I have always loved playing poker.  I may not win very often, but I enjoy my semi-irregular games with my friends.  While we are not all able to sit around a table and play together very often, that does not mean we are completely without options for practicing in between games.  Especially now that we are deep within the age of mobile devices.  I first played the World Series of Poker app on my iPod Touch, and found it to be even better than Apple’s own Texas Hold’Em game.  So, I was pretty excited when this fantastic take on the game finally arrived on the iPad.

Now, this review is not going to include a complete tutorial of the game of Poker.  I will simply assume that if you are reading this, you have a general idea of how Texas Hold’Em Poker is played,  If not, here is a handy link which may be able to help you learn quicker.   Once you are familiar with things, come back and we will continue with the review.

The main gaming interface is extremely important to poker games.  If the app is not intuitive, then you will not get anywhere trying to play, and will likely soon give up from frustration.  So, this was among the most important features to me, and I must say that I was quite pleased by what I found.  The screen depicts a bird’s eye view of the table, with nine players arranged around it.  Each player has an avatar, name, and total value of their chips.  A box beneath that will also show their last action (call, fold, bet, raise, etc…)  You can even use the player profile menu to change your avatar, though I was a bit disappointed to find that you could only choose from a number of preset images, and cannot add your own photo as a character avatar.

Additionally, not only is this a fun game to play, but it can also be an effective learning tool for those new to the game.  A meter next to your hand shows the strength of your hand, and often other players will show tells (an exclamation point over their cards indicates a strong hand, while a question mark indicates a weaker hand).  These signals can help with your strategy.  You can also replay any hand when it is over to see whether you missed any clues along the way.

The only thing I did not really like was the betting interface.  Taking a page out of Apple’s Texas Hold’em app, there is a betting dial.  Spin it to the right to increase your bet, left to decrease.  I found this system to be terribly imprecise, which is really unfortunate since betting can require quite a bit of precision when you are in the middle of a hot hand.  Surely, there must be a better way to control this critical part of the game.

The game itself is based upon a tournament style of play.  You will start off in a local, low level game, and work your way into the more competitive, higher stakes games.  Since it is tournament style, you do not necessarily need to win in order to advance.  The top three players in most games will leave with money.  You can also increase your bank roll by simply starting the game.  This is a pretty cool feature, the more you play, the more bonuses you can receive.  On the other hand, I was not a fan of the idea of using real money to purchase chips.  Not only does this strike me as a way to line the developer’s pockets, it also gives you an opportunity to create an unfair and unrealistic advantage by simply purchasing thousands of chips.  Likewise, I did not like the second chance option, which allows you to pay real money to get back into the game after busting.

Additionally, when playing in Legend Career Mode, the seven locations feature a variety of different playing modes,including winner take all, sit and go, and various circuit events…all of which leads up to the World Series of Poker Main Event and its $450,000 grand prize.  If these tournaments are not quite for you yet, you can jump into any of the available cash games.  Again, the different casinos each have increasing buy-ins, but also correspondingly high prizes if you in.  Additionally, if you prefer to test your mettle against real world players instead of the artificial intelligence, you can log into multiplayer mode and play against real players from around the world (all for points and bragging rights, no actual money is at stake)…or just play head to head against a friend in Heads-Up Bluetooth mode.  I really loved the variety this all offered, with numerous playing modes and options, the game will satisfy both beginning players and experienced gamblers alike. 

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, is the artificial intelligence.  There are several complaints you here repeated time and again when games have poor artificial intelligences.  This such as, the computer always knows exactly how much to bet, or always bets big on a hand that will ultimately win.  Pay close enough attention to these betting patterns, and you can zip right through the game.  Other complaints are that the computer always seems to get exactly the card it needs to win, and the player never does.   I was pleased to find that none of these problems were apparent with this game.  Sometimes the computer got a break, but not always.  The artificial intelligence worked extremely well.  If I did not know better, I might have thought I was playing against real players…minus the drunken brawls, of course.

I have to say that I was really impressed by this game.  It features smooth gameplay and animation, as well as a fantastic artificial intelligence.   I also really appreciated the wide variety of locations and styles of play, meaning you will always find a game to suit your skill level and needs.  Toss in daily bonuses, allowing you to earn chips just for pulling up to the table, and I am not afraid to say that this is the best Texas Hold’em game I have played on the iPad.

Earlier this week, Apple finally released the highly anticipated iOS 4.2 for iPad, bringing a world of advanced features to the popular device.   Despite a few initial hiccups, I finally got the new OS installed yesterday, and have now had some time to tinker with many of its new features.  What follows are a few of my initial impressions of what I found.

