FPcast! The Fruitless Pursuits Podcast for February 17th 2014! The Best of iOS!

In this eclectic show, we bitch about television, take the Top Gear challenge in Forza on the Xbox One, discuss our current favourite iOS games, and HATCH A GODDAMN DRAGON AGE live on the show! You miss this and you're an insane person!

Download here! (click to stream, or right-click to save).

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The Neverending Possibilities of the New (Taller!) iPhone 5 Screen

In just 24 hours many of us will be walking around with our brand new iPhone 5 in-hand, showing off the fancy new tall display. As stated by Apple, "by making the screen taller, but not wider, you can see more of your content."

But how much more can you see?

I discovered a video that shows the unlimited uses of the longer iPhone 5 screen. It's unbelievable.

The iPhone 5 Promo Video Has Leaked!

We're potentially a few weeks away from the announcement and launch of the iPhone 5, but a clever techie has uncovered Apple's promo video from their upcoming 9/12 keynote. If you are an Apple fanboy such as myself, or a curious tech consumer, you might want to check out this video.

SPOILERS


Unfortunately my last phone died about a month ago so I am not eligible for the new phone just yet. :( Of course, after it's not-so-timely death, I marched right back into the Apple Store and bought another.

I'm curious what will be different this time around. Of course there are the usual rumors of a laser keyboard, diamond encrusted phone. I'll just take one of these.

Kickstart the Week: Spike: Real Keyboards and Protective Cases for the iPhone

I spend most of my Kickstarter money on Game projects (as seen in my backer profile), but I am consistently blown away by the Product Design category. Just a quick glance at the active projects, you will see the RoboChair and Ringbow, two completely different ideas sharing the elusive "staff picks" stage.

And then you will find Spike, the super affordable iPhone case with a keyboard built into it. Something about it sets it apart from the sea of iPhone accessories. It's partially the great design of a keyboard that is there when you want it to be, and not there when you don't want it to be... but it's also that it's such an anti-iPhone, iPhone accessory. The iPhone is built for touch, and this product eliminates the need for touch in many of the most-used applications.



I'm so excited for this, but I have one big unlikely curiosity. What happens if Apple reconfigures the keyboard in an update? I'm sure a drastic change is not going to happen, but they added a few keys in the recent updates, so it's possible that Apple could break Spike very easily if they wanted to. They have the digital upper hand, which can destroy a physical component at the push of a button... but I would doubt it will happen. People would revolt, but more importantly, there is no reason for it to change. It's still something to think about, but at about the same price of a regular case, it's worth taking the chance on Spike. For the extreme worry worts and early adaptors, there's even a level that allows you to upgrade to an iPhone 5 version upon release.

There are 32 days to go, and if all goes well Spike should fund well before the time is up. The project is currently at $44,575 of it's $75,000 goal, with 32 days to go.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/matrix/spike-makes-the-iphone-as-easy-to-type-on-as-it-is

Jetpack Joyride Gains a Dog (and Wins my Heart)!

As much as I enjoy recent blockbuster games like the enhanced Witcher 2 and Diablo III the one game that I still play every single day is Half-Brick's Jetpack Joyride on my iPhone. If I'm on a break at work, or waiting for a bus, or there's a lull in our conversation, I am going to break out brazen badass Barry Steakfries, strap on the machinegun backpack and tear shit up in a hi-tech lab! I cannot get enough. In fact I'm playing it right now with my other hand.

So imagine the height of the backflips I started doing when I learned that Half-Brick (who are fellow Australians. Represent!) have released another big update, featuring DJ headphones that turn the soundtrack into a techno remix, a de-zapinator to fizzle out those annoying zappers, a new turbo boost, but best of all Flash: a robot dog who has become Barry's new best friend! He can even ride on the mighty forehead of mechanical dragon Mr. Cuddles!

Here's the trailer for Mr. Steakfries' new canine companion:

And if that whet your appetite let's play this sucker! I am obsessed with trying to crush the scores of everybody I know. (I cannot beat fellow contributor Ive though!). If you want to get competitive and go head to head with me then I am LMWRITES on Game Center. Tell us your handle in the comments section, or just befriend us in game, strap on your jetpack of choice (I am currently rocking the golden piggybank) and we will incinerate hapless scientists in our wake!

LET'S RIDE!!!

Lucky Dice Is A Super Fast / Super Addicting App!

Lucky Dice was originally a small, stand alone expansion/supplement to the Carnival board game Kickstarter Project (previously covered here and here). I sadly missed out on this, but I've seen the fantastic graphic design and read about the simple, yet addictive gameplay. You roll 9 dice in groups of 3, and line them up on a tic-tac-toe style grid. After all dice are rolled, points are scored on all 8 possible lines (horizontal, vertical and diagonal). Players get 5 points per pair, 10 points per set of three, and 15 points for a straight (3 in a row numerically).

Just this week, publisher Dice Hate Me Games released an iOS version of Lucky Dice, which oddly feels like it's natural home. I hate to say that about a tabletop game, but the ease of use mixed with the portability makes this app really shine. I must have played 30 times in a row last night trying to beat my high score of 75. It took me about 24 hours to beat that with my new high score of 80. 

