Angry Birds Tips and Tricks

Angry Birds got you down?

We've all experienced it - long evenings, staying up late, your significant other hounding you to get off your smart phone or iPad. 

If you've learned the basics, just remember these five simple rules and you'll be knocking 'em down every time! A few tips to live by.

1. Visualize your attack

This takes practice but it is perhaps the most important tip to take in to any level in any version of Angry Birds.  Luck still certainly have a significant impact on your results but don't rely on it.  Haphazard planning results in haphazard results.  Look at the game field and your birds.  Design a plan of attack. It's easy to get frustrated and rush things - DON'T! Take a minute and think about it! Seal Team 6 spends the time to organize a plan and you KNOW their results.

2. Employ Paper and Pencil

This is most important for that one stubborn level that you can never quite beat.  It might sound silly but it will get you thinking about what will fall where and which birds will do the best damage to the resulting pile of rubble. Fall angles and trajectories are of critical importance. 

3.  Levels are designed to be beat

Impossible is not in the vocabulary of Chillingo or Rovio.  Sure they make some levels SEEM impossible, but they're not.  They're is always a way and always a way that, if done correctly, will work every.  Even if you can't figure it out yourself you can always;

4. Google it!

Picking up hints online is a perfectly reasonable approach to beating an app.  Don't lose sleep over something you can pick up with a quick search online.  You'll be amazed by the number of specific tricks you can find for every single level of every Angry Birds.

5. Destroy the wood

For the advanced Angry Birder it becomes more about points that anything else.  Points are what separates you from the rest of the pack.  The only way to maximize your points is to maximize destruction.  Once you've mastered levels, go back, pull out the pencil and paper and plan a more vicious attack on the scaffolding.

Pik Pok Field Goal Tips and Tricks for iPad

A new addition to the Pik Pok arsenal of apps is the field goal game. While initially hesitant to spend .99 cents on something that from the screen shot looked like another paper toss, I was pleasantly surprised by the gameplay and handling.

After playing for a few days I've been able to master the arcade version with a perfect score of 256. With practice, and a few quick tips, you can get there too.

But first here is a screen shot of my perfect score so you know it's legit.



Here are a few tips:

1.  Don't actually flick - The most appropriate motion is essentially a controlled drag of the finger.

2.  Extend your kicking motion - If you don't use a long motion of about four inches you run the risk of your kicks falling short

3.  Learn the angles for excessive wind - Wind angles of 5 and 6 miles an hour, while initially challenging end up being pretty easy.  Start with a pretty dramatic swoop from left to right or right to left based on the wind angle.  Straighten the kick throughout the motion so that you are dragging straight up to complete the motion.

Seven Reasons I Hate The Daily App for iPad

A surprise snow day thanks to snowpocalypse afforded me the opportunity to download and test Rupert Murdoch's new app, The Daily. The first iPad only news content app of it's kind. While Murdoch thinks the demise of print news is a long way off, he has invested millions in developing The Daily.

And here are the seven reasons I hate The Daily for iPad.

1. Version issues - Almost as quickly as it was available a new version was available. While updates are expected frequently with an app of this importance, rarely do we iPad users have to physically delete and reinstall an app for it to work.

2. Crashes - I thought for sure the delete and reinstall would clear up the crashes...it didn't.

3. Screen lock - Headlines are generally large and are included on a full screen sized image. Rotating the iPad to portrait mode will allow the reader to access the story. However, if you keep the rotation lock on like I do, you can't ever get to the story.

4. Load times - This is somewhat dependent on your internet quality but if I can stream HD movies, I don't understand why I can't have a seamless transition between articles on a news app

5. Lack of Intuitiveness - Sure the app has articles on instruction but this is an iPad, we should never need instructions on something that is supposed to be our companion news app.

6. Advertisements - This isn't a magazine, why are we dealing with so many advertisements. This brings me to my last reason to hate The Daily for iPad.

7. Price - Murdoch is betting that 99 cents a week sounds insignificant and it does, but no body wants to be in a long term commitment to a new app for a 30 dollar price tag and 99 cents per week adds up.

I'm not giving up on it, and there is certainly some good to go with the bad but so far The Daily fails to deliver.

National Geographic iPad App Video Review

People are hating on the National Geographic app. It is what it is- a great colelction of beatiful National Geographic maps. See the video review below.