WordCrasher is one of the most addictive word games in the iTunes App store. Whether you love word games or not, you’ll fall in love with this one instantly.

The gameplay is quite simple. Colorful button-like game pieces with letters on them will fall into view. Simply tap on the game pieces to make words. If you make a mistake, tap on the orange X to clear the word or swipe to the left to clear one letter. If you make a word, tap on the green checkmark. You can also swipe downward to make letters fall faster. There are also two types of powerup – Time Freeze and Bomb. The “time freeze” powerup is helpful when you need a little more time to think about the words you’re creating and the “Bomb” is helpful when you need to clear the screen. You can create words using UK, International and US English spellings. Score big by making longer words or words with rare letters like “z” and “q.” Make as many words as you can before the screen fills up!

What’s magical about this game are the beautiful and colorful graphics as well as the realistic way the pieces fall and move in the game. Tilt the iPhone / iPod Touch and game pieces will fall and move around.

Two game modes are available in the full version – marathon and flood panic. In marathon mode, you make words with the game pieces falling down. When the screen fills up, the game is over. In flood panic, water and buoyancy are added to the equation. Game pieces are still falling down, but will float in water. The objective is to make longer words to lower the water level. Once the game pieces reach the top of the screen, the game is over.

WordCrasher uses the OpenFeint social gaming network to keep track of your scores and the leaderboard. Earn achievements and compete with your friends as well as gamers worldwide! Scoring categories include Flood Panic, Vocabulary, Marathon, and Word Score. You can even brag about your scores on Twitter and Facebook.

Overall, WordCrasher is very easy to play, fun, and can be quite addictive. The well-polished graphics and physics in the game also makes it really stand out. The best part is, Kevin Ng, the game developer, has already started working on an iPad version of his game. With the faster processor and higher resolution of the iPad, he can use more realistic and detailed graphics without cluttering the game. Read his blog for more details.

For more information about WordCrasher, see their official website. The full version is on sale for only 99 cents. A lite version is also available which allows you to play four levels of marathon mode. Happy word-crashing!

Learn more about WordCrasher for iPhone and iPod touch in the App Store

She just might be the epitome of the artist who can’t be classified, as the self titled opening track on her new album Wash U Clean and the mid tempo ballad that follow it manage to take you in two completely different directions before you even get to the eight other songs that follow. Speaking with a faint Alabama accent when she called me from her current home of Los Angeles, Beth Thornley filled me in on why and how her songs are all across the spectrum…

You only have to get two songs into your album to get the sense of breadth of your different song styles. When you’re writing the album, is it just a matter of being in different moods at different times, or do you have to consciously strive to include a bunch of different styles?

At this point I’m actually striving for that. I put everything firmly under the pop umbrella, but I just liked to change moods a lot. It doesn’t even feel like changing styles to me as it feels like changing moods. And the reason I do that is I guess there’s two reasons. First of all I really don’t want to fall into a rut or a trap, and maybe I’m overly worried about it, but if I write a ballad then the next song I write is gonna be up. And if I write something up, then maybe the next song I write is gonna be a tango, and then I’ll go back and write another ballad. I just like to try to force myself to have variety. I just think it’s good for me as a writer. That may or may not make for the most cohesive album for some people, because I know that a lot of people like to put on an album and stay in a mood, and I am actually one of those people, I do enjoy that too. But this record didn’t turn out that way.

So the answer is yeah, I sort of did it but not to make a point or anything, just for my own self. It just helps me as a writer to not just do the same kind of groove or the same kind of thing.

Let’s say you’ve written a ballad and you decide your next song is going to be something up tempo. Is there something you have to do to get yourself into that kind of mindset to then write an up tempo song?

Usually I’ll start with the lyrics, and I’ll see if the lyrics will lend themselves to what I think I’d like to do next, you know? And I don’t try to force things. I do try to see if I can mix it up. But if it’s too much of a stretch, I’ll write two ballads in a row if I feel like it serves the song better. I usually start with a lyrical idea and then I’ll just see where I can push that, and it’s just kind of worked out that I’ve been able to have the variety happen too.

Stereotypically you hear that someone is from Alabama and you think “Oh, they must have listened to country music growing up.” I’m curious what you were actually listening to back in Alabama.

It’s kind of interesting because my parents were musicians themselves. They were classically trained, so when I was growing up, they made me take piano lessons and things. Both my parents were singers, they weren’t instrumentalists. They were both singers, but my dad was a minister of music so he had a church choir. And so we just got a lot of church music and a lot of classical music and sometimes we would listen to a lot of country gospel music, shape note music, quartet gospel kind of thing. So I got a lot of that and it wasn’t until I was a teenager that I started really paying attention to rock and roll. So that was sort of later on down the road, because the other stuff was more what I was living with.

You moved to LA after college. Was that a culture shock?

Yeah, it was like another planet for me. The vegetation was completely different, and the way people are is different, and then of course it’s just crowded and busy and kind of big and kind of intimidating. So it took awhile to get used to it, but I was really excited about the music industry itself and really happy to be where a lot of things were happening.

I’m curious how the accordion came into your repertoire.

