Popcap, makers of my favorite plant-based zombie game, have announced that they will finally revive the ‘Plants vs. Zombies’ franchise in July. The long awaited sequel to the popular strategy game named ‘Plants vs. Zombies 2: It’s About Time’ is likely to be available on all popular mobile platforms as well as on PC, Mac and select consoles.

Details of the new game haven’t been announced, however a quick read of the Popcap blog seems to suggest that PVZ2 will be a ‘Freemium’ game with possible pay to unlock features and social network integration.

Popcap have also been strangely quiet as to why it has taken so long to launch the sequel, the acquisition by EA and staff layoffs are likely to blame, however they have posted the following video poking fun at themselves for the delay:

The post Popcap finally releasing ‘Plants vs. Zobmies 2: It’s About Time’ appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

As typical, we will cover 5 Android apps, followed by 5 iOS apps. So let’s jump in, shall we?

Best Apps of the Week – Android

Facebook Home

So whether or not you consider this one worthy of being listed as a “best app of the week” largely depends on how important Facebook is to you and if you find it acceptable to essentially run the app as the forefront of your phone experience.

Facebook Home is a launcher that is designed to replace the lockscreen, homescreen and other areas of Android. The app is currently only officially available for a few devices such as the Galaxy S3, Galaxy Note 2, HTC One X and HTC One X+. That said, there are plenty of work-arounds out there to expand support.

You can grab Facebook Home for free through Google Play.

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Cut the Rope: Time Travel

Can you believe it has been two whole years since the last original member to the series, Cut the Rope: Experiments? Since then, there have been plenty of updates to Experiments and the original Cut the Rope, but no sequel. That situation has finally changed with the latest game, Cut the Rope: Time Travel.

Om Nom is back, but this time there is a time travel theme, two on-screen monsters to feed and plenty of new obstacles to get in your way.

In typical fashion, there is a free and paid version for $.99, both available through Google Play.

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Dungeon Hunter 4

Ah, Dungeon Hunters 4, you’ve finally arrived. Last week lucky iOS users had their day in the sun. Android users didn’t have to wait too much longer, thankfully. If you are a fan of action and hack n’ slash games on the mobile, you pretty are guaranteed to already know about this series.

As I mentioned last week, I’m a huge fan of the first two games, though Dungeon Hunter 3 ruined the experience by turning the paid dungeon crawler into a freemium arena brawler. In Dungeon Hunter 4, the freemium app style isn’t gone – but at least the game has both traditional dungeon crawling and arena battles this time around.

I have now had a little time to play with the iOS version, and must say that Dungeon Hunter 4 is a welcome change, though I’d rather have the freemium app approach ended for good. I’ll take what I can get, though.

You can now snag this one from Google Play.

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Real Racing 3

Technically this isn’t a new app, but it is a big enough of an upgrade to make it worthy of this week’s list. Real Racing 3 might turn some folks off due to its somewhat wonky in-app purchasing options, but it is still one of the better Android racing games out there.

The new update adds 100 new events, two new Chevy vehicles and even a new cross-platform save function. It doesn’t end there, a new “hunter mode” also has you tracking down and overtaking a car within a lap.

Get it now from Google Play.

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OfficeSuite Pro 7.1

Once again, this app also isn’t “new”, but instead a massive upgrade. If you have ever done productivity work on a tablet or smartphone, you might already know about OfficeSuite Pro. It is arguably one of the best office alternatives you’ll find.

The new version adds support for Samsung devices with multi-window mode, improved UI changes, Oxford Dictionary to English integration, the ability to insert an image from Camera into Word/Excel/PowerPoint docs, and so much more.

At $14.99, it is probably one of the most expensive apps for Android you will ever run into. Still, if you regularly plan on using your Android device for business – it is worth every penny.

Best Apps of the Week – iOS

Cut the Rope: Time Travel

This one already made the list for the best Android apps, but it is certainly one of the best of the week for iOS as well.