Let’s start with the most highly anticipated feature coming out of Cupertino since cut and paste.  Of course, I am talking about multi-tasking.  as has been widely reported, this is not true multi-tasking, in that it does not truly allow you to work in two windows at the same time.  Instead, it is really multi-running-app.  What it allows is for apps to run in the background and perform background tasks while you work in another app.  So, for example, Pandora can keep playing while you surf the Internet.  However, it does not add the feature which is on top of my personal wish list, a drop down which could be access from any screen or with any app running which would display my task list, agenda, and email inbox.  I suspect I will be waiting for that one for a long time

Still, the new iOS upgrade does allow fast task switching, which is really nice.  In the past, iOS required you to exit out of one app before you could start another.  This was cumbersome and time consuming.  Not to mention the fact that you generally lost your place in the closed app.  With fast task switching, when you “close an app” it actually gives you the equivalent of minimizing it, placing the app into the task switching pane.  You can then access the task switching pane in order to switch back to any app, or fully close an app.  The nice thing here is that when you access an app from the task switching pane, it will immediately return to the exact spot where you left it.

Now, I will admit that I had a little trouble finding the task switching pane…some release notes or instructions might have been helpful.  A quick Google search, however, revealed what I am about to tell you.  In order to access the task switching pane, just double tap the home button.  As my friend Mike noted, this is going to significantly increase the wear on your home button, and will likely result in an awful lot of worn out home buttons.  I hope Apple is ready to offer a home-button replacement service.

Once you have accessed the task switching pane, you can swipe through all of your active apps by simply swiping to the right.  Tap on any to open it.  Tap and hold to reveal the close buttons.  Tap the close button (red minus sign) to remove it from the task switching pane and close the app.  Finally, swipe all the way to the left from the first task switching pane screen to access the new control screen.  From here, you can control your iPod, increase or decrease the volume and brightness of the screen, and even toggle the screen rotation lock.

Waitaminute…what is the screen rotation lock doing here?  Isn’t there a switch for that.  Well, yeah…which is to say, there was one.  The switch which used to lock the screen rotation is now a mute switch, instantly turning off the volume on your iPad.  Which is nice, but seems completely unnecessary since holding the volume button for a second or two already had this same effect.  To me, this seemed like a classic case of if it is not broken, fix it anyway.  The screen rotation lock button worked great.  There was no need to remap it, especially to remap it to add a completely redundant function.  Especially when this important feature is now hidden in a menu which requires multiple steps to access.  At the least, Apple could have included an option in the settings to toggle the functionality of this switch between the screen rotation lock and mute.

The second big-ticket item you will find are app folders.  Yes, Apple finally makes it easy to keep similarly categorized apps grouped together.  Again, a little instruction would have been helpful here, but I was able to figure this feature out through trial and error.  To create a new folder, just drag one app icon and drop it on top of another.  a new folder will then open, ready for you to name.  You can then drag and drop up to 20 apps into each folder.  I absolutely loved this feature.  It instantly decluttered my iPad home screen, taking it from nine screens down to three.

The only problem I had here was that the folder icons all look pretty much the same.  They are all a black background filled with miniature icons of the folder contents.  While it is pretty cool that each folder icon changes to show the contents, it would be nice if you could further change or customize these icons in order to differentiate them from one another.  Plus, the home screen looks a little more boring with nothing but these black folder icons all over it.

To access a folder’s content, just tap the folder and it will shoot open, displaying the contents of the folder.   You can launch apps directly from the folder, just as you would any other app on your device’s home screen. 

Did I mention I absolutely loved this feature?  Plus, not only does it bring a significant amount of organization and customization options, it also significantly increases the number of apps you can display on your home screen.  Now, instead of nine screens of 20 apps per screen, you could potentially have nine screens with 20 folders on each screen, and each folder storing 20 apps.  That increases the potential from 180 apps to 3600 apps.  Not too shabby.

Another big criticism of Apple has been the lack of ability to print natively from iOS devices.  With the iOS 4.2 upgrade, printing finally made it to the iPad in the form of AirPrint.  In theory, this is a fantastic feature, which allows you to print from your iPad directly to a connected printer on your wireless network.  In practice, however, it is just not that easy.  As soon as I started trying to use AirPrint, I noticed that it was never able to find my printer, despite the fact that every other device connected to the same network can see it.  Another quick Google search revealed the reason.  Air Print is limited only to certain features, primarily those manufactured by HP, which contain the eprint software.