It was kind of by accident. My producer Rob, his dad had an accordion in his basement. Rob’s got five older brothers and he’s from Michigan, and believe it or not there’s this huge polka, a lot of kids where Rob grew up took polka lessons and I think it’s because there’s a huge Polish community there.

I know this was a little while back but I saw it on YouTube and I’ve got to ask you how you got involved with the Bowen Beer Bottle Band.

It was just two months ago, it was just in December. Matt Bowen plays in my band. When we extend the band to include an extra guitar player and a violin player, he plays both those instruments. He plays violin, guitar, and we’ve actually thrown in the keyboard every now and then. And so he’s a real versatile player. He‘s played my last three shows with me because my last three shows at Hotel Cafe have been real full big band shows.

I don’t have the fully story, but I think it was his wife that actually had the idea two or three years ago. I could be completely wrong but I think it was a way back and she said “You know, it would be really funny if we ever played Do You Hear What I Hear on beer bottles.” And I think they just sort of lived with that idea for awhile and then just decided “Dammit, this year we’re gonna do it.” And he worked really hard. He invited a bunch of musicians because the only thing you had to do to be able to play the beer bottle was read music, so he invited a bunch of musicians over to his house. Throughout the year he had drunk the beer (laughs), kept the bottles, filled them up, tuned them up, he admitted that he had even gotten a little light headed that day, tuning those bottles. We walked in the door, he handed each of us a bottle, told us what note it was. He had the music on a wall across the room. The music was on sheets of paper that were like four and a half or five feet tall so that we could read it. I don’t even know where he went to have that printed.

We ran it maybe five times and then they turned the camera on, and we did it maybe three more times and then he picked a take for YouTube. And we were only doing it for his family. They were only gonna show it to their family and make it a party for us. And we thought oh, ten people are gonna see this.

He just posted it so his family could see it, and then of course he sent everybody in the Beer Bottle Band a link, and of course we loved it so much we went all of our friends a link and it just went viral. And I woke up on Christmas morning and I turned on CNN and there we were on CNN. It was crazy, but it was so much fun.

You just released the album, you’re promoting it and touring now, are you the type of songwriter that takes a break from writing new songs, or are you writing the next album already in your head?

I only take a break from writing new songs if number one, I don’t have any ideas, and number two, if I’m too busy to do it, because I really enjoy it. So my goal is to write whenever I can, and sometimes when I don’t have an idea I get just super bummed and I’ll go download a movie and watch it instead or something. Right now I’m literally too busy to do it, and that kind of feels good in a different way because I’ve done this long enough now to realize that songwriting and recording and promoting an album is a cyclical thing. So I will get back to the songwriting and be immersed in it and then hopefully I’ll start getting immersed in the studio again, and then I’ll get immersed again in promoting the album. If I can do songwriting while doing all that, it’s good.

Learn more at BethThornley.com • iTunes • MySpace • Facebook • Twitter

Tune Runner is the latest title from acclaimed indie wonder Appy Entertainment, known for Facefighter and Zombie Pizza, both unique and visually stunning games. Tune Runner is a music game that breaks out of the mold of rhythm games and also presents itself as a unique experiment on the still nascent in-app purchase business model.

Gesture-based, the objective is to draw different shapes corresponding to the ones that appear on the screen to keep the Groov-EE, the dancing robot, dancing. Using tracks from one’s own music library categorized by artist and title, unique levels are generated for each track played. The player can also opt to try out recommended tracks from the Hot Tunes section or the featured indie group Angels and Airwaves.

The game starts out leisurely and ends in frantic fingerplay. A series of correctly drawn 15 shapes unlocks a bonus round which speeds everything up and continues until the chain is broken or until the song ends. The absence of modes of difficulty will encourage one to stick to short songs for easy play and longer ones for a real challenge.

One play is equivalent to one battery to recharge Groov-EE, and Tune Runner only provides 10 batteries. Still, one can fully enjoy the game and continue playing by clicking on ads or playing a mini-game to recharge the batteries. Meanwhile, battery packs for longer plays are sold as in-app purchases: 40 for $0.99, 99 for $1.99 and the ad-free full version Fusion Pack is $2.99. With the options available, it’s easy enough to just buy a few batteries and hold out on the full version if one doesn’t intend to play it often, or take the plunge depending on one’s perceived value of what the game is really worth.

There is something endearing about Groov-EE the dancing robot and the randomly generated themes that seem to reflect the beat or rhythm of the chosen track.

Tune Runner’s plus points also include using one’s one music library as in-game content, online leaderboard and social media integration via Open Feint, and fairly challenging gameplay. The dancing robot is fun to watch, and the sound effects nicely blend in with the track that’s playing. Personally, I found my interest renewed in my neglected music collection after playing Tune Runner. The game serves as a nice and easy quick fix on a commute – I can listen to my own music and have fun with it at the same time.

I like that one can enjoy Tune Runner free although at some inconvenience. However, there are a number of cons as well. While I do not really mind playing the ad-supported versions, some of the ads are a bit jarring and may turn off some players. The in-app purchases, especially the full version, need to offer something more enticing to the players other than just longer or unlimited gameplay. A clearer and fuller explanation about the battery and recharging system will greatly clear up the confusion and encourage more players to upgrade.

