Written by Sue on Wednesday, August 19, 2009
The Great JAMM Registration Drive Giveaway!

 

Just Another Mobile Monday

 

You love us, right? We see how many of you read the boards and RSS feeds on a daily basis so it shows you do care. But the thing is, we want more registered members. So on Monday, August 24th we will be initiating the Great Registration Drive!

Monday through Friday next week I will be asking a question each day and one random winner per day will be winning a great prize! We’ve got some great stuff donated to us from PPCTechs, Otterbox, Griffin Technology, Proporta and other great prizes.

So, if you don’t register, then you don’t get to win any of the great prizes that will be on offer!

Watch this space next week!

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Written by Tekipaq on Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Handmark Announces Astraware Casino Video Games for Blackberry

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(corrected post, as this is not the full Casino Pack, that Doug had previously reviewed). Yesterday, Handmark announced a Blackberry release of the Astraware Casino Video Games, a pack of 4 video games priced at $2.99 It will be followed by 2 further packs of Astraware Casino Table Games, which will include Craps and Roulette, and Astraware Casino Card Games with all the card games included.

This new release is compatible with with the BlackBerry Pearl 8100 series, Pearl Flip 8200 series, 8800 series, Curve 8300 and 8900 series, Bold, Storm, and Tour.

Following the trend of new Handmark/Astraware platform releases, Blackberry Casino Video Games is an exciting addition to the already popular iPhone, Palm OS®, Pocket PC, and Windows Mobile Smartphone Casino releases.

Here is a link to find out more from Astraware: <Astraware link>

Astraware Casino is available ($2.99) from Handmark: <purchase link>

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Written by Thomas on Wednesday, August 19, 2009
SBSH Software releases RadGuard, cell radiation alert for Blackberry

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I really liked some of SBSH’s older stuff (pre-2007), but I can’t help but think the company has changed, and I’m not sure it’s for the better. RadGuard is an app that alerts you when the Blackberry is emitting dangerously high levels of radiation (I guess that would mean during big downloads?) via in-call notifications and pop-ups and vibration alerts. It’s the kind of app I think you’d see on the iPhone App Store selling for $0.99 that just looks a little gimmicky, so I’m a little surprised it’s coming from SBSH. I also question whether users who are afraid of radiation would opt to use a smartphone that’s famous for push email and a constant connection with servers.

RadGuard is available now for $5.95 for touch and non-touch Blackberries.  I’d definitely like to hear thoughts on this one: is this something JAMM readers would be interested in?

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Written by Thomas on Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Ginormous Review: Things, a must-have task manager for the iPhone and Mac

