WWDC Interview: Orbotix

<!--CONTENT START--><p><br/> <img alt="" border="0" height="189" src="http://img219.imageshack.us/img219/5359/tuawmactech2011wwdc.jpg" width="580" /></p><br/><p><br/> Victor Agreda, Jr. (Editor-in-Chief, The Unofficial Apple Weblog) interviews Brian Smith of <a href="http://www.orbotix.com/">Orbotix Inc.</a> at WWDC 2011. You may remember <a href="http://www.tuaw.com/2011/01/08/hands-on-with-sphero-at-the-ces-2011/">Orbotix from CES</a>. Brian was kind enough to tell us about their thoughts on the announcements on WWDC, and how it will affect their plans moving forward.</p><br/><p><br/> Orbotix is building a platform, they say, and I'm hopeful hobbyists will embrace it. The <a href="http://www.orbotix.com/uncategorized/the-ball-revealed-sphero/">Orbotix demo robot, Sphero</a>, is adorable.</p><br/><p><br/> <em>TUAW and <a href="http://www.mactech.com/">MacTech</a> Magazine teamed up to speak to developers at <a href="http://www.tuaw.com/event/wwdc-2011">WWDC 2011</a> about the keynote announcements and how Apple's new technologies will help them and their customers. </em><em>We'll bring you those videos here, MacTech.com and MacNews.com.</em><em> Also, check out the <a href="http://www.mactech.com/tuaw">free trial subscription offer for MacTech Magazine here</a>.</em></p><br/><p><br/></p><br/><center><br/> </center><br/><p><br/></p><p><a href="http://www.tuaw.com/2011/06/30/wwdc-interview-orbotix/">WWDC Interview: Orbotix</a> originally appeared on <a href="http://www.tuaw.com">TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog</a> on Thu, 30 Jun 2011 23:00:00 EST. Please see our <a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/">terms for use of feeds</a>.<br></p><h6></h6><a href="http://www.tuaw.com/event/wwdc-2011">Source</a>

WWDC Interview: Orbotix

Victor Agreda, Jr. (Editor-in-Chief, The Unofficial Apple Weblog) interviews Brian Smith of Orbotix Inc. at WWDC 2011. You may remember ...

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GameStop snaps up Spawn Labs, Impulse game distribution platform

<P align=center><img alt="" border="0" hspace="4" src="http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/5198/gamestopimpulsespawn.jpg" vspace="4"></P>We wouldn't count on its retail business going away anytime soon, but it looks like GameStop is now also betting heavily on a digitally-distributed future. To that end, the company has just announced that it's acquiring both Spawn Labs and Steam-competitor Impulse, the latter of which it's buying out from parent company Stardock Systems. While Spawn Labs may not be the most familiar name, you might remember its HD-720 set-top box -- essentially a Slingbox for your game consoles -- which we first checked out way back in 2009 and finally started shipping in early 2010. It sounds like GameStop may have some even grander ambitions for the technology than that, however, as the company's press release says that it's now testing a "new consumer interface" that will give users "immediate access to a wide selection of high-definition video games on demand on any Internet-enabled device." As our pals at Joystiq</EM> note, that sounds an awful lot like OnLive-esque cloud-based gaming service, but GameStop unfortunately isn't offering many other hints at the moment. <br /><P><a href="http://www.engadget.com/2011/04/01/gamestop-snaps-up-spawn-labs-impulse-game-distribution-platform/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">via</A></P>

GameStop snaps up Spawn Labs, Impulse game distribution platform

We wouldn't count on its retail business going away anytime soon, but it looks like GameStop is now also betting heavily on a digitally-...