Om Nom is back once more, but this time there is a time travel theme, two on-screen monsters to feed and plenty of new obstacles to get in your way.

The game is just $.99 through iTunes.

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The Thirty-Nine Steps

This unique app is based on John Buchan’s famous novel, turned into an interactive iPad experience. The game has you control Richard Hannay and has you collecting items, exploring scenes and experiencing a wonderful story.

The game is a bit on the higher end of the price totem, but is certainly worth the $6.99 to get it.

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Real Racing 3

Is there an echo in here? Real Racing 3 is not new, and was just covered above for Android. Why are we covering it again then? Because a major update has arrived for both Google Play and Apple’s AppStore.

The new update adds 100 new events, two new Chevy vehicles and even a new cross-platform save function. It doesn’t end there, a new “hunter mode” also has you tracking down and overtaking a car within a lap.

Get it now from Apple’s AppStore.

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Fish Out of Water!

Some of my favorite games of all time are by Halfbrick Studios, such as Jetpack Joyride and Fruit Ninja. This new Halfbrick game is equally addictive. Fish Out of Water has now arrived only for iOS (though hopefully Android users will be able to get it soon enough).

The new game is more casual than previous Halfbrick titles, and has you seeing how far you can fling a fish across the ocean. The score is than calculated and presented by a panel of crabs, yes really.

There are different kinds of sea creatures beyond fish, including the dolphin. Each have their own unique abilities as well.

Fish Out of Water can be yours now for just $.99.

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Twitter #music

Twitter released a new music discovery service called Twitter #music earlier this week, though oddly enough they only released it for iOS users. The new app serves up charts of songs that are currently trending on Twitter, and those being tweeted by people you follow.

It doesn’t allow you to listen to the whole song, but it does make it possible to listen to the rest through Spotify and Rdio, or download it through iTunes.

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Summing it all up….

So ends another “Best Apps of the Week”. Is it every app that released this week for Android or iOS? Of course not, but this should certainly help you on your journey to finding a few great new apps or games this weekend.

Any apps debut this week that you feel we should have covered? Let us and other readers know about them through the comments below!

The post Best Apps of the Week: A Look at New Apps for iOS and Android (4/19) appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Whether it’s the future or not Google Glass is here and it appears like the search giant wants full control of its new tech. The company began shipping their wearable computer this week and released details about the device, when they also unveiled rules regarding what developers could and couldn’t do with the glasses.

One of their rules is that the developers won’t be allowed to resell or loan the $1,500 device without Google’s permission. Deactivation will be Google’s answer to those developers who have plans to make some money with their devices. This is what the company has to say regarding ownership and use:

“You may not resell, loan, transfer, or give your device to any other person. If you resell, loan, transfer, or give your device to any other person without Google’s authorization, Google reserves the right to deactivate the device, and neither you nor the unauthorized person using the device will be entitled to any refund, product support, or product warranty”.

And there are more rules that the developers must follow. Placing ads on the device is prohibited and charging users to download apps for the eyewear is also not allowed. Google’s current terms of service are specifically meant for the Explorer program. The company may or may not bring these restrictions on the final product available to consumers.

[Source]

The post Google Very Strict About The Use Of Google Glasses appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Recently RIM held a Blackberry 10 app port-a-thon weekend, promising $100 per approved app, a chance to win a Blackberry 10 Dev Alpha device and free Playbooks.  Since then, the competition has come and gone and there were a staggering 15,000 Blackberry 10 apps submitted for approval.

While some of these apps will likely be tossed, that’s a hugely impressive number. And as promised at $100 per app,  it appears as RIM will be paying out more than a million dollars to developers even after weeding the bad ones out.  RIM had promised to have at least 70,000 apps available by the time the Blackberry 10 is launched and with these added 15,000 apps, it will definitely help RIM meet that number.

Who is waiting for the Blackberry 10 release?  Are you excited for the large amount of apps that will be available by the launch date?