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For the past year I’ve been using services like Remember the Milk (RTM) and Toodledo to manage all of my tasks, but, well, cloudy is the best word to describe those relationships. I loved the fact that I was always synced from any machine (because my data was kept on web servers), but the slow as molasses syncing on my iPhone really bogged me down. Once I started looking around for some alternatives, the name Things kept popping up. Things is an award-winning task manager with native clients for the Mac and iPhone, but one that’s not really in the land of impulse buys for those on a student budget (i.e., me). The iPhone client is a premium at $10, but the Mac client is even more at $50. The thing is that $50 for a task manager — no matter how good it is — seemed like a large pill to swallow. So I contacted developer Cultured Code about a review on JAMM, and they kindly sent over review codes for both clients. It’s because of that gesture that I can talk about a whole bunch of Things with you today.
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I’m sick of the cloud
It took forever and a day for the cloud servers to sync with iPhone apps like ToDo and RTM — upwards of ten seconds every single time I wanted to sync, and it’s not as though I’m one of those users with a ton of tasks to complete. I probably have under 50 at any one time, but the ten second wait really stacked up over the course of the day.
As I mentioned before, Things consists of two native clients that can work independently of one another (you don’t need the Mac client as an iPhone user, but you’re much better off for it), and it syncs at lightning speed (usually under a second, but sometimes up to three or four) when you need it to. The downside is that syncing currently requires both devices to be on the same network, but a recent blog post from Cultured Code states that over-the-air (OTA) syncing is on the way. I actually thought that the current wi-fi syncing was OTA, but I’m not going to argue with the devs if they want to bring me more sync options.
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So let’s get down to the juicy bits: despite its generic name, Things features a really novel approach to getting things done. I’m not a big expert on the subject, but having used Outlook, Pocket Informant, Toodledo, and Remember the Milk, I’m a much bigger fan of the Cultured Code way of thinking. Due dates and categories are still very important, but Things has a much cleaner approach to getting things done that keeps them from getting overwhelming. I really have gotten a lot better at managing my lists now that I’ve moved to Things, and it’s no one major change ore revolutionary feature in the program. It’s all about the little things.
*Things on the Mac*
Probably the best way to talk about why Things works so well is to show how other task managers just didn’t cut it for me. Some, like Pocket Informant, feature far too many priorities and switches for me to really use. I don’t feel like I’m wasting money on the app, but the extra features that I never used just got in the way. Aside from the ‘tags’, Things doesn’t feature any extra features that regularly get in my way. When I want to create a new task or review my lists, there is always just enough information on-screen.
One of the ways that really helps is the way that completed tasks are depressed. Incomplete tasks are brighter and appear to be higher, and all the completed tasks for the day look like they have sunk half an inch into the screen. Another great feature is that all the editing is done in-line — you’ll rarely see any pop-up dialogues within Things, and that makes the whole experience feel a lot more streamlined.
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Throwing tasks around
If you aren’t sure of how to organize a task, just throw it in the Inbox. It will stay there in an unsorted pile until you decide to categorize it. If you’d like to just get it done at some point in time, throw it into “Someday” and it’ll stay in there with all the other things you’d like to do before you die.
You’ll find all of your other tasks in the Today, Next, and Scheduled sections. Today isn’t just for items that are due today, but also for tasks that you think are a priority. You can have an item show up in Today even if it’s due three months from now, if you’re that worried about it. If not, you’ll find it in the Next section, even if it’s undated. Next is a lot like the “all items” view in other task managers, and it even shows undated tasks. For everything else that’s due in about a month’s time, there’s Scheduled. Another useful thing about this section is that it’s an easy way to move tasks to a different date, since you can drag and drop a task (or tasks) into Scheduled and a pop-up will appear to change the date.
Doing Things Differently
What all of this means is that Thing has a management structure that revolves around two different ways of thinking: thinking around due dates and thinking around the basic chronological sections I just covered. Dragging a task from the Scheduled section into Today won’t actually change the due date of the task, but rather show it in Today. The various sections in Things are really more about when you’d like to start thinking about a task, rather than when the task is due. The tasks should naturally flow from the Scheduled section up to Next, then on to Today, and finally just get done. Once a day is done all of the completed tasks are automatically added to a Logbook so as not to clutter up the interface.
Aside from the sections I just mentioned, there are also the Areas of Responsibility, which would be categories in most any other program. I keep the areas restricted to the sites I write for, so there’s one for JAMM, one for Just Another iPhone Blog, and one for Just iPhone Art.
One thing to note is that a task can only be in one area, although it can have numerous tags. Tags are interesting because they’re shared by other Mac applications, such as iPhoto. Unfortunately, unlike iPhoto, Things can’t make a “Smart Area of Responsibility” that automatically assembled all tasks with a certain set of tags. Manually filtering tasks is easy, though, thanks to the task bar at the top of the Things window.
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The advanced featuers
Now there are two features of Things that I really haven’t had the need to delve into at all, but I should mention them if I’m to try and write a credible review. They’re both similar features that belong on the upper echelon (*huff*, that’s a heavy word) of task management: that winding, windy peak where when tasks get a bit more complicated than “buy milk”. The first feature, Projects, is for tasks that should be divided into smaller tasks. My beef with Projects is that it seems a lot like Area, and even Cultured Code’s own Projects FAQ didn’t really convince me of its usefulness. Part of the reason is that the UI doesn’t strike off or indent a project, even when you complete all the items within and tick the giant checkmark beside the project name — as far as the left bar in Things is concerned, Projects will always look the same whether or not you’re done with them. This really blurs the line between Areas and Projects for me, so I stick to Areas. [Edit: Oops. It wasn't clear, but the whole Project will actually go to the logbook once the day is done. So Projects DO change -- just not until the next day.]
