj-google-caught-circumventi.html http://boingboing.net/2012/02/17/wsj-google-caught-circumventi.html#comments Fri, 17 Feb 2012 15:13:15 +0000 Cory Doctorow http://boingboing.net/?p=144459 Google has been caught circumventing iOS's built-in anti-ad-tracking features in order to add Google Plus functionality within iPhone's Safari browser. The WSJ reports that Google overrode users' privacy settings in order to allow messages like "your friend Suzy +1'ed this ad about candy" to be relayed between Google's different domains, including google.com and doubleclick.net. This also meant that doubleclick.net was tracking every page you landed on with a Doubleclick ad, even if you'd opted out of its tracking.

I believe that Google has created an enormous internal urgency about Google Plus integration, and that this pressure is leading the company to take steps to integrate G+ at the expense of the quality of its other services. Consider the Focus on the User critique of Google's "social ranking" in search results, for example. In my own life, I've been immensely frustrated that my unpublished Gmail account (which I only use to anchor my Android Marketplace purchases for my phone and tablets, and to receive a daily schedule email while I'm travelling) has somehow become visible to G+ users, so that I get many, many G+ updates and invites to this theoretically private address, every day, despite never having opted into a directory and never having joined G+.

In the iPhone case, it's likely that Google has gone beyond lowering the quality of its service for its users and customers, and has now started to violate the law, and certainly to undermine the trust that the company depends on. This is much more invasive than the time Google accidentally captured some WiFi traffic and didn't do anything with it, much more invasive than Google taking pictures of publicly visible buildings -- both practices that drew enormous and enduring criticism at the expense of the company's global credibility. I wonder if this will cause the company to slow its full-court press to make G+ part of every corner of Google.

EFF has an open letter to Google, asking them to make amends for this:

It’s time for a new chapter in Google’s policy regarding privacy. It’s time to commit to giving users a voice about tracking and then respecting those wishes.

For a long time, we’ve hoped to see Google respect Do Not Track requests when it acts as a third party on the Web, and implement Do Not Track in the Chrome browser. This privacy setting, available in every other major browser, lets users express their choice about whether they want to be tracked by mysterious third parties with whom they have no relationship. And even if a user deleted her cookies, the setting would still be there.

Right now, EFF, Google, and many other groups are involved in a multi-stakeholder process to define the scope and execution of Do Not Track through the Tracking Protection Working Group. Through this participatory forum, civil liberties organizations, advertisers, and leading technologists are working together to define how Do Not Track will give users a meaningful way to control online tracking without unduly burdening companies. This is the perfect forum for Google to engage on the technical specifications of the Do Not Track signal, and an opportunity to bring all parties together to fight for user rights. While the Do Not Track specification is not yet final, there's no reason to wait. Google has repeatedly led the way on web security by implementing features long before they were standardized. Google should do the same with web privacy. Get started today by linking Do Not Track to your existing opt-out mechanisms for advertising, +1, and analytics.

Google, make this a new era in your commitment to defending user privacy. Commit to offering and respecting Do Not Track.

Google Circumvents Safari Privacy Protections - This is Why We Need Do Not Track ]]> http://boingboing.net/2012/02/17/wsj-google-caught-circumventi.html/feed 55 http://boingboing.net/2011/09/29/financial-times-kills-ios-app-to-avoid-apple-tax-switches-to-html5-succeeds.html http://boingboing.net/2011/09/29/financial-times-kills-ios-app-to-avoid-apple-tax-switches-to-html5-succeeds.html#comments Thu, 29 Sep 2011 17:08:08 +0000 Cory Doctorow http://boingboing.net/?p=120843 The Financial Times, which is justly famed for being one the few newspapers that manages to charge for an online version and attract substantial numbers of subscribers, pulled its app from the Apple App Store last June, after Apple announced that henceforth, all transactions taking place in apps would have to pay at 30 percent cut to the company, and Apple would control all subscriber info.

The FT developed an HTML5 app instead, which can be accessed from any browser. They now claim that 700,000 subscribers use the HTML5 version regularly, and that this makes it more popular than the app they once sold through the app store.

The FT pulled its main iPad and iPhone app from Apple store after both parties failed to reach an agreement after months of negotiations.

"App stores are actually quite strange environments," Grimshaw said. "They are cut off from most of the Web ecosystem."

A simple message on the top of the FT's Web site has been an effective marketing tool, he added.

"The world outside the App Store is not cold and desperate. Discovery is no problem at all."

(via Memex 1.1)

FT Web-based app more popular than app sold in Apple store [reuters.com]]]> http://boingboing.net/2011/09/29/financial-times-kills-ios-app-to-avoid-apple-tax-switches-to-html5-succeeds.html/feed 23 http://boingboing.net/2011/08/09/choosing-android-because-you-dont-trust-google.html http://boingboing.net/2011/08/09/choosing-android-because-you-dont-trust-google.html#comments Tue, 09 Aug 2011 13:04:18 +0000 Cory Doctorow http://boingboing.net/?p=112560 Guardian column, "Android and iOS both fail, but Android fails better," explains why I prefer Android to iOS -- not because I trust Google more than I trust Apple, but because Android requires less trust than iOS.

I use Android because I don't trust Google. Sure, I trust and like individual googlers, and admire many of the things the company has managed – but I don't for one moment think that Google's management is making its decisions in order to make me happy, fulfilled and free.

I think there are good days when Google's management might believe that helping me attain those ends will make it more money, but if it were to believe that making me miserable would enrich its shareholders without alienating too many of its key personnel and partners, my happiness would cease to matter in the slightest.

So why use Android? Because it requires less trust in Google than using iOS requires that you trust Apple. iOS has one official store, and it's illegal in most places to buy and install apps except through this store. If you and Apple differ about which apps you need, you have to break the law to get your iPhone or iPad to run the app that Apple rejected.

(Image: Rooting my HTC Hero Android Phone, a Creative Commons Attribution (2.0) image from a_mason's photostream) ]]> http://boingboing.net/2011/08/09/choosing-android-because-you-dont-trust-google.html/feed 60 http://boingboing.net/2011/08/08/dslr-controller-app-for-android.html http://boingboing.net/2011/08/08/dslr-controller-app-for-android.html#comments Mon, 08 Aug 2011 14:27:51 +0000 Rob Beschizza http://boingboing.net/?p=112405 DSLR controller is an Android app that allow you to remotely control the functions of your fancy Canon shooter. Wired's Charlie Sorrel writes: "To control a camera with an iPhone, you need to first tether the camera to a computer or use some funky, limited BlueTooth triggering. With Android, you just plug in a USB cable." But is it any good?]]> http://boingboing.net/2011/08/08/dslr-controller-app-for-android.html/feed 15