The graphics and gesture controls are not as polished as Appy’s previous titles, and the gameplay might feel repetitive after a while. Its replay value can be enhanced by lending more variety to the experience – more shapes, power-ups, different game modes, and more mini-games.

Flawed but charming and engaging enough to earn a place in one’s iDevice, Tune Runner is an enjoyable casual game with a lot of potential for further growth. Tune Runner is a bold endeavor on various levels, and I appreciate the fact that a creative and dynamic indie team is taking these risks.

Learn more about Tune Runner for iPhone and iPod touch in the App Store

Note taking apps are all the rage, and a new one seems to be popping up all the time in the iTunes App Store. However, to make a good note taking app, there has to be some form of syncing with a computer or web service in order to make a user’s life easier when notes need to be accessed from off the iPhone or iPod Touch. Synotes is a note taking app on the iPhone/iPod Touch that integrates with Syncode’s web app version of Synotes, so it syncs ‘in the cloud’.

Synotes gives users a clean and simple interface when entering a new note. Just a place to enter a title at the top, and a blank space for entering any simple text. There is no fancy formatting options for text – it’s a minimal interface and minimal options to make I easy to enter your thoughts and be done, before it escapes you.

Once the text is entered and ready to be saved, hit the Save button in the top right corner and it will be uploaded to Syncode’s servers, and be synced across their ‘cloud’. A notification will appear on the screen when the note is successfully saved. The screen will then split into 2 parts – the note is displayed in a large pane with a smaller side pane that has some options for the Synote. This side pane can also be toggled on and off with the button at the bottom menu bar.

The Star in the side pane will allow the user to apply an icon to the note to easily distinguish it from other notes. The ‘i’ button will bring up note information, which includes Title, Date Created and Date Modified.

The last feature in the side panel is a clock button, which features a pretty big feature I have yet encountered in any other iPhone note app: previous versions of the individual note. These previous versions can be viewed and restored if need be. So if you think you messed up a note and just want to backtrack, restoring an earlier version is the way to go. You even see the icons that you had previously used, and where it was last edited (either iPhone app or web app).

Notes can be emailed in plain text with the @ button at the bottom menu bar. Deleting a note will make it permanent, so be careful!

On the main screen, you’ll get a list of all current notes. You can rearrange the order of them, which is either by Manually, Created, Modified, or Icon. To arrange them manually, tapping the Edit button at the top will let you drag and drop notes into the order you want, if you choose the Manual option.

Filtering by icon is an option as well, which is great if you are dependent on icons to organize your notes. Searching through notes is quick and easy, and searches as you type.

The interface is overall minimal, though not as bare bones as other note apps, particularly Simplenote. Though users can see this as either good or bad, based on personal preference. I think this interface is done well for what it’s worth, basic but adding enough function to make it useful.

The only drawback to Synotes is that there is no open API system so that users can use third party desktop apps to take notes instead of just using the web interface. The web interface is good, but sometimes having a standalone app on the desktop is handy. Also, to save changes in the iPhone app, the user must manually save the note – it is not automatic.

Synotes brings a worthy contender in the field of note-taking apps for the iPhone, and is definitely one that should be considered, if the user is ok with just using the iPhone app or the web interface. The cloud syncing is the beat part about it – your notes with you, wherever you go.

Learn more about Synotes for iPhone and iPod touch in the App Store

In the past two years she’s garnered attention for reasons as disconnected as being the “Gotta Digg” girl to her Super Bowl television performance to her millions-viewed cover songs on YouTube. But while the world has been trying to connect those dots to figure out who she is, Kina Grannis has spent the whole time working on an album of original songs which officially debuts today. On the eve of the release of Stairwells, Kina and I chatted about a little of everything…

How would you characterize the past two years?

It definitely has been a trend of going away from these little things and finally getting into just Kina the musician and the music and the album. I’ve grown a lot and I’d say that musically I’ve kind of found myself even more. Spending so long working on this album has just kind of changed my mindset. I still do YouTube stuff all the time, but I’ve been so focused on the album and making sure that people start to see me as the artist I am, and not for all those random things, which were wonderful things, but making sure that they come to see me for what I really am also.

I was going to ask if, looking back on some of those contests and stuff, if you felt like those were a distraction to your career, or more of a benefit?

Definitely more than anything they were a benefit in that they got my name out there to a ton of people and brought some attention to me, but that’s not to say that it didn’t bring some difficulties with that, because it is hard to escape names like the “Gotta Digg Girl” and the “Doritos Girl” and the “Super Bowl Girl.” And musically, those really have nothing to do with me, you know, except that they really helped me a ton. But when a lot of people’s first introduction to me was something like “If you like the Super Bowl you’ll like Kina.” And really, what does that have to do with it, you know?

I’ve got your new album here, and the obvious first question is that most album are named after one of the tracks, and there’s no song called “Stairwells” here, so where did the name come from?