The other ‘higher level’ feature I haven’t touched is People, which allows you to delegate tasks to other people (and Things conveniently ties into your address book to help you choose the lucky subordinate). Of course, the People feature doesn’t actually indicate who’s boss, but rather help you figure out who is doing what at any one time — it should be clear how well this feature should work with Areas, Projects, or tags. I say ‘should’ because People isn’t ready quite yet — it feels like a work in progress. While you might have delegated tasks perfectly, the people you’re working with currently have no idea what you expect them to do unless you actually e-mail them the tasks. Cultured Code says better syncing is in the works, though, and I’m looking forward to the collaborative possibilities.
At the end of the day, tasks are tasks
The rest of Things is pretty basic: you tick a checkbox to complete a task, you double click on an item to edit it, and you can add notes to any of your tasks. The Things dock icon shows a badge of the number of due and overdue items, and there’s also a fantastic universal shortcut for adding new tasks. It’s easy to tell that a lot of care went into the design of the desktop version of Things, and it’s an interface that should scale quite gracefully for users, whatever the task at hand.
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*Things for iPhone*
Things for iPhone, in its current iteration, is best described as Things Junior. Things on the Mac has had years to develop and mature, but the iPhone version was only released earlier this year. It handles tasks in much the same way as the desktop, loads up and performs very quickly, and doesn’t try to smush my 13″ MacBook screen onto the iPhone’s tiny face.  Things Touch, as it’s officially called (if I read the blog right!), is a more compartmentalized approach to the Things philosophy.
It’s not [desk]top heavy
Tapping on a task will bring up a small menu that lets you move it, edit it, “Today” it,  or e-mail it off. Ticking off the checkbox completes it and still applies that cool “depressed” effect. In terms of management, the approach has become a bit more iPhone-esque. Instead of the broad tags bar or the drag-and-drop support of the desktop client, there are buttons along the bottom of the screen that do the trick — it’s not as natural as it is on the Mac, but it works well.  The iPhone app is also much more selective about the information it shows on-screen: when a task is overdue, it’s only marked as such, and you don’t see by how many days you’ve missed the mark until you delve right into the task.
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One thing that is still shown, however, is the Area of a task. All I can say to that is: Thank God! I can’t stand it when I can’t see the categories on my tasks on a mobile interface. One last thing I’ve also noticed (thanks, in part, to the Things Blog) is how the app will intelligently re-launch to the area you were working in, in case you were interrupted by a call or text. It doesn’t recall any of your unsaved changes, though.
Still some missing features
Areas can be synced to the iPhone, but you can’t make them there (you can still make Projects, though, and the two features are similar). The iPhone App is also lacking landscape functionality (fine by me, but worth a mention) and the ability to select multiple tasks for manipulation. The latter could be a real deal breaker for users who have a lot to manage, and I hope that it’s a priority for Cultured Code’s future updates.
Pretty good alone, but great with a Mac
Having started off with both the Mac and iPhone clients, it has become really evident that, although Things Touch is on its way to becoming a truly independent client, it’s still leaning pretty heavily on the desktop version. Working with the drag and drop support, the multi-selection, and — now this isn’t a fair comparison — the universal ‘new task’ shortcut, most everything is easier to manage on the Mac version of Things. It’s also the only way for iPhone users to back their tasks up, which is a very big deal, since not everyone who owns an iPhone owns a Mac. This weakness is one of the reasons that cloud services are so popular. You could use Things on the iPhone as a standalone product, but you’d be a lot better off if you owned the Mac version as well.
I’m probably biased, though, since I know how great the Mac client is. Touch may be a little under-developed, but one of the underlying aspects of Things — the minimal interface and flexible, alternative task management — is already here, and that’s what gives it the potential to be a real killer app.
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The Bottom Line
As far as the price goes, I still think it’s still a bit high on both ends. Despite the number of amazing little features, I would expect to pay around 25 USD for the desktop client instead of $50 (the student discount takes the price down a bit), but Things is my first desktop task manager outside of Outlook, and I received that client thrown in with my old machine. I’m admittedly no expert when it comes to desktop PIM prices.
My opinion is better founded when talking about the iPhone app, though. Things Touch costs $10 — the normal price for “premium” apps — and as of version 1.0.3, I still don’t think Things can stand toe to toe with the other major $10 task manager I know of: Appigo’s ToDo. Design differences aside, the major disadvantage in pricing Things at a premium is that it doesn’t sync with anything but the desktop software. Once iPhone users have a Mac-independent method of backing up their precious tasks, I think Things will really have reached the next level.
The even Bottomer line
When I first signed up for a $25/year Remember the Milk subscription it was because I was really taken by the interface and the cloud syncing. That sheen faded away after about a month, and I found myself using and liking the web app less and less. The same thing happened with my free Toodledo account. I’m glad to report that Things isn’t like that. These two Cultured Code apps have become ingrained in my everyday life over the last two months (give or take) and they’ve made getting things done fun. It’s a pleasure to tick things off and look over how much I’ve accomplished in a day, and something about the presentation keeps me from feeling overwhelmed.
So if the price is no major obstacle and you own the requisite Mac and iPhone, I’d say it’s time for you to tick off the daunting task of finding your absolute must-have task manager, the completion of which has eluded you for all these years. Right below it you can write “Getting Things”, draw a checkbox, and then tick it off. Done.