Games can be as quick as 1 minute, so it's the perfect game for anytime you have a minute to spare. If you have 10 minutes, it's even better because you will need to play more than once. There's also a handy reset button for each time you get a bad roll and want to quickly restart.

Before and after screenshots

My only real complaints are minor and could easily be addressed in an update. You currently shake the device to roll the dice (I'm rhyming now...) but it's a bit awkward on an iPad. The portability feels like it's primarily built for iPhone anyway, but I would always like to see a touch option for the lazy folk. And the second thing is Game Center integration, which, according to the designer Cherilyn Joy Lee Kirkman, is coming soon. (She also hinted at a possible expanded competitive future version called Battle Dice, which is super exciting)

Oh and I forgot to mention... THE APP IS FREE!
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lucky-dice-a-carnival-game/id523515788?mt=8

iPhone Film-making: Zombie Case Study.

Our friend Sam O'Sullivan drew our attention to his new short film, Zombie Case Study, shot entirely on an iPhone. Having only recently upgraded to a 4S myself, I'm really inspired by the ability to shoot a quality film using only a phone and I think that Sam's film illustrates really innovative ways of working with the phone's advantages and exploiting its limitations. It makes film-making accessible to everyone and this is a fine example that will make you sad that you're not doing it yourself.

Plus Sam's film has crowd pleasing/consuming zombies, so if you want to see two young Australian men dealing with a zombie situation in a way that only young Australian men can then check this out:

This ePaper Watch is My New Favorite Kickstarter

I noticed this Pebble ePaper Watch a few days ago when going around Kickstarter, and quickly got alerted that it's now the most funded Kickstarter ever. And for good reason - it's a fancy looking affordable watch that has a lot of great features.

The quick and dirty is that the watch syncs with your Android or iPhone via Bluetooth, and runs a number of apps that allow you to keep time, control your music, etc. The possibilities are really limitless on this, and with it using ePaper (which is what the Kindle and Nook use), the battery life (USB chargeable, naturally) is about a week. That's incredible, and with the amount of money they've raised so far, it's not scratch/shatter resistant and waterproof.

My watch finally died on me last fall, and I've been resistant to get a new one. This might be changing my mind, because the idea is so neat, the technology feels so advanced - it's almost like what I pictured the future to really be like. I love it.

Tumblr Rulz And So Do iPhone Whales

There are so many good Tumblr accounts. I've been posting links as I've seen them, but I'm going to go ahead and make it a regular thing here at Fruitless Pursuits. I've mentioned it behind the scenes a few times (in our secret contributor underground lair), but the Tumblr account that I was just shown is forcing me to put my new column into effect immediately!!

It's called Tumblr Rulz and today we are featuring iPhone Whales. And, like I did, you may ask... "What exactly is an iPhone Whale?"

This is an iPhone Whale.

Many more after the jump, and all of them can be seen at http://iphone-whale.tumblr.com/.

Fresh Push Play

Here's a promo of a new app that comes from the Japanese beatmakers, Hifana called "Fresh Push Play"

It comes with some already recorded samples from Hifana. It has a little turntable section that you can do your "wika-wika" plus another section where you can do your left, rights, tempos and some large orange thing that I'm not sure what it does but it makes the sound cwwazy (technical term). You definitely need some lighting reflexes to play live like these guys but you can also create a loop by viewing the overall pattern and choosing at what point the samples come in.

It is definitely going to take some time to get used to it as turns out the skills don't come with the app but it does have a sort of guitar hero section where you hit the buttons when they flash. THIS IS WAY HARD!!! I assume if you can master it (and it allows you to tweet how well you did for bragging rights) you'll feel like you are this rad

I'm not sure if this is the best of this type of app out there. I do know that I would probably use the Garageband app more than this but I do really like the Hifana guys and honestly they can make anything sound cool even a few pairs of Nikes

Oh what?!?! Now I just bought a pair of Nikes. Dam you Hifana and your beats

Batman Map App for iPhone/iPad

Batman Arkham City is quickly becoming an obsession. The game is crazy awesome but also insanely full of things to do and solve, including an epic ton of Riddler puzzles to solve. In response to this, there is now an official Batman Arkham City map app available. For $2.99, you basically get the solutions and interactive maps that you'll need to not got Bat-shit insane trying to solve. This is exactly the direction that games and companies need to go in order to keep the players guide still relevant.

The Goddamn Batman needs no maps, but you do.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/batman-arkham-city-official/id472027508?mt=8

Dice Soccer - A Sports App For Indoor Kids

I've been playing this app all morning.

It's called Dice Soccer and it's free for iPhone and iPad. You create a soccer team (football for some folks.. probably most folks), and each player is represented by a unique 6 sided die. Instead of moving your players around like most iPhone sports games, you will just roll the dice and let the numbers take over. It's as far from physical activity as humanly possible. You'll roll the dice by shaking the phone, or for the ultimate in laziness, you can just tap the screen. (my preferred method of playing).