It was a tribute to where I kind of feel like I grew into an artist in college. I went into college, I knew that music was my passion and I felt the need to do it all the time, but I’m a very shy person and a very self-conscious person so I found myself retreating to the stairwells constantly to sing and write, and it was kind of my safe place. Throughout all of college I really built up this repertoire of songs until a point where I finally kind of felt comfortable with myself and I started playing shows and stuff like that. So now that I’ve finally spent all this time making this album by myself that I’m so proud of, I did kind of think back to college a lot and those times where I was sitting in a stairwell by myself with my tea for hours on end, just writing and letting the music come out of me. So a tribute to that.

The first song you’ve released off of it is called Valentine, and a great time for that, but watching the video for it, my first thought when you were setting up the little blocks was, how many takes did you have to film to get that?

As far as the close-ups went, they kind of filmed those in blocks so that they could get it really close up and clean. But for the big take where I’m walking around and they’re all falling in those long, long rows, one take. They looked at me, my director Ross Ching, who’s amazing, he was like “Kina, this is your shot, do not mess it up, don’t step on the wrong pile.” So it was a little stressful but it was so fun and just a really impressive idea on Ross Ching’s part.

Singles have traditionally been thought of as something to make some extra sales or to try to get you on the radio, but in your case I see you’re giving away the single. In iTunes, with a major label, they’d charge even more for the single than the rest of the songs, and yet you’re giving yours away for free.

I think the mindset behind giving away my single was just that for one, just a big thank you to these people that have been helping me get through the last two years and have made it all possible. But also, not being on a major label, not having hundreds of thousands of marketing dollars, there are really only so many ways for me to try to get the word out. And so my thinking was that if I give this away for free, and I encourage everyone to just give it to everyone you know, I don’t care, please just give it away, that hopefully somewhere in there, someone might become a fan of the music and might come back to hear more. So it’s really just a thank you an d a way to get it out there as far and wide as possible.

Songwriting is generally a product of your environment. You’ve been out of college for a couple of years now. How have those couple of years of being in the so-called real world impacted your songwriting?

The sad part is I’ve gotten so immersed in the business of it all, and especially in these past two years making the album, I’ve been so busy that for one I have not been able to write nearly as much as I did in college, which is sad. But I would say that I don’t know that the subject matter has changed all that much because I tend to come back around to the same things of relationships or self betterment and dealing with those things you’ve always wanted to change about yourself and stuff like that.

It’s songwriting in a different sense. I’m not escaping from schoolwork anymore, you know? So when I do start writing it’s a little… I don’t know. It’s a nice feeling though, because I don’t feel guilty. During school if I was writing like shoot, I should be doing a paper, I shouldn’t be playing music. Now I get to remind myself that hey, this is my job. I’m supposed to be doing this. So it’s nice.

It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to figure out what Valentine or even The World In Front Of Me is about, but then I get to the Goldfish Song, and I kind of thought that it wasn’t literally going to be about a goldfish, but I’ve listened to it a number of times and I’ve got absolutely no idea.

I wrote that when I was playing music in Austin and I was kind of dealing with some major personal issues at the time. It’s just kind of that struggle when you have something about yourself that you want to change and you want to fix and I’d get really excited about it and jump in with everything I had and just kind of not quite be what I wanted to be again. And so it was that struggle of wanting to change and knowing how to change and then just not quite being ready. That’s where the whole imagery of sending a goldfish out into the sea, where it’s just way too much to handle, but at the same time knowing that this is my thing and I’m gonna keep going and I’m gonna get to where I want to be.

You’re so well known to your audience for your cover songs on the internet. Did you think about putting any cover songs on Stairwells?

I had thought about it, and a lot of people want that. I guess what it came down to for this one is that it was the first album I was putting everything I had into, and I really just wanted it to be songs that were very important to me at the end of the day. I think doing cover songs on an album is something I’ll probably do eventually, because I do love trying to reinterpret songs as my own, but for this one I just wanted it to be the songs that I really connected to.

Are your sisters on the album?

Yeah, they are on Heart And Mind. It was really fun to have them in the studio.

Message From Your Heart is on Stairwells, but you tweaked it a little. Of all the songs you have, that’s the one that’s been heard by the most people. Did you have to think about whether or not you wanted to tweak that?

Yeah definitely, Part of me always felt that I should keep it the same because that’s the way people have heard it and maybe want it. But on the other hand that song did get out to a lot of people, and while it didn’t get a proper release through me, it was kind of released through Interscope and then taken off of iTunes, but now I wanted to give it that second chance but I also thought let’s switch it up a little so that people have something new to listen to this time around.

Are you still an iPhone user?

Oh, of course.

What apps do you find yourself spending the most time with these days?

I’m always using things like Yelp, first of all, because I’m not very decisive and I need someone else to pick restaurants for me, which is fun. The Pandora app I use a lot in place of radio, which is awesome. What else? I obviously use the voice memos constantly because it lets me, any time I have a song idea, immediately record it instead of forgetting it which I used to do, so I love that. And then there are the random things like Scramble 2 and some form of Yahtzee, which I waste lots of time on (laughs).

You finally stopped handling your own merchandise, which you had always done yourself, and I’m sure you’re facing other similar decisions. How difficult is it to let go of those things?