[ source ]

The post 15,000 apps submitted for Blackberry 10 appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Did you know that 8% of men and about 1% of women have red-green color blindness? Did you know that there are an estimated 10 million Americans living with color vision deficiency (CVD)?

If you think that you have a color blindness and you want to find out the type and extent, this test is for you. EnChroma was founded in Berkeley, CA with the purpose of enhancing color vision in humans, particularly the color blind. Their online Color Blindness test was developed to measure the type and extent of color vision deficiency.

The test only takes 2-5 minutes and consists of a series of images, questions, and answers. Each image has either a square, circle, or diamond inside of a gray square. If you can tell which shape is in the image, you select it from the answers. If not, then you can click the nothing button.

Download Links:

• Android
• iOS
• Kindle Fire

Are you colorblind? Did the app get your “color type” right? Let us know in the comments below.

[ Source ]

The post EnChroma Releases “Color Blindness Test” App for iOS, Android, and Kindle Fire appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Dungeon Story

GAMEPLAY AND CONTROLS

The game starts with one dungeon and one hero. The game has a small tutorial before you begin, but it contains everything you need to know. You quickly learn that you can unlock new heroes at certain levels and unlock new dungeons once you complete the dungeon quest, which requires you to play through the dungeon until you find a specific item. As of now, you can unlock nine playable heroes, each with their own strengths, and five dungeons.

Hero progression plays a large part of the game. When you are not in a dungeon you have the opportunity to increase your hero’s stats which will make him stronger against the new, powerful enemies you will encounter.

The controls of Dungeon Story are straightforward. Tap a special ability when you need it, and touch and drag your finger across the items you want to match on the puzzle board.

Dungeon Story also has an online “Arena” mode using the iPhone Game Center, which unfortunately I could not play. Every time I attempted to play online, a match could not be found. Perhaps something can be done to make online play more attractive to the players of Dungeon Story.

GRAPHICS AND AUDIO

Most of the time I found myself turning off the sound to the game. I could not listen to the monster sounds every time they attacked, and there is no music while you are in a dungeon. The music that plays while you are in the menus is fitting for the theme of the game, however.

The graphics of the game is where I feel the game falls short. The text and graphics are somewhat generic. Knowing how fun this game is, the quality of graphics should live up to the quality of gameplay.

It would also be nice to visualize the heroes and monsters. If cartoon characters of a wizard, knight, adventurer, etc could be put into the game, that would immerse the player even more.

PROS

• Very responsive touch controls.
• Being able to see how much damage you will deal. This prevents you from overextending damage and wasting puzzle pieces.
• Addictive and fun gameplay of a match three game with character and dungeon progression.

CONS

• Audio that I wanted to turn off most of the time.
• The need to make online play more attractive.
• Graphics leave something to be desired.

Overall, the Dungeon Story is very fun regardless of the few flaws. Pantazis Deligiannis Games is already planning its next update to the game which includes updated fonts, new battle strategies, a new dungeon, and new quests and rewards. As long as they continue to listen to fans and provide updates, Dungeon Story will remain one of my favorite iOS games.

Purchase Dungeon Story from the App Store here.

The post Dungeon Story Game Review appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

My Dragon

GAMEPLAY AND CONTROLS

Most of the controls involve simply tapping options on screen. Some of the time you are required to swipe to pet your dragon or to train it to do a new trick. Any time swiping is required, a guiding graphic appears on the screen to assist you.

My Dragon starts with a very short tutorial that still leaves much to be learned when it is completed. Coupled with an overcrowded interface, it can take awhile to learn all of the options and things you can do with the dragon pet.

The biggest components of My Dragon are the quests. In unique fashion, the quests are completed by random rolls for collection items. At the end of the quest you keep the items, which are added to critter collections (critters appear daily to give you bonuses after you complete their collection). You must meet certain pre-requisites to do quests, however, which would be your resources.

The resources needed to do quests are energy, happiness, and stash points (costume points). You feed your dragon to increase energy, play with him to increase happiness, and purchase costumes to increase stash points. That seems easy enough, but resources deplete rather quickly and currency runs out even faster.

