Price: $.99 Rating: ****½ (4.5/5) Kalimah: iPhone Written App Review After reaching the number one position in the educational app category and number two spot in the entire Pakistani App Store, the beautiful Kalimah iPhone app has reached the U.S. App Store. Designed to facilitate learning and memorizing the six Kalimahs, this application from RBM [...]
The iPhone App Review : iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad App Reviews
It’s almost February and many of us have already let our new year resolutions fall by the wayside. Luckily, there’s still time to get your investing smarts on track for 2012.
Here are some themes to keep in mind to help you become a better investor this year:
- Be News Agnostic — Avoid being swayed by the news of the day, whether it’s good or bad. Focus on trends versus headlines. Expose yourself to thoughtful interpretation of what’s going on by following analysts, journalists and bloggers you trust.
- Cash is Not Necessarily King — You may sleep better at night if you are invested in cash and thus avoiding the ups and downs of the market. However, cash has a price since it isn’t returning enough to cover even our current low inflation rate—so you are actually losing money when you are overly invested in cash.
- Prudence is Queen — A diversified portfolio, modified for current economic, political and global circumstances, is the best approach. Make sure you are not over-invested in your company’s stock and that you have a good mix of various types of investments, including cash.
- Time for Generosity — If your assets exceed million as an individual or million as a couple, you can reduce estate taxes in the future by making some strategic gifts to heirs now. The million per person estate/gift tax exemption is going away by the end of 2012.
- Give Plans Another Go-Around — Many experts are projecting lower returns on investments in the coming years. So this is a good time to get a financial plan—or refresh your last one—and assess whether you are still on track to meet your retirement goals.
Mobile Manufacturer news this Friday! : #Samsung Takes Top Spot as Smartphone Market Grows 42.6% http://t.co/u2FMYK7q http://t.co/zaIoT3bH
Reviewed by Luke Patrick
Price: .99
Rating: ***** (5/5)
Skillz for iPad, by indie developer Playpen Studios, is a nearly flawless adaptation of everything we love about rhythm-based console gaming for the iPad. Its combination of Rock Band, djay for iPad, and Tap Tap Revolution is awe-inspiring, and a true jewel in the crown of music games for iOS. If you’re a fan of any of the aforementioned games or iPhone apps, you owe it yourself to fork out the six bucks for Skillz for iPad: The iPad app will have you scratching, flicking, and tapping your way long into the night.
Concept and Gameplay ***** (5/5)
Skillz for iPad is, believe it or not, most akin to games not residing on the iOS system. The application bears a lot of resemblance to Rock Band and Guitar Hero, allowing players to live out their musical dreams one note at a time. In-game, the user is presented with a ribbon of notes that must be played on time and in step if they want to earn points for their efforts. Only, unlike Rock Band, Skillz for iPad presents this format under the guise of a burgeoning deejay. The interface features all the typical mixing faire, including a crossfader, two decks, and multiple tap pads. It’s a solid idea, and one that’s unbelievably refreshing after plugging away at Tap Tap Revenge for all these years.
The controls themselves are even innovative: Rather than presenting the user with a few pads to slap, Skillz for iPad instead asks the player to scratch, slide, twist, tap, and flick each note as indicated. It’s maddeningly complex, and unceasingly fun. The app is the perfect remedy for boring rhythm titles for the iPhone, offering enough fresh innovation to power a small village.
Skillz for iPad even comes with a couple of game modes, including a career mode that behaves exactly as you’d hope it would, and a free play setting that’s equally as self-explanatory. Both offer the same stellar concept, only repackaged with different rules. In our book, you can’t go wrong with either.
Design, Graphics, and Sound ****½ (4.5/5)
Skillz for iPad
As much as we loved Skillz for iPad’s gameplay, we did manage to come up with a few complaints—Trust us, it was a bear of a time. All in all, we found the graphics absolutely superb, and easily on par with a console title in the same genre. However, there’s not nearly as much content as we would have liked: The 25 included tracks are excellent, but even more would be appreciated. Likewise, some of the controls (especially the crossfader) performed a bit haphazardly, occasionally stopping our groove mid swing.
Overall Value ***** (5/5)
At the end of the day, Skillz for iPad is every bit worth its .99 price of entry. It’s a killer app designed exclusively for the iPad, bringing console-quality gameplay to the platform: In our eyes, that alone is worth supporting, even without the mountain of pleasing tapping, twisting, and scratching.
Skillz for iPad requires iOS 4.3 or later and is compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. A small expedite fee was paid by the developer to speed up the publication of this review.
The iPhone app reviews rating: ***** (5/5)
The iPhone App Review : iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad App News & Reviews
If you’re Canadian this is THE app for you! Sympatico.ca launches bilingual mobile app for Android, BlackBerry & iPhone http://t.co/yexZfZ0
Good morning citizens!
Today we begin with Portland Mayor Sam Adams’ morning keynote on the city’s Civic Apps and open source participation, at 9am in the Sanctuary. The Mayor has presented at Open Source Bridge all three years, and we’re happy to have him back. Following the keynote, there will be an open data hacking session, related to regional farmers market data, scheduled in the Hacker Lounge. Drop by and see what the Portland Farmer’s Market has to play with.
Speaker sessions will begin at 10am.
Today we’re having a breakfast of muffins and scones by Sweetpea Baking Co., plus fresh fruit. Lunch catering is by Thai Garden, and we have cookies and fruit for the afternoon break.