It’s hard. I really like being connected in every single part of what I do, and always wrote little thank you letters for everyone who bought an order, which probably wasn’t the best use of my time but it really is important to me to make sure that people know how much it means to me, how thankful I am. But yeah, I just got to the point where I realized I’m not spending nearly enough time doing the music stuff anymore, and as hard as it is for me, it’s something that I needed to let go of. So it has freed me up a lot, which is great, especially pre-album release which has been even crazier, but it is hard to give those parts away to people.

You’re still doing the tons of shout-outs at the end of your YouTube videos. Where did that idea come from?

It started during the “Crash the Super Bowl, two weeks for Kina” thing, and some people would write a comment on my video saying “Hey, can you give me a shout-out on your next video?” It started out as a few people, “I have a birthday, can you wish me happy birthday?” and I was like okay. The first video probably had four shout-outs or something like that, just so I could recognize these people that wanted some hello or something from me. I guess from there it just kind of became a staple in my videos. So people email me all the time with their birthday wishes or their anniversary wishes or just wanting a shout-out on the video, and so I make sure to collect them every time I do one. It’s just another way to say thank you to people.

Is there an irony in that you say you’re shy, and yet in the videos you’re so extroverted and wishing everyone in the world, people you never met, a happy birthday or happy graduation?

Oh definitely. It’s a strange thing, and I will tell you it’s not a natural thing for me. The first video I ever made, announcing Crash the Super Bowl, I did about fifty takes and I wanted to die. It was awful. I’ve gotten used to it at this point, but there is a difference being in a room by myself pretending I’m talking to a lot of people, than if I were to actually have to talk to them in real life, you know? So it’s been a good medium for me to kind of get out of my shell and connect with people, and it’s gotten easier, which is good, and I’m sure it’s helped me in my real life interactions too, just being able to talk in front of the camera. But definitely still very awkward for me.

You’ve spent a long time working on this album, it’s probably all you’ve thought about for a couple of years. Now that it’s out the door, what now?

Hopefully a lot of touring. I’ve been home for so long, making the album, I finally just want to get out there and meet all these people and thank everyone and see more of the country. Nothing is planned yet, but definitely the next step is me getting an agent and then just getting out on the road.

••••••

Stairwells is streaming for free in its entirely at KinaGrannis.com this week.

Learn more at KinaGrannis.com • iTunes • MySpace • Facebook • Twitter

We’ve interviewed our share of famous musicians, rock stars, living legends and chart toppers – and we’ve reviewed our share of high profile products from big name vendors. So to keep balance in the universe, this week it’s indie all the way.

Presenting our first ever all-indie issue, full of talented non-label artists you probably haven’t heard of (yet), iPhone apps from small developers, and products from homegrown manufacturers. We’re proud of it, and we hope you like it too – it won’t be the last of its kind.

Don’t worry, we’ll be back to our regular ways in March with Lifehouse, Jason Derulo, Elliott Yamin, P.O.S., Daniel Merriweather, OK Go, iPhone batteries, laptop stands and much more. (and yes, more indie artists coming up too). In the mean time, enjoy our first all-indie issue.

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In human terms, Pik is a regular Joe, an ordinary miner doing ordinary menial tasks as part of his work when his planet, a remote mining colony called Dustbucket-5, is rocked by a series of unexplained mass explosions after bombs fall from the unknown dirigibles up in the sky. This regular Joe of an alien somehow survives the mass destruction and embarks on an important mission to discover the truth, making Pik an unlikely hero in the original iPhone/iPod Touch adventure Pik’s Revenge.

At the core of this RPG is a mystery-adventure played out in quests – one type is closed and complete after doing several tasks, while the other is directly related to Pik’s ‘Revenge’ mission. Pik’s needs are simple – earn enough gold through odd jobs and quests, constantly replenish its health and fend off monsters using weapons that can be picked up on the ground or purchased.

Pik’s Revenge takes place in the future, in another galaxy not unlike our own. Pik moves around, in side-scroller fashion, from point A to point B, picking up various objects (gold, ore, plants, and the like) and entering different buildings and establishments. Pik is essentially free to roam and explore each region, perform quests and do odd jobs for money, health or more points to level up.

In every zone is a smattering of shops, hotels and diners. There’s also a requisite dumpsite, a transport hub and other special areas uncovered through quests.

Establishments open and close at various times, with work accessible only within a particular window of opportunity for the day. In some regions, a work permit is required in order to apply for jobs, as well as transport tickets to travel.

Weapons can only be used once, thus the constant appearance of alien foes means constantly foraging for or buying extra to always be prepared. Constantly decreasing health levels is also a perpetual challenge – if you don’t take the easy way out and buy food or medical packs.

The game starts off slow, and takes some time to really build up on its more intriguing mystery elements. If you are as impatient as I am when starting a new game, I suggest that you take some time to enjoy the film clips and comic book storytelling to acquaint yourself fully with Pik’s quest for revenge.

The side-scrolling and simple quests can feel repetitive at first largely because when you start playing it, you just enter buildings randomly and do quests without quite seeing the big picture yet. Once you move up and you take on more enemies with a variety of weapons, then you’ll appreciate the transition from Pik’s ho-hum-town to that anticipation of bigger, meaner things to come.