Very early on in the game you are encouraged to buy currency and items with real money. The other currency, dragon scales, are earned regularly. You can also use hearts, which are earned by visiting friends’ dragons, to purchase costumes.

GRAPHICS AND AUDIO

My Dragon does provide nice visuals which is to be expected from Glu Mobile. The environment, dragons, and costumes are colorful and bright.

The sound of the game is most entertaining with the medieval style music and the cute sounds of the baby dragon.

PROS

• Unique questing style
• Dressing up a dragon in silly costumes

CONS

• Very limited game play time before the necessity to buy currency with real money kicks in
• Crowded and confusing interface

The fact that My Dragon is a free app, I understand the necessity of relying on micro transaction purchases to fund the developer. I cannot shake how early you are pressed into buying currency and items, though. My Dragon is clearly a game geared for children, and that makes me feel even more uncomfortable with how soon micro transactions are encouraged. The crowded and confusing interface, even after completing the tutorial, can make it difficult to understand, as well.

Overall, the game has many flaws. While you can play without purchasing anything, you really only get about ten minutes of game time before you run out of resources. That is OK, if you like that, but I would rather not have a game taking up space on my phone for just ten minutes a day.

Download My Dragon here for iOS

The post My Dragon Review for iOS appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

In a world of super pinball and special fire pinballs, Pin Tiki Ball keeps pinball mostly traditional. While the game just released on September 5, 2012, it shows a lot of promise to expand in future updates making the game more and more fun with each version. That is, as long as Operatio Apps continues to move in the right direction.

Gameplay and Controls

Pin Tiki Ball only has one level to play at the moment. Yes, that seems somewhat dull, but that one level contains a lot for you to accomplish. If you open the little book at the top, right of the screen, it shows you all the special area you can unlock such as stopping the lava from flowing and secret caves. It is more difficult than you may imagine. Also, by hitting palm trees with the ball, you unleash pieces of fruit that you smash for bonus points.

The name of the game is much like traditional pinball, which is getting the most points. By using three flippers that are controlled by a simple tap of the screen you can hit the ball at any of the aforementioned bonus spots. The more points you get the higher your score and you can eventually earn a place on the Pin Tiki Ball Game Center Leaderboards. Even though you want to try for the bonuses for high scores, Pin Tiki Ball has its own list of achievements you can complete, as well. If you complete an achievement or beat your high score, you can share it immediately over Facebook with your friends.

Graphics and Audio

Pin Tiki Ball sports amazing 3D-esque HD graphics. The colorful environment and movement of the pinball “table” really make the game more enjoyable. One downside is that whenever the ball moves to the back of the “table” the camera zooms in to where the ball is. Understandably, the player may want to see what is going on, but at times the camera gets stuck zooming in and out while the ball is moving back out to the center of the screen.

Game audio is a simple and soothing tribal music along with sound effects that make you feel like you are on an island. The music and sound allow you to just sit back, relax, and have fun with the game.

PROS

• Facebook integration
• Amazing 3D-esque graphics
• Leaderboards via Game Center
• Nice sounds

CONS

• Only one level
• Slow flipper and ball movement
• Badly timed camera zooming

The current version (1.0) is the release version of Pin Tiki Ball, and already Operatio Apps has a list of fixes and additions for the next version (1.0.1), which includes faster game movement. This will definitely help give the game a more “real” pinball feel. I hope in the future Operatio will also release more levels; even if they release more levels as “packs” and want to charge a small fee. One level will get boring quickly.

In the end, though, the game is about fun and simply getting the most points. In that aspect, Pin Tiki Ball delivers.

Download Pin Tiki Ball here for your iOS device.

The post App Review: Pin Tiki Ball for iOS appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

Zombie Terminator is a side scrolling game developed by FeelingTouch Inc, filled with fast-paced zombie slayin’ action. With upgradeable weapons, and an experience system, Zombie Terminator quickly becomes very addictive.

