In todays offices it’s fairly common to have two monitors at each workstation. Dual monitors make working easier as you can view relevant information on one screen while working in another. If you find yourself in a situation where on-screen real estate is limited, Air Display by Avatron is the solution.

Air Display allows the user to leverage their iOS device as a wireless touch-screen monitor for a Mac or PC. Simply download the application and desktop software and you are ready to use your iPad as an additional monitor. The application uses WiFi or an Ad-Hoc network to establish a connection between the iPad and the computer.

Overall, I am very impressed with the quality of this application. You can choose to mirror or extend your desktop. I found that video played smoothly in WiFi and Ad-Hoc conditions. The touch-screen feature was an added bonus and also functioned beyond my expectations.

Creating the Ad-Hoc connection was simple. On a Mac click on the WiFi icon and select Create Network then join that network on your iPad! This means you can leverage duel monitors anywhere with your Macbook.

The desktop software is light and efficient. After installation you will notice a new icon in your system tray that you can use to connect to your iOS device and change your screen orientation.

The only feature that I would add to this application is the ability to connect more than one iOS device to your desktop. Luckily, most users don’t have two iPads and in my opinion the iPhone screen would be too small to leverage effectively.

I would like to note there are some compatibility issues with the 2008 and 2009 Macbook Pro Models. Please verify your desktop is compatible prior to purchase.

iPad using Air Display to act as a monitor, extending the Macbook desktop.

[VIA]

Every now and then you come across a gem of an app, such is the case with “Game Your Video.” Game Your Video by is a video editing app of sorts. It allows your creativity to run wild.

There are four main features to chose from, motion effects, audio transformation,visual effects  and Flavors.

The selection of visual effects are pretty good on this app, and  for $.99, its hard to beat. Select from several motion effects like “Jitter, fast and slow motion” even a matrix like effect.

Beef up your audio with Audio Transformations like “Chipmunk and demonic or baby. Game your Video even allows you import music from your iPod, add that personal track to create your own music videos.

There are filters in the visual effects section that bring home the desired ” feel” of your creation like Noir, vintage and cinema. Some of these I thought looked almost the same, with little variance.

There is also a Menu called “Flavor.” This is sort of a grouping of several of the effects into one. So Chaplin, for instance would have Old BW and Chaplin music with it.

Other features included adding background noise like laughter or applause, expressions like “POW or ZOOM, (to get your  onomatopoeia on). You can also render these effects to videos you have already taken or while you are recording. There is even the option to upload your masterpieces to Youtube and Facebook right from the app, trim or send a copy to your camera roll. Even used with other apps such as “Action Movie” or iMovie, this I thought was a very nice touch.

Although the menus where few I found them to be a little user unfriendly. It was hard for me to remember how to add an effect to my old video, or then remove it when I found another that I liked, I also wished, there where more options from the actual video screen, with more choices such as  multiple layering  and some transitions would be nice.

Though not perfect, I thought it was one of the best out the for the price, fun and entertaining, well worth picking up.

[VIA]

GOGN Entertainment has blessed the App Store with a game that features zombies.  Okay, so it’s not the only game out there that features zombies (understatement alert!) but it’s genuinely different than most of the other brain munching fare available.

In Zombie: The Rescue, zombies play a role as part of the puzzle which each stage presents for the player to complete.  While the game features some action, zombies are generally to be avoided rather than smashed in this puzzler.  There are items available as the player progresses which allow them to actually annihilate the zombie menace, but for the most part your role as hero isn’t that of zombie exterminator—it’s to save civilians.  Each stage of Zombie: The Rescue presents the player with a series of obstacles to navigate, including ever increasing zombies, in order to lead helpless kidnap victims away from their zombie captors.

To do so, the player traces their path, piece by piece, around walls, to first collect the imprisoned and then to the exit.  Through much of the game the object is to make this path so that you never cross the shambling zombie baddie’s line of vision.  As the stages employ more and faster zombies, this isn’t always possible, so other techniques have to be used.  To trace the path, the player does so on the screen, lifting his or her finger from the screen at the ideal time to get moving.

Zombie: The Rescue is solid as a puzzler and a well-presented game overall.  Each aspect of its game design has been thought through thoroughly, from the three star scoring system each stage offers, to the pacing of the increasing challenge, to the game’s aesthetic design.  I was particularly pleased with the scoring system.  Many iOS games feature some sort of stars rating per stage, and many are a little unclear as to what constitutes a three star rating.  In Zombie: The Rescue, the star rating for each level is explained by covering each category that goes into determining your score.  I don’t mind replaying a level a few times to get a perfect rating, but if I keep getting two stars and don’t know why I tend to get more than a little frustrated.

I’m also impressed with the effort that clearly went into the visual and audio aspects of the game.  Hand drawn art, with a manga-type feel, features in the intro.  The game’s score is cheesy-action-drama-esque that will appeal to the ironic side of the younger crowd and the nostalgic side of their elders (not saying which group I’m part of!).  All in all, it’s bright, crisp, professional, and fun.

Some devs seem to thing that slapping an undead brain nummer or two in a game is enough of a selling point these days.  I’m happy to report that GOGN Entertainment seems to take their customers’ satisfaction a little more seriously than that, and Zombie: The Rescue is the happy result. For $.99(iTunes Link), it’s a winner.