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You can pick up a copy of Things for Mac for 50USD at Cultured Code, and you can find Things Touch for $10 on the App Store (link here).

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Written by Tekipaq on Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Interview With Mobile Designer Jason Surguine. Part 1

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Today we will be interviewing a seasoned-artist in game developing and musical composition, Jason Surguine, who we caught up with while he was on-location in Tokyo, Japan.   If you’ve ever played any of PDAMILL’s games, then you are already familiar with Jason’s work, since he is the man behind the music and many other elements of their games.

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Jason has long been one of my favorite mobile game developers, so I was extremely excited to have the opportunity to catch up with him for a quick chat.  Today, we’ll be talking about his background and influences.  In part 2, we’ll look at some of his games and what the future may hold for both Jason and PDAMILL.

Tekipaq: Welcome Jason and thanks for joining us here at JAMM today.  Let’s start out the interview by asking how you got your start in developing games for the mobile device industry?

Jaybot: Good question. I knew that I had wanted to get into games somehow, but I didn’t know exactly where to start, so I decided writing game reviews for free on a website was a good place to start.  Pocketgamer.org was the site (and still is) for Pocket PC gaming, and so I asked the webmaster at the time, Mike Wagstaff, if I could write reviews for him. He said yes on the stipulation that I review a bunch of puzzle games.

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Tekipaq: What did you learn from your adventures reviewing games at Pocketgamer and how did that experience jumpstart your career?

Jaybot: While reviewing a lot of games for Pocketgamer, I played a lot of games, mostly bad, some good. This really got me thinking about how the games could be better, and what could be fixed or changed to make the games better. In the early days, most games were released without any sound or music at all, which of course being a musician, always bugged me. I was always pretty vocal in my reviews, and some developers took notice and actually asked me for help. Being in a position to review games put me in contact with a lot of developers as well, so I could contact them and ask them if they would ever consider putting audio in their games, and I would do it for them. A few of them accepted, and a few of them were successful.

Tekipaq: Can you tell us about your first mobile development projects?

Jaybot: My first mobile development project was stumbled upon, accidently in 2001 with a small title named Argentum.  At the time, it was going to be the first mobile Real Time Strategy game which had the visuals comparable to a commercial platform game at the time. The audio was lacking, so I offered my services (and they accepted). At some point, John Romero stepped in and helped make the game a pretty big success. A small title named Snails appeared shortly afterwards (more about Snail and PDAMill in a little bit :-) .

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Tekipaq: I remember Snails, as it was one of the first pocket pc game titles that I ever played on my Compaq Ipaq 3650, wow that WAS a long time ago.  I remember how amazed I was at the animation, color and game play.  My first pocket computer was a black & white Uniden Unipro.  Please tell us about your first mobile device and what did you think about the concept of pocket computers back then?

Jaybot: I picked up a Casio E-105, a Palm-Sized PC (pre-Pocket PC, pre-Windows Mobile) because the screen was really, really pretty (perhaps still one of the best) and it actually did looked like Windows in your pocket, which was amazing at the time. I also heard that you could run GameBoy and NES emulators on it. This was incredible to me because PCs had only recently been able to emulate systems well, and I wouldn’t have to carry around my Gameboy and 500 cartridges with me anymore. I guess I could use it for PDA functions as well :)

So, I thought,  if this small device can emulate older games quite well, imagine the types of native games it could do! This device could blow away Gameboy Color with PC quality titles (at the time, this was really impressive, and was still impressive all the way up until the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP were released).

Tekipaq: Moving forward in time to your most recent mobile development career, can you tell us a little bit about PDAMILL and your adventures there?

Jaybot: One of the developers which was successful was Peter Balogh (a Hungarian) of Syntact Oy (a Finnish company) with the title Snails (which won oodles of awards, I even found an old page kept simply for archiving it: http://pdamill.com/sn_awards.shtml). Because of Snails’ success, Peter believed it would be possible to make games on the same level of Snails for PDA devices full-time and actually make money. So, he quit his job in Finland and moved back to Hungary to find enough talented people to form PDAmill. Over the next year or so he spent all his time creating the Firefly game engine which most of our games are still using today.