I find the side-scrolling controls a bit awkward to work with, despite the customizable location of the arrows and how these can be hidden through the options menu. A single tap will automatically get Pik to move, and it’s only interrupted when he stops to pick up something or fend off aliens. The limited controls often dampen the exploratory feel of the game, not to mention making power-ups like speed enhancing sneakers not as useful as they could be. Perhaps an alternative control scheme which allows Pik a little more movement – jump around, for example – would add some depth and perspective to the game making it feel a little less linear and more dynamic.

I love the gritty sci-fi noir aesthetics of this game – a heady mix of cartoony creatures, and hand-illustrated scenes set in an odd, dystopian future. The geeky humor might not be apparent to some, but the store signs, for one, pay homage to sci-fi film classics such as The Blade Runner and Soylent Green, while puns are scattered all over the place.The soundtrack is just as odd yet mixes well with the game, giving it a strange and dreamlike feel.

The game offers local and global scoreboard and social media integration via Facebook connect. It would be great if Twitter were available in the succeeding versions – I can imagine posting mini-updates to let friends know where I am in the game and what quest I accomplished. With three levels of difficulty available – the game offers replay value in beating the scores and completing more quests. Mini-clips that are part of the game can also be accessed as separate clips in the options section.

While the rest of the game feels surprisingly conventional in terms of control and gameplay, the advantage is that for the complexity and depth of storyline, the game is actually pick up and play. You can dive right in and start exploring. It’s casual enough to play for a few minutes to an hour or more (I’m siding with the latter). The succeeding episodes prove to be very exciting as things get more and more complicated as Pik is closer to unraveling the truth.

Pik proves to be quite an endearing hero – with minimal gestures, and his biosuit mask registering emotions. Wordless as our hero is, Pik’s Revenge is a darkly gorgeous, original RPG adventure game that is a testament to the vast potential of indie titles.

Learn more about Pik’s Revenge for iPhone and iPod touch in the App Store

If you’re tall from the waist up, you’ve probably never gotten your earbud cables tangled while wearing them. But if your ears are closer to your waist than the average earbud cable length assumes, the excess cable has nowhere to go. So the idea behind the iLocket is that you wrap up the excess cable at the Y-junction in the middle and hide it away inside a little white plastic capsule that’s about the size of a wristwatch without the band and weighs next to nothing.

Does the iLocket work? Yes. It is easy? Yes. Is it stylish looking? Eh, that’s up to each of you to decide (most passersby will probably assume that it’s some kind of advanced new earbud enhancing product, not a four dollar piece of plastic, so you may be in the clear here after all). I found that the iLocket worked equally well with the stock earbuds that come with the iPhone and iPod and my favorite set of in-ear earbuds, although I will caution you to be careful when snapping the iLocket shut, as the most expensive earbuds often come with the thinnest and most fragile of wires. And the product won’t necessarily work for you if your earbuds have their iPhone mic/button controls right the center of the Y-junction (most earbuds have it higher up on the cabling anyway, so this’ll only affect a few of you).

Some of you will view the iLocket as a solution in search of a problem, but others of you will find it useful – and it’s priced right.

Learn more about the iLocket at iLocket.net

If you’re a parent of small children, and you own an iPhone or an iPod Touch, I don’t need to tell you that one of its unexpected benefits is as a child distraction device.  Once they’re old enough to not throw everything once they’re done with it, you can pretty much hand a toddler an iPhone and they’re off to the races for a while.  Before my now almost three-year-old got to that point, finger painting apps were totally indispensable – I had gotten a very simple one for free, and I could hold it in front of my daughter to scribble on and it would keep her busy for 15 or 20 minutes at a time.  Now that she’s a little older and able to be trusted with my iPod Touch, I was interested in a drawing app that she could use that was a little bit more her speed.

Enter Kid Paint, a kids drawing application. The app provides you with a blank slate and four different types of brushes – paintbrush (medium line), highlighter (same as the paintbrush, but fainter), pencil (thin line), and pen (thick line). There is also a finger, which smudges the drawing, an eraser, and a stamp tool with several different types of stamps to choose from. Double tapping a brush lets you pick from one of 24 colors, with a slider for fine-tuning.  There are also line, square and circle tools, as well as undo and redo.  I’m not much of an artist myself, but it seems that there’s enough choices for a kid to be able to draw whatever they want.

One of my favorite features of Kid Paint is the ability to take a picture from your picture library and use that as the canvas, or even take a photo and start drawing on that. It’s fun to be able to use one of those pictures as a starting point, even if the main usage will probably be to draw mustaches on people who didn’t have them before.

I do have a couple of issues with Kid Paint that are probably fairly easily addressed, however.  One is that the app doesn’t always save your place when you exit out, so if your phone rings while your little Picasso is finishing up his next masterpiece, it’s lost to the ages.  (It seems like it will save if you use a picture as a background but not if you start from scratch, so hopefully this is a bug that will be corrected in a future update.) My other minor complaint is that, when you shake to clear the screen, it pops up a dialog box to ask you whether you want to clear the screen, and to inform you that can be undone.  Given that a number of the app’s users may not be able to read, and that the rest of the interface is so friendly to pre-readers, it seems like the app should just clear the screen and let you undo if you got so excited over your drawing that you shook your iPhone hard enough to clear it.

