From the folks at Japanator:
Miku will dance with your music, communicate with you, play dress up, and give you presents to collect.
It won't be long before someone marries this virtual girlfriend, folks.
Usain Bolt Has Gone Temple Running
Tom Phillips, over at Eurogamer:
12 months have passed since the glory of London 2012. Jessica Ennis is now appearing in skin care ads. Olympic Park is being dismantled, and gold medallist Usain Bolt is now available to purchase as a playable character in endless runner Temple Run 2.
If you've ever had the desire to play as an Olympic gold medalist in Temple Run 2, then now's your chance. As for me, I remember having a lot of fun playing World Class Track Meet for the NES with my cousins.
'Home' is a Good Horror Game for iOS
'Home' is one of those games that sneaks up on you, no pun intended. At first glance, it doesn't seem like much but as you progress through the game you find that there is so much more to be found. Without going too far into spoiler territory, the story revolves around a character who wakes up with a damaged leg and then has to unravel a mystery surrounding his amnesia.
Source: iTunes App Store
This is a game that follows the traditional 'point-and-click' adventure style. The graphics have a retro feel to them, and the use of the flashlight provides an appropriately creepy feeling. Likewise, the audio effects are excellent in the way they emphasize the tension being felt by the character (and by extension, the player).
Tension and anticipation are the main draw of this game. Transitions between different rooms use a door animation that is reminiscent of the transitions between rooms in Resident Evil. You never know what to expect next around every corner or every item you pick up (or don't pick up), and the choices you make throughout the game impact the ending of the game.
Folks, give this one a try. I recommend playing late at night in a dark, quiet room. The experience is so much better that way.
'Zombiegal Kawaii' is an Odd Yet Fun Game for iOS
Zombiegal Kawaii is a side-scrolling game for iOS (iPhone/iPad) that pits players against hordes of zombies that have taken over your hometown. There are other games that follow this same basic plot, but where Zombiegal Kawaii separates itself from the pack is through its unique character design and character audio.
The main character is a gun-toting schoolgirl that is drawn chibi style. As the player plays the game, the girl will make some sort of context sensitive utterance (in a stereotypically syrupy sweet voice). If you pick up ammo, she will say 'yokatta wa (good)' . Picking up a health kit will elicit a 'daijoubu (I'm ok/not hurt)' . If you go on a bit of a rampage and get multiple kills in a row, she will exclaim 'shinde! shinde! (die! die!)'. These character quips, coupled with the fact that you are fighting chibi-zombie girls, make for fun and fast-paced gameplay.
Shooting Zombies
Zombiegal Kawaii is $0.99 in the App Store, but plays like a freemium game. I've previously written about how certain games have really missed the mark and others have done really well with integrating freemium aspects into the gameplay, and this game leans towards the latter. There is a 'energy meter' that limits how many levels you can play in any one sitting. This energy meter, of course, is intended to encourage you to pay for an in-app purchase that gives you more energy (and thus more play time). This game is best played in relatively short bursts, so this energy meter never really bothered me much (though I can see how it might bother folks who want to play more).
As you progress through the game, your character gains experience and picks up money from fallen zombies. These can be spent in the 'store' screen where you can buy new guns or other kinds of weapons such as a baseball bat or katana. You can also purchase 'attribute enhancements' that impact character stats such as speed, accuracy, or counter-moves.
Additionally, you can purchase outfits for your character. This brings up what is perhaps the biggest downside to the game--the somewhat sleazy way that the character is presented in some of the loading screens and the in-app store. Tapping an item that you don't have enough in-app currency to afford brings up a prompt to go to the shop to buy coins, which is punctuated with a picture of the main character in her underwear and in a suggestive pose (drawn in a much more realistic style than normally seen through gameplay). The juxtaposition of the cute, chibi-style and the sexualized versions of the character is odd, to say the least.