Birds of a Feather sessions (BoFs), which are free and open to the public, begin at 7pm upstairs. Tonight’s BoFs include BIND and ISCDHCP, “Women in Tech (and friends) Go Drinking,” and more.
Mozilla and Emma are co-hosting a happy hour at the Cleaners at Ace Hotel, from 5-7pm.
Hacker Lounge activities include an Apache Lucene.net Hackathon, and a Transit Appliance meetup.
Register Today for Open Source Bridge 2012!
Do you want to be here again next year? We certainly do. Get your pass and put next year’s conference on your schedule now: registration for Open Source Bridge 2012 will be open after today’s keynote, at a special low rate.
Massage
Are you feeling sore from attending sessions all day and coding all night? Licensed massage therapist Domenika Radonich will be providing her services in room A102. Check with the Registration desk for more info.
Nominate Open Source Citizens!
Nominate your fellow citizens for our first open source citizenship award! At current count, we have three nominees. They’re all great people, but wouldn’t you like to submit someone yourself?
Volunteer
If all this civic pride is making you feel warm and fuzzy inside, sign up for a volunteer shift! Stop by the registration desk to find out how you can get involved.
Be Interviewed
Speakers who still might like to be interviewed but haven’t gotten around to it yet: email media@opensourcebridge.org and let us know when you’re available.
Silliness
We still like reading the session OHs, so don’t forget to tag everything with #osb11. Here’s a few more items we scraped out of the search feed:
“The more fish in the pond, the more will float to the top when you toss the dynamite in.” #trollu #osb11 [@suehle]
“If someone says their code doesn’t have bugs, then they don’t have much of a user base” #osb11 [@jthurman42]
“Free as in speech, not as in puppies” #osb11 [@demew]
OH: “It’s like a soup kitchen for nerds! Awesome!” [@reidab]
Questions? Feedback? Talk to @osbridge on Twitter or check with any volunteer in a bright blue shirt.
Source: aintluck.com
Over the past several years, as online poker players have evolved from a sea of fish to a more overall competent player pool, players seek out to get whatever edge they can. Whereas in the past, players sought advice in books from successful players, the technological age has paved the way for virtual teaching methods from online coaches. Some of the more successful training sites include Cardrunners.com and Stoxpoker.com.
The formula is simple. The established sites seek out highly profitable players and offer them positions within their company to teach other aspiring players the tricks of the trade. Often times, they create instructional videos in which they video their online sessions and they use voice-overs to explain what they are doing. The videos are then archived online and made available to paying customers through the use of a username and password they obtain through paying a membership fee to the site. Other times, the individual instructors offer actual lessons to customers for a higher rate.
This is the very situation of the controversy swirling around Stoxpoker.com instructor Jason Ho. On his website, Ho claimed to have earned over million playing online poker in 2008 alone. By making this incredible claim, Ho was able to lure unsuspecting students for private lessons at exorbitant rates. One by one, player have been coming forward claiming they have been bilked out of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
In addition to overcharging for sub par lessons, Ho also allegedly concocted a scheme around Pot Limit Omaha in which he obtained an undisclosed amount of money from prospective business partners. To date, none of the partners has received a single penny for their investment and Ho has cut off all communication with them. He has since been dismissed from his association with Stoxpoker and has taken his blog offline, leaving cheated customers angry and without their money.
Stoxpoker maintains no liability in the matter saying that ultimately it is up to individuals to do their own due diligence before entering into business alliances with any possible coaches or mentors.
Among the most exorbitant claim is a player stating that he paid ,000 for what he believed was a week long one-on-one training session with Ho in Macau, and was surprised when other customers arrived. In addition, Ho spent a large amount of the training time locked up in his hotel room.
To date, no one has filed any legal complaint and Ho has yet to issue a statement as more and more players come forward.
Rumors about legendary poker player Doyle Brunson being a cheat at poker have been circulating not for years but rather for decades. A well known cash player named Dusty Schmidt who also runs the poker instructional website Drag the Bar had called Brunson a poker cheat, that according to a poster on the 2+2 Forum named Shortbutsosweet who wrote, “Last I heard of him (Schmidt), he was calling Brunson out for cheating Andy Beal out of money. HAHAHHAHA is all I can say about him saying anything about what his thoughts on Brunson poker are all about. Also would love to see this guy take his roll and his mouth to Bobby’s room for about a week. Lets see how long that 57 month winning streak could go then. Just saying maybe its time to take a step off that high high horse you ride. Something should start to click about the time Doyle Brunson is calling you out in his blogs.”
According to Schmidt, he has never called Doyle Brunson a cheater and doesn’t believe that he is one. Schmidt claims Shortbutsosweet had misinterpreted one of his blog posts from two weeks ago where he says he called Brunson the best poker player in the world. Schmidt now says that he has tremendous respect for Brunson as both a human being and poker player. He then goes on to say that “Doyle absolutely never told me to come to Bobby’s room and come play him (whatever this means). Doyle said that he would welcome any action from some of the young internet players who thought they were so great…”
My take: Well, this effusion of respect for Brunson makes me think that Dusty Schmidt is full of dusty shit! Come on, even if Doyle Brunson never cheated a penny out of a penny-ante poker game, can you really believe that? Schmidt more than likely has some ulterior motive for such ebullient praise for Brunson.