Overall, Kid Paint is a fairly full featured drawing app for the younger set that should keep a budding artist busy for a while, with enough features to even keep busy some older kids with artistic tendencies (or a desire to non-destructively vandalize photos).  I don’t know that I’d go out of my way to buy it if you already have something similar, but If you don’t yet have a drawing app and are looking for one, Kid Paint is an easy recommendation at only $1.

Learn more about Kid Paint for iPhone and iPod touch in the App Store

A five-piece rock band from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania—what’s so special about that? When the band you’re talking about is Rivers Monroe, there is no doubt that they’re an awesome group. Consisting of keyboardist Mat Welch, vocalist Mike Reading, guitarist Matt Varga, drummer Paul Ritorto, and bassist Kirby C., Rivers Monroe are an unsigned band that take their music seriously. With an EP, an unplugged album, and a full length CD under their belts, the boys are more than ready to take the music industry by storm. Their love of their craft is evident when you listen to any of their music. They are all over the Philadelphia music scene and the surrounding areas. They have performed on NBC 10’s competition show and are regulars at the famous World Café Live, both out of Philadelphia. I talked briefly with Rivers Monroe vocalist, Mike Reading, about making music in Philadelphia, working with producer Phil Nicolo, and even the music of Miley Cyrus…

Where did the name Rivers Monroe come from?

The names Rives Monroe actually came from stage names created by singers Mat “Rivers” Welch and [myself], Mike “Monroe” Reading. When Mat and I started working together as a duo, we wanted to do a modern day Hall & Oates sort of thing. Reading and Welch just didn’t have a nice ring to it, so we came up with the stage last names of Rivers and Monroe. People really seemed to dig the names, so we rolled with it and it pretty much stuck to us.

How did you all come together to form the band?

We originally met playing together in our respected bands at a show in New Jersey. Throughout the night, we all couldn’t help but notice and be impressed by one another. In a friendly exchange, we swapped numbers and returned to our lives. A few months later, Mat and I made the decision to end our duo project and begin a band. Sifting through our contacts, we reached out to a number of musicians in search of the perfect compliment. After several frustrating trial runs, Matt, Kirby and Paul finally joined Mat and I in the studio. Within the first several notes played, there became a synergy and power that is rare and indescribable. Putting together our former stage names, Rivers Monroe was born and began to rock.

Who were you influenced by musically growing up? Have they had an impact on the music you currently make?

We have been influenced by all types of music—rock, pop, alternative, even techno, rap, and R&B. It has had a major impact on the music we currently make. I think all artists tend to play music similar to what they grew up listening to. A few of our favorite bands and artists are Anberlin, Boys Like Girls, Jimmy Eat World, U2, Cartel, Mute Math, Prince, Guster, Third Eye Blind, Hall & Oates, Paramore, The Juliana Theory, Pearl Jam, Rush, RHCP, Blink-182, Angels and Airwaves, Michael Jackson, Journey, Bon Jovi and The Beatles.

In 2009, you shot a series of videos for some of your singles. How did you get to be a part of that?

One of the things all successful musicians have had to realize is that the industry is changing. Bands can’t just play shows and hope to be discovered by the mysterious A&R rep in the crowd. Musicians really have to find new and innovative ways to give their passion shape.

Video is one of the most powerful mediums to tell a story. Several of us had background in video production so we decided to expand our story to the “A-V” realm. Ambitiously, we were able to design, shoot, and edit four music videos within a several week span, thanks to much help from Varga Productions. In the future, we are going to try to add some visual component to almost all of our productions because it offers listeners an exiting new way to experience what we create. It just becomes another way we can engage people.

You worked with the Grammy winning producer, Phil Nicolo, on the song “Lost.” What was that experience like and were there any lessons that he taught you?

Well first and foremost, Phil knows his stuff. He worked so fast and efficiently. It was like watching Bob Ross paint a beautiful landscape in such a short amount of time. All we had to do was worry about the music and what we had to play. Phil worried about making every cut sound amazing. Even our “not so great cuts” sounded awesome. During the mixing process, Phil told us something that David Bowie said to him years ago, which we thought was great. As Phil was finishing up a recording session, Bowie put on his jacket, lit up a cigarette, turned to him and said, “Turn the good shit up, and the bad shit down.” It’s a pretty simple theory, but one that’s always worked for Phil.

Would you like to be signed to a label? If you were, do you think it would impact how you currently do things?

At some point in time, we think that we could contribute a lot to the music community through a record label. In other words, yes. With a record deal, it would impact us only for the better. We have a very good grasp on how we make music. With the right people helping us out, it could only get better. We would also spoil ourselves by eating more Kraft macaroni and cheese than usual.

Do you find that being from the Philadelphia area is having a positive or negative impact on your popularity?