Gameplay and Controls

Zombie Terminator has a few on-screen buttons that control your character. The buttons are easy to access and are comfortable to use on a tablet or a phone.

On screen you’ll have two arrows on the left to control your movement from left to right, and three action buttons on your right which act as your melee weapon, trigger finger and roll ability. Above the arrow controls, you also have a med pack slot and a weapon switch button, both key to survival in the zombie apocalypse.

When you first enter the game, you’ll be taken to a main hub, which contains important functions that you can’t access whilst fighting zombies. From here you can upgrade your weapons, buy health packs and ammo, and look at unlockable achievements. Once you’re geared up, you can move onto the mission select screen. The mission select screen features a map with different missions available, and once you choose a mission the fun begins.

This instance-based mission screen has been used in a large variety of smartphone games, and Zombie Terminator’s mission screen works similarly to others. Unlike others though, Zombie Terminator’s missions are not linear, and instead you’ll be given three random missions to choose from each time you hit the mission screen. The missions available have different objectives, such as traveling a certain distance, or killing a certain number of zombies.

Once you’ve completed a mission, you’ll be awarded with coins and experience, different objectives give you a different amount of coins and each zombie kill will award you a number of coins and experience depending on the zombie’s strength. You can spend your coins on better upgrades and more ammo, and more experience will level you up, unlocking new weapons, which are beneficial to completing the missions alive.

Probably the most enjoyable missions in the game are the boss battles; these require you use tactical play to kill a large monster. As you level up, different bosses will appear, and along with the well-structured experience system, unlockable gear and dose of achievements, the game has a very addictive progression system.

Game Design and Graphics

Zombie Terminator has cartoony style graphics that remind me a little of alien hominid, the simple and playful backgrounds go nicely with the bold zombies, and although you’ll often encounter swarms of zombies, the game screen never feels too overwhelming, even with the strong contrast of colours.

There are a few zombie types, but past level five you’ll see the same models being used over and over with very little changes, and the background scenes can become quite repetitive.

Despite that, the game has well-fitting music, and gory sound effects that Zombie Terminator couldn’t do without.

Even though the game is bright and cartoon-like, it is still filled with blood and guts, and seeing as this is a zombie game, they fit right in.

The text is a little sub-standard, ruining the game a little for us English players because it’s so badly translated, and it takes a huge chunk out of game immersion.

Summary

Pros:

• Great progression system
• Plenty of unlockables
• Well-designed graphics
• Controls are comfortable

Cons:

• Repetitive missions and objectives
• Bad translation
• Huge grind for non-paying players

The post App Review: Zombie Terminator for Android appeared first on Mobile Magazine.

If you are someone who loves to stay connected all the time, you will certainly love the iPavement - sidewalk paving stones that are also Wi-Fi hotspots. A Spanish tech company has incorporated hardware into the tiles that allows them to provide Wi-Fi Internet and Bluetooth connectivity.

Weighing around 24 kilograms and measuring in at 15.75 x 15.75 x 2.76 in, the iPavement tile is coming equipped with a 5 GB microprocessor that connects to a mobile device via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

A hard-wired 1,000-watt cable supplies power and internet access to each stone, and you don’t have to worry about losing connection while walking as the stones will be installed no more than 20 meters from one another.

You will be able to use most of the common browsers and will also get access to a number of cloud-based apps while in the area. The apps are available in different languages and the list includes a digital library, maps showing local restaurants and other attractions, a music service, and there’s even an app that provides statistics on local foot traffic, although that requires special footstep-registering stones. And your device will receive promotional messages via a Bluetooth service, something that most people won’t enjoy.

But internet usage can also be offered via equipments mounted on the surface, but it looks like the iPavement will make sure that everything is neatly tucked inside. The thing will only work between -10 and 45 ⁰C, so its installation in some countries will be a challenge.

The post iPavement: Wi-Fi Hotspot Under Your Feet appeared first on Mobile Magazine.