Folks, Zombiegal Kawaii is a game that is worth a look. The touch controls work well, and the visual design and audio work is appealing. The art style may not appeal to everyone, but fans of anime and manga will find the style familiar and inviting.
Not Going to Violate Apple's NDA
Some folks have asked me to write about my impressions on iOS 7. Unfortunately, as an iOS developer I am bound by the NDA (non-disclosure agreement) regarding software and features that are not yet released. In essence, if Apple did not show the information at their WWDC Keynote, it can't be discussed with the general public. While Apple did show a lot of good stuff in the keynote, the things that I found most interesting were not shown/described in the keynote and therefore under NDA.
I currently have the iOS 7 beta installed on an old phone and I have been trying out its various features and getting a better idea of how its new design language works. Folks, rest assured that I will write about iOS 7 when it becomes publicly available sometime this autumn with the release of this year's new iPhone.
Japan's Attempt to Get Children to Read Newspapers
Ida Torres, writing for The Japan Daily Press about a new app being created by the Japanese newspaper The Tokyo Shimbun:
A new iPhone app has been developed in Japan to “translate” normal newspaper articles to kid-friendly versions. Through augmented reality, children can hold a smartphone (via the camera) over a newspaper to see a child-friendly version of the text.
The video embedded in the article gives you a good feel for how this would work. The basic idea is to provide content that is engaging and appropriate for the intended audience (in this case, children). Although newspapers (like most print media) are in decline, the fact that this technology should work just as well on screens as it would on print means that this might actually have a solid foundation for the future.
The same technology could be expanded to provide other alternative types of views for audiences besides children. Articles could be translated into other languages, for example. Likewise, it might do well in providing context that is appropriate to the audience by translating technical jargon or explaining cultural colloquialisms.
The iPhone 5 Doesn't Need 'Saving' (and Neither Does Apple)
Rick Aristotle Munarriz, in an article for The Motley Fool:
An early upgrade cycle isn't necessarily unusual for Apple. When the tech giant introduced the new iPad two months ago, it came just eight months after the third generation of the iconic tablet. Apple even raised the stakes by rolling out the lower-priced iPad Mini at the same time.
However, it's clear that sooner will be better than later at a time when the market's starting to lose faith in the magnetism of the iPhone 5. Even before this week's unconfirmed report of Apple scaling back supplier orders for iPhone 5 screens, analysts performing channel checks were talking down their projections.
Misek himself is now lowering his shipment expectations for the current quarter from 48 million to 44 million. It's certainly not as bad as some of the gloomier revisions out there, but it's just one more connected pro hosing down his forecast.The hubbub began when The Wall Street Journal reported on information from Japan's Nikkei regarding dour news for the iPhone 5. The key point in the WSJ report was this line:
Apple’s orders for iPhone 5 screens for the first quarter, for example, have dropped to roughly half of what the company had planned to order, the people said.However, as noted in a rebuttal by Mark Rogowsky on Forbes:
What’s missing from that quote, however, is what Nikkei originally included and can still be found on Reuters (although no longer on WSJ): “Apple has asked Japan Display, Sharp and LG Display Co Ltd to roughly halve supplies of LCD panels from an initial plan for about 65 million screens in January-March, the Nikkei cited people familiar with the situation as saying.” And that 65 million number we know is completely absurd.65 million LCD panels is indeed absurd. A chart in an article by Dan Gallagher for MarketWatch shows a much more reasonable (but still very high) estimate of 48 million. It should be noted that this 48 million number is much closer to the "48 million to 44 million" referenced above. 65 million iPhones would be off the chart (literally).
The stock market has completely unrealistic expectations for Apple. For some reason, in the market's opinion it is not good enough for Apple to simply be a top level competitor in the marketplace, it has to dominate in order to be considered worthy.
I don't know what Apple will say in next week's quarterly results call, but I'm fairly certain that it will be something to the effect of 'we sold bunches and bunches of the iPhone 5'.