It’s definitely positive. Philadelphia has a great image, as well as a very good music scene. We’ve played a lot of sweet venues all around New Jersey, Pennsylvania and even Delaware. Philly has always been kind to us and willing to listen up for original artists.

Philly is a great place to get started, but Pennsylvania itself has developed a lot of great acts, like G-Love [& Special Sauce], Live, Fuel, Breaking Benjamin, and even Taylor Swift. And, no, none of us know her…yet.

That being said, do you feel like Philadelphia has a music “scene”? What are your feelings towards it and how do you think the band fits into it?

Yes. Philadelphia has a very good music scene, and there are always a lot of talented people trying to help build it up and make it better. Being an original act can be tough sometimes. Though, there are a lot of venues and fans out there in the Philly area that help support the cause and we thank them. Philly seems to lean more towards the indie rock and urban scenes, but there is still a lot of musical diversity. There is rock, rap, R&B, pop, dance, techno, even country. You name it, and Philly pretty much has it. I think that we have our own little mainstream “rock-synth-pop” niche that we slide right into.

On your website, it says, “If you name it, someone in the band likes it. We dare you to try and prove us wrong.” I’m going to try my luck here . . . How about the Miley Cyrus, the Jonas Brothers, or the Spice Girls? Take that.

Well, as musicians and songwriters you really start to appreciate all music because you really understand what has to happen behind the scenes to make the finished product sound good. Even though the Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus, or the Spice Girls wouldn’t be our first choice when looking for a song to listen to, we still appreciate that they make good music and have been successful with it as well. You really can’t take that away from them. Personally, we would reach for other types of music, but its all relative to taste and the mood you’re in. I will say one thing about the song “Party in the USA” by Miley Cyrus. Once it’s in your head, you can’t get rid of it for at least a few hours.

What is on the horizon in 2010 for Rivers Monroe?

First, we want to finish the record and make it as good as possible. Next, we want to get out there and do some quality shows. The more people and ears we can hit, the better.

We feel like this CD has a message that can really reverberate through everyone. It’s about the struggle we all go through in hard times, sticking together and being able to overcome anything. The message is that with love, hard work, and determination, we will overcome. That being said, the title of the next CD is “The Beginning” because it’s never too late to start over and re-evaluate our own way of living and thinking. We want to try to make this music reach as many ears as possible. It’s a new decade, and we really want to make our mark on the world with this one.

Learn more at RiversMonroe.com • iTunes • MySpace • Facebook • Twitter

Clipping an iPod shuffle to your sleeve is easy enough and certainly doesn’t require any third party intervention. But doing so typically means you’re going to be doing something active, and so products like the RunWallet, which promises to obviate the need to carry anything in your pockets during such activities, comes into the fold.

The idea is that your typical pocket items like credit cards and keys can be stashed on your arm in a neoprene pouch, which straps to your arm via an adjustable velcro armband – and if you want to clip something like an iPod shuffle onto the armband as well, you’re free to do so. In my tests with the RunWallet I found that its pair of internal pouches held my cards and cash just fine, but car keys were more of a stretch (literally) as my oversized new-fangled car key and its attached mini-remote took up one of the two pouches all on their own, with my house key on the same ring making for a really tight squeeze.

Is the RunWallet’s included armband comfortable? So-so. I’ve had more comfortable armband experiences with competing products from big manufacturers, but those products typically cost forty dollars or more; this one costs twelve for the armband and the pouch combined. So while you can do better, it’s unlikely that you can do better at anything approaching this price point.

Not that I was expecting there to be any issues, but I went ahead and tested out the RunWallet with my current third-generation and previous second-generation iPod shuffles, and found that they indeed stayed clipped on with no problem. In all, the RunWallet is a nice little product.

Learn more about the RunWallet at grantwoodtechnology.com

You’re pulling your wheeled suitcase across an airport with one hand and you’ve got your iPhone in your other hand – where do you put the cup of coffee you just bought? That’s the premise of the tugo (get it? to go? clever), a rubber coffee cup holder that positions itself between the two handles on your suitcase so you’re not spilling your hot brew while trying to check your email.

The tugo turns out to be a very simple product, as I was able to attach the rubber wrapper-arms to my suitcase in about twenty seconds the first time around, and in about half that in subsequent tries once I figured out what I was doing. Gravity will motivate a full cup to remain perpendicular to the ground no matter the angle you pull your suitcase at, so the odds of a spill are remote, particularly if you’re using a sippy-lid. But gravity won’t cause the whole apparatus to come sliding down the handles, at least with the two different-branded suitcases I tried it with – in other words, the whole thing is surprisingly stable for basically being one big piece of cut-out rubber.

The obvious drawback is that each time you retract your suitcase handle, you’ll have to undo the tugo (easy), stash it your suitcase pocket, and then re-attach it the next time you want to use it (again, easy). The catch? The tugo is designed for Starbucks-style cone shaped coffee and tea cups, and I couldn’t get it to work with a twelve ounce can of soda, my morning beverage of choice. But you coffee and tea drinkers might find the ten bucks a worthwhile investment, particularly those of you who pay half that much for a cup of designer coffee to begin with.

Learn more about the tugo at goodtugo.com