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Buying Guide: 7 best iPhone platform games

<img src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//Review%20images/Tap/Tap%2002/TAP02.games_feat.pix_love_rush-200-200.jpg"/><p>Nintendo has quite a lot in common with Apple. Both companies are innovators in their chosen fields, developing and selling profitable consumer hardware, backed by unique intellectual property that simply cannot be found on other platforms. </p><p><p>In the same way that you won't find Apple's iLife suddenly available for Windows, you won't see Mario, Nintendo's famous plumber, in a game on iOS (or any other non-Nintendo platform) any time soon. </p><p>Luckily, though, there are plenty of games available for iOS that are in a similar vein to Nintendo's <em>Super Mario Bros</em>, providing a more than adequate fix for platform-game fanatics. </p><p>Probably the closest gaming experience to <em>Super Mario Bros</em> on iOS is <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/giana-sisters/id347349722?mt=8">Giana Sisters</a>, (£2.99) a title that has something of a chequered past. The original version of the game was released way back in 1987 for the Commodore 64 and other home micros of the day, but rapidly found itself in a one-sided battle with Nintendo's Legal Hammer of Doom. (To be fair to Nintendo, <em>Giana Sisters</em> offers very similar gameplay to <em>Super Mario Bros</em>, including block-smashing, jumping on enemies and altered-state power-up; and some of the early backgrounds and maps are eerily similar to those in Nintendo's game.) </p><p>Very few copies of <em>Giana Sisters</em> made it to stores before it was recalled and deleted, and its rarity ensured the game cult status. Oddly, Nintendo soon gave up trying to batter into submission other Mario clones on 8-bit systems. </p><p><img alt="Giana sisters" src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/Review%20images/Tap/Tap%2002/TAP02.games_feat.giana_sisters_grassy-420-90.jpg" width="420"></img></p><p>Over 20 years later, and Nintendo appeared to have forgotten its spat with the punchy female Mario impersonators, and <em>Giana Sisters</em> cautiously crept on to the Nintendo DS, with spruced-up graphics, level design and controls. </p><p>In 2010, the game made the leap to iOS, boasting new graphics, 80 levels, 32 'retro' levels, and a remixed soundtrack based on the original C64 score. Fortunately, the conversion was a success. </p><p>The game is a highly enjoyable romp through varied and challenging environments, and, for the most part, the controls are tight enough (and the level design forgiving enough) that you never want to hurl your device out of the window due to being 'unfairly' killed. And while the game gets very tough later on, canny players can amass a huge number of extra lives by collecting the diamonds sprinkled around each level. </p><p><a href="http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/pizza-boy/id389318128?mt=8">Pizza Boy</a> (£1.19) is a similar if rather smaller game. The story is amusingly throwaway compared to the high drama of Princess Peach being kidnapped for the umpteenth time in practically every Mario game. Instead, the eponymous hero is giving a pizza to his love when it's snatched by a bird. </p><p><img alt="Pizza boy" src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/Review%20images/Tap/Tap%2002/TAP02.games_feat.pizza_boy-420-90.jpg" width="420"></img></p><p>You have to work your way through levels packed full of spikes and hostile animals, to catch up with the tormenting avian, who'll fly away again when you approach. </p><p>Despite only boasting a dozen levels, we found Pizza Boy a tough challenge; there's the odd bit of cheap level design (areas clearly designed to kill you), but it looks great, plays well, has unique features (such as stomping on soda machines that spit out bottles you can collect to hurl at foes), rewards perseverance, and offers bonuses for bettering your scores during repeated plays. </p><p>Elsewhere, other iOS games offer 2D platform mechanics, but also take inspiration from later platform games. <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/frogatto/id382015046?mt=8">Frogatto</a> (59p) resembles somewhat sedate quest-oriented Sega platform games such as <em>Alex Kidd in Miracle World</em>. The amphibian hero is placed in the middle of an adventure that finds him working to unravel a dastardly plot against his townspeople. </p><p><img alt="Frogatto" src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/Review%20images/Tap/Tap%2002/TAP02.games_feat.frogatto-420-90.jpg" width="420"></img></p><p>You still get plenty of Mario-style leaping-about action, but there are also characters to meet, puzzles to solve and occasional boss fights, making the game a refreshing change from others in the genre. Also, you don't jump on heads to dispatch adversaries - instead, Frogatto in gruesome fashion sucks in foes and spits them at other enemies, in a manner not entirely dissimilar to Nintendo stalwart and second-division player Kirby. </p><p>For <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/soosiz/id331891505?mt=8">Soosiz</a> (£1.19) and <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/they-need-to-be-fed/id402181349?mt=8">They Need To Be Fed</a> (59p), <em>Super Mario Galaxy</em> could be considered the catalyst. Nintendo's 2007 Wii title took Mario into space, exploring tiny planets that each