In other words, unless you have one of the compatible printers, and the list is pretty small, then this feature will be all but useless to you.  This is especially frustrating, given the fact that I have used other printing apps on my iPad, such as Readdle’s Printer Pro, which have been able to find and utilize my printer with no problems.  Why Apple chose to intentionally cripple this feature, I cannot explain.

Obviously, this is not everything you will find in iOS 4.2.  There are plenty of other features, including the new gaming hub, GameCenter (above, review coming soon); Find My Phone (below, review coming soon), which allows you to message, lock, or wipe your phone remotely; enhanced email, which includes the much coveted threaded messages; and Air Play, which will allow you to stream any media content directly to Apple TV or Air Play enabled speakers…another feature which is useless without additional compatible hardware.   There are plenty of other enhancements and upgrades.  You can learn more about them by checking out www.apple.com/ios, or just poke around your iOS 4.2 enabled iPad and see what you can find.

I have to say that I have been anticipating this update pretty much since I bought my iPad, and I was not disappointed.  The feature I coveted most, folders for my apps, works great; and the multi-tasking and app switching is really fantastic as well.  I was disappointed to find that some features were would not work since I did not have additional required peripherals, such as apple TV or the correct printer, but many would say that is just typical Apple, giving with one hand and taking away with the other.  Those were minor annoyances, however, which were far outweighed by the incredible leaps in functionality offered by the new OS. 

Do you have iOS 4.2 running on your iPad or other iOS device?  Let us know what you think in the comments below.  What are your favorite/least favorite new features?

Find My Phone

GameCenter

Enhanced Email

Plenty More

As promised, I’ve been playing with one of the Motorola CLIQ’s we still have in the house, and that I recently updated to Android 2.1 (Éclair).  I have the following to say about this update.  Some of it is good, but some of it is quite critical.

1. Turn by Turn Directions – Its wonderful to have this capability now with this device.  TbT directions is a must have for me; as I am directionally challenged.  Éclair
2. Updated Google Apps – Speech to Text, Google Voice Search as well as an updated Google Maps and Navigation app (see above) are just part of what you’ll see.  I don’t know about you, but I really don’t use speech to text (I can read well enough and quickly enough that a computerized voice isn’t going to get me much.  As I’m not vision impaired, I find having a device read my text messages and e-mail to me, just laziness… Just sayin’. I also won’t use the Voice Search, as I find that the technology isn’t quite there as far as voice recognition is concerned.  I’m looking for "local rock bands," not ways to recycle cans or ways to cure hams.  I can type faster than it will take to delete, correct and/or respeak the command.
3. The new Android Market – This was a winner from the get go. The new Market app with its Update All and Auto Update features are pretty cool.  This is a clear winner.
4. Multimedia Apps – If you have an iPod (or other MP3/media player) use it.  Even my Nexus One doesn’t get used like this. The CLIQ has a very anemic processor.  You’re going to need some punch to make this work while multitasking other apps.
5. MotoBLUR 2.1.5 – The early reports I got on this update, about 6 months (or more) or so ago, indicated that the Motorola finally realized that MotoBLUR was nothing more than a big drag on the device’s resources (which it is…).  I had thought that they were going to make the CLIQ less BLURRY.  I guess I was wrong.  The 2.1.5 version of the CLIQ’s OS is still very MotoBLUR driven and dependent, and its almost as bad as the previous 1.x.x versions you had before the upgrade.

My best recommendation to existing CLIQ users is to update your software and then root the device with Super One Click.  I did, and I was able to put a different Launcher on the device.  At least this way, you can get rid of MotoBLUR and have a more "stock android" experience.  This is the easiest way to get a new ROM experience on the CLIQ, as there are little to no custom ROM’s available for the device.

The CLIQ’s home page	RSS and Music widgets	Google Search & RSS widgets
Landscape – Mail & Happenings widgets	Social networking in MotoBLUR	You still have to review ALL statuses in Happenings
The Universal Inbox	The Universal IM Client	The New Lock Screen

Today, while researching some information for a client who needed a way to link his Mobile Me iDisk to Windows, I came upon this little gem which I also later found on the Apple Support site.   Before coming to this page, I had found Apple’s iDisk utility for Windows XP to not work with Windows 7.  The first part will allow you to have a drive letter assigned to your iDisk (example i: in Computer).  The second part, comes from a forum post on Apple Discussions which will allow you to keep information synchronized with the iDisk that is now linked to your computer.  Read past to jump to find out more!

Read More …

It’s never to early to get ready to file your taxes.  Now, you can get the headache out of the way easier with Turbo Tax 2010 Basic (Available for both Mac and PC users) for free!

Just go here and get your copy…no credit card is required – enjoy!