During that time, I believed in the idea of PDAmill too, but Hungary seemed a bit too far for me and I had no money. So I slept on a couch for a year or so and worked on creating as much content for future game designs (for use once the engine would be complete) and scrapping together any money I could by doing contract work for other independent developers.

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Eventually, PDAmill created many top-notch quality casual games in the GameBox series to bring enough income to justify work on another big project, a 3D Space-shooter name Anthelion. All of these were pretty successful, so we created a few more casual titles to bring in enough money in order to tackle another big genre we always wanted to do, the Role Playing Game. Which resulted in Arvale :) At some point I moved to Hungary and began working with PDAmill full time.

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Tekipaq: Jason, what do you think about the direction of mobile gaming and the current trends, as compared to when Pocket PC was the RAVE?

Jaybot: The Windows Mobile crowd was largely community based and many would hang around the same mobile sites to check on the latest news and products, including software. Strangely enough, the iPhone application crowd seems to be less community based to me. I guess it makes sense, there is only one piece of hardware they can choose from (which Apple and the mobile networks heavily advertise). And then they find software on the only place to buy software, the iTunes App store (which is heavily advertised by Apple) and then go on their merry way. iPhone users don’t have to keep informed unless they really choose to, it’s all automatic.

Tekipaq: Fascinating observation!

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Background Questions: We will be rounding-off today’s interview with Jason by asking a few general interest questions that I’m sure our readers will enjoy reading about.

Tekipaq: Can you tell us about your hometown?

Jaybot: I was born in Dallas, TX (and don’t remember it), and later raised in Phoenix, AZ. But I feel just as much at home in Budapest, Hungary and Tokyo, Japan.

Tekipaq: What do you find most rewarding in your profession?

Jaybot: Instant gratification. Especially when scripting a game. You can see immediately how well/poorly your ideas come to life. Aside from coding (which I don’t do), I can’t imagine any other profession where you can have immediate feedback to this degree. Not even when writing music (which can take hours before you realize it doesn’t fit).

Tekipaq: What is your favorite hobby?

Jaybot: I have a tough time defining hobbies for myself. Since everything seems to be related to my job in some way. Playing games? Game design? Playing music? Maybe studying Japanese, but that seems related to game design as well (since many games I play and study are in Japanese). But it is definitely not Golf.

Tekipaq: What is your favorite mobile game?

Jaybot: That’s a tough question. I’ll try to break it down by platform. If we’re keeping all mobile platforms involved, including DS and PSP: Of all time, I would be inclined to say Final Fantasy Adventure for the original Gameboy. The latest Zelda: Phantom Hourglass for Nintendo DS is fantastic, and Final FantasyVII: Crisis Core for PSP is amazing. I have to mention Rhythm Tengoku as well, as it’s absolutely brilliant, and I’m happy they ported Rhythm Heaven (Gold) to the US.

As far as mobile phone platforms such as Windows Mobile and iPhone: Arvale. I can’t lie, I’m supremely biased. J But I really do love those games.

Tekipaq: How much of your time is devoted to playing games :-) and is mobile games development your full-time job?

Jaybot: I wish I had more time to devote playing games, I really do. But I’m lucky if I can squeeze in 2 or 3 hours a week. This should be at least 7-8 hours a week, but I have too many things on my plate right now.  Mobile game development was my full-time job while leading PDAmill Game Studios in Budapest, Hungary, but you know, this darn economy! No, no I won’t blame the economy, that’s not fair. J

Tekipaq: How much time to you spend on the forums, live chats with gaming community?

Jaybot: Honestly, not as much as I used to. I simply don’t have as much time as I once had (as I get older, I realize that not only do I have to shave more often, eating food and sleeping seems to be important as well). However, since PDAmill has slightly shifted from the Windows Mobile focus, it doesn’t appear to present as much of a problem as I thought it might. I’m not trying to justify myself, but…

Tekipaq: Thanks Jason, you’re Tops!

Please stay-tuned for part two of the JAMM Interview with Jaybot, when he will be talking to us about his view of future of mobile gaming.  He will also discuss gaming platforms, his career in music, as well as a few additional surprises.  We’ll also be providing links to his blog, where his has kindly posted some free games as well as music……

Thanks again for taking the time to chat with us from Japan and until next week, Sayonara Jason!

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