have their own gravitational field. It's an interesting idea, and it works brilliantly when welded to a 2D platform game more akin to the original <em>Super Mario Bros</em>. </p><p><img alt="Soosiz" src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/Review%20images/Tap/Tap%2002/TAP02.games_feat.soosiz-420-90.jpg" width="420"></img></p><p>In <em>Soosiz</em>, your little ball with feet has to locate his chums, while avoiding or jumping on bad guys and grabbing coins; so far, so Mario. But as soon as you start playing and the tiny world you're on spins about its axis as you run, you know <em>Soosiz</em> isn't another me-too game; the weird gravity hugely adds to the challenge, forcing you to take risks and regularly disorienting you. (While you can tap the zoom button to find out in which direction your pals are located, you need serious navigational skills to keep track once you've jumped between a few mini planets.)</p><p> Mercifully, the controls are extremely simple (left, right, jump) and tight, so you've only yourself to blame if your ball ends up flying off into space rather than safely landing on terra firma. </p><p><em>They Need To Be Fed</em> is in a similar space, but distills everything to its purest essence. There's no accidentally flying off into space, and clockwork-like level structures are the order of the day; in a sense, there's a cleanness and precision to the level design that recalls platform games that pre-date the original <em>Super Mario Bros</em>. (such as 8-bit classic <em>Pitfall!</em>), and while it's quite short, <em>They Need To Be Fed</em> is great fun and stylish to boot. </p><p><img alt="They need to be fed" src="http://mos.futurenet.com/techradar/Review%20images/Tap/Tap%2002/TAP02.games_feat.tntbf-420-90.jpg" width="420"></img></p><p>But no round-up of platform games would be complete without Tap! favourite <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/pixn-love-rush/id373962521?mt=8">Pix'N Love Rush</a> (59p) , which combines platforming action with the quick-fire level gameplay mechanics found in the likes of Nintendo's <em>WarioWare</em>. </p><p>Instead of providing horizontally scrolling levels that you can tackle at a somewhat leisurely pace, <em>Pix'N Love Rush</em> continually reinvents itself. One minute, it's a simplified <em>Super Mario Bros</em> platform game; the next, it's scrolling up, like <em>Doodle Jump</em> or <em>Rainbow Islands</em>; then it's static, like the original <em>Mario Bros</em> or <em>Bubble Bobble</em>. </p><p>Essentially, it's all the best 2D platform games you've ever played, fired at your brain at breakneck speed - utterly brilliant and a steal at 59p.</p><p> In fact, the value of the games in this feature is astonishing - the shopping list's total price is just a quarter of the RRP of the 2006 Nintendo DS version of <em>Super Mario Bros</em>. </p><p>Finally, a little nod to iPad owners. We've so far only mentioned iPhone/iPod touch games, because retro-oriented platform games are more suited to smaller handheld devices; however, iPad owners aren't left out. <a href="http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/giana-sisters-hd/id375989625?mt=8">Giana Sisters HD</a> (also £2.99) matches the iPhone version and handily provides custom controls, <em>Soosiz</em> and <em>They Need To Be Fed</em> both exist in 'HD' form for £1.19 each, and <em>Pix'N Love Rush</em> works surprisingly well in 2x mode.</p></p><img border="0" height="1" src="http://rss.feedsportal.com/c/669/f/9809/s/13a974b6/mf.gif" width="1"/><div class='mf-related'><p>Related Stories</p><ul><li><a href="http://rss.feedsportal.com/c/669/f/9809/s/13a5b7e6/l/0L0Stechradar0N0Cnews0Csoftware0Capplications0C20A0Ethings0Ewe0Ed0Echange0Eabout0Eopenoffice0Eorg0E9376170Dsrc0Frss0Gattr0Fall/story01.htm">20 things we'd change about OpenOffice.org</a></li><li><a href="http://rss.feedsportal.com/c/669/f/9809/s/13a5cd3f/l/0Lfeedproxy0Bgoogle0N0C0Vr0Ctechradar0Callnews0C0V30CFjESgiOMQ6g0Cstory0A10Bhtm/story01.htm">20 things we'd change about OpenOffice.org</a></li></ul></div><div class='mf-viral'><table border='0'><tr><td valign='middle'><a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/sendemail2.html?title=Buying+Guide%3A+7+best+iPhone+platform+games&link=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.techradar.com%2Fnews%2Fsoftware%2Fapplications%2F7-best-iphone-platform-games-937644%3Fsrc%3Drss%26attr%3Dall" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/emailthis2.gif" /></a></td><td valign='middle'><a href="http://res.feedsportal.com/viral/bookmark.cfm?title=Buying+Guide%3A+7+best+iPhone+platform+games&link=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.techradar.com%2Fnews%2Fsoftware%2Fapplications%2F7-best-iphone-platform-games-937644%3Fsrc%3Drss%26attr%3Dall" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="http://res3.feedsportal.com/images/bookmark.gif" /></a></td></tr></table></div><br/><br/><a href="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/98747081190/u/49/f/9809/c/669/s/13a974b6/kg/216-221/a2.htm"><img border="0" src="http://da.feedsportal.com/r/98747081190/u/49/f/9809/c/669/s/13a974b6/kg/216-221/a2.img"/></a><img height="1" src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/techradar/allnews/~4/Qy6SWYsxSV0" width="1"/><br /><p><a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/techradar/allnews/~3/Qy6SWYsxSV0/story01.htm" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Article</a></p>