VIA | Price: $0.99 | Download

You know what piggies are, no doubt.  Woogies are wolves, which makes sense only if you want to name your game Piggy Woogy, and that sounds cute to you.  Thankfully, there’s more to this game than the name suggests.  It’s a matching game with a significant dose of action/strategy tossed in, and the combination makes for a serious challenge.

Your first look at Piggy Woogy is going to result in thinking “I didn’t need another game where I put three pretty gems in a row for points,” and you’re probably right about that. But that’s not what this game is.  You’re not playing for points here, you’re playing for Woogies, or against Woogies, really.  Instead of just figuring out the necessary pattern to rack up as many jewel matches and combos as you possibly can within a certain time frame, you have to capture wolves.  They’re interested in having pork chops for dinner, and those chops happen to be attached to your friends Piggy and Pinny, defending their jewel-walled tower from hungry Woogies.

To make the matches, you swipe the pair of gems you want to switch, which sets off the predictable match, drop, and jewel rearrangement you’re familiar with from other such games.  The key to Piggy Woogy, however, is making the matches in such a way that they dislodge the climbing Woogies.  Otherwise, those Woogies will take a bite out of your piggies’ health meter, and you lose. Not only that, but you’ve got a quota of woogies to catch for each stage, starting with five and multiplying into the dozens quickly.

Despite looking more like a matching game than anything else, Piggy Woogy is more action/strategy in practice.  The Woogies don’t let up, and they evolve to include all types of dastardly, more difficult to capture Woogy-fiends as you go.  There’s a variety of enemies, and some bonus attacks (like oil, ice, and refresh), as well as special blocks which drop within the jewel wall to keep it interesting.  Piggy Woogy is enough of a departure from typical matching games to offer the most accomplished player of those games a serious challenge.  That’s where its target fan base is, I would guess—people who love matching games but are bored with the fact that all they can really do is force you to go faster.  Piggy Woogy puts more brain cells to work.

It looks good doing it, too.  Piggy Woogy has put enough effort into its fairytale franchise design that I wouldn’t be surprised to see plenty of Piggy Woogy spinoff products—other games, videos, etc.  It’s a pleasant fairytale premise with a decent soundtrack and great character design that could do more than promote a matching game.

Piggy Woogy is available now in the App Store, for the reasonable investment of $1.99 (iTunes Link).  Don’t blame me when you find out it’s not a no brainer.  This game is sometimes as frustrating as it is addictive, in a very satisfying way.

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Developer Description:A league of hyper-intelligent fish is plotting our destruction from their secret lair at the bottom of the sea. You are the leader of a small band of bears fighting for the survival of all land dwellers. In this epic battle that pits bear against fish, do you have what it takes to drown the fish uprising before it’s too late?

Download

[VIA]

Thankfully, this isn’t a case where we have to regret not being careful about what we wished for.  GNC Interactive, Inc. has delivered a tour de force with Crystal War: Blood Field, expanding the already popular Crystal War universe with two awesome online multiplayer modes, not to mention a whole new set of campaigns for playing solo.

Crystal War: Blood Field is a battle sim, which pits a human/elven alliance army against their goblin foes.  Each army has to mine crystal to “hire” combat and mining units in order to successfully complete each stage’s objective: Kill the big dude on the horse.  You can’t just save your own skin in Crystal War: Blood Field. That’s not how wars are won, after all.  You have to take down the other army’s leader, who functions as a boss for each stage.

Crystal War: Blood Field manages to incorporate a ton of different genre elements into one pretty smooth interface.  The unit deployments will remind you a bit of tower defense—minus the focus on strategic placement, since these soldiers are on full-speed-ahead auto.  The upgrade structure and items systems are more in the line of an RPG, and of course, you have to actually manage the battles as their happening.  It’s a lot to shove into a screen that’s only 3 inches and change, but thrifty game design and well placed controls make it come together beautifully.  You tap to indicate what unit you want to purchase, and then tap again to deploy immediately, or drag the unit to its group icon.  That feature allows you to deploy multiples of the same type of unit in one fell swoop, and it’s an important aspect of the strategy required to beat Crystal War: Blood Field.

And strategy is the heart and soul of this game—my favorite part of it. If you don’t want to learn your enemies’ tactics, their skills, or how to manage your own resources and put your troops on the ground in the most effective way, this isn’t the game for you.  That’s not to say any of this is prohibitively difficult to get a handle on.  On the contrary, the game’s flawless set up makes it a completely natural learning process.  Crystal War: Blood Field is fun because it’s continually challenging.  Which brings me to my next favorite thing about the app.  The network mode allows you to take the strategies you’ve developed warring with the game’s AI and see how they fare against a real life opponent, in real time.

I can’t say the graphics really do much for me, but I can say they’re solid enough that they don’t bother me.  To be honest, I’m too caught up in the game itself, when playing, to care much about it.  I think the background music and audio effects, on the other hand, provide the perfect complement to the game play.  Imagine what sort of forced march war drums might accompany a human/goblin battle—that’s what’s playing.

My third favorite part of this game? The price. It’s on sale for .99 (iTunes Link), which is outstanding when the network modes of play (there are two, with different goals) are factored in, because that makes the replay value of this game potentially infinite.  So, if you’re looking for a strategy challenge, Crystal War: Blood Field is probably one of the best options in the App Store.  It’s there now—run and get it!