Buying Guide: 7 best iPhone platform games

Nintendo has quite a lot in common with Apple. Both companies are innovators in their chosen fields, developing and selling profitable cons...

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Android 2.2 already top platform for Google

<img src="http://cdn.mos.techradar.com//classifications/Mobile%20Phones/Android/Android-share_chart-200-200.jpg"><br /><P>Google plans to eradicate platform fragmention for its Android mobile OS are bearing fruit as its latest iteration has quickly become the most popular.</P><br /><P>Android 2.2, which brings a number of speed and performance enhancements, was only launched in August, but is now present on nearly half of all Android phones; 43.4% to be exact.</P><br /><P>This is closely followed by Android 2.1, which has just under 39.6% of the market, with Android 1.6 and 1.5 making up the rest.</P><br /><P><STRONG>Few' platforms, mo' money</STRONG></P><br /><P>What this means is that it's slightly easier for developers to make applications that work across all devices - four is still too many, but reduces the time needed to allow cross-platform interoperability.</P><br /><P>Headline devices for Android 2.2 include the <a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/htc-desire-hd-717295/review">HTC Desire HD</A>, <a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/phones/mobile-phones/lg-optimus-one-906650/review">LG Optimus One</A> and the <a href="http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/laptops-portable-pcs/laptops-and-netbooks/samsung-galaxy-tab-903545/review">Samsung Galaxy Tab</A>, all taking advantage of elements like faster UI performance.</P><br /><P>Of course, with Android 2.3 on the horizon in the shape of Gingerbread, and Honeycomb not too far behind, this could all be ruined soon...</P>

Android 2.2 already top platform for Google

Google plans to eradicate platform fragmention for its Android mobile OS are bearing fruit as its latest iteration has quickly become the mo...

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