So we recently bought an HP Touchpad at a price of $350.  Can anyone say we overpaid?  After the news of its discontinuation, retailers from HP Direct, Best Buy, and Staples to many other places have dropped the price of the TouchPad to $150 for a 32GB version and $100 for the 16GB version.  Ow.  We are now flirting with an abandoned technology where things work now, but may be broke later.  In any case, the device as long as things work does have high intrinsic value.  From being able to check email and web surfing to enjoying multimedia entertainment such as Pandora and Netflix (using PlayOn), this tablet works great!  We’ll talk more about the great stuff you can do with this tablet at a later time – for now though, let’s get onto the unboxing!

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Do you like sword wielding anime characters?  What about gratuitous slice and dice action of zombie-like creatures?  If you answered yes to both, you are very likely to enjoy the Role Playing Game (RPG) Third Blade for iOS.  Getting this game during its free promotional period during July 7, 2011, this game had me stuck on my iPad for hours on end and made my trip from Houston to Dallas feel like a ride to the local Costco.  The opening sequence shows a long haired dude who has what appears to be his female friend getting abducted by evil forces.  You have three blades to choose from – each with its own unique method of fighting along with its own special abilities.   Read on past to jump to find out more about this addicting and amazingly fun game!

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Look what came in the mail!  Sprint has provided me with a Motorola Titanium to test out for a short time.  The Motorola Titanium is the first Android 2.1 smartphone that has Nextel’s Direct Connect for Push-to-Talk.  I’m very excited as this is my first time to play with an Android powered device.  I’m used to iOS and Windows Mobile 5 from my iPhone 3G and iMate JAQ3.  I have been a long time Sprint subscriber in the past (back in 2000 until 2004).  I dumped them after I grew sick and tired of poor reception with any dropped calls.  I never thought I’d try Sprint again – until a few of my customers raved about just how good Sprint is.  Only time will really tell, but from first calls, the unit has provided excellent call quality much to my surprise.  I’m looking forward to thoroughly testing out this unit and finally get some insight as to just how good or bad Android really is. 

My only immediate complaint about this phone is the inability to play Angry Birds.  The game lags so bad that it is unplayable.  In addition, waiting for the game to load took so long the screen locked.  Try getting back into the phone with Angry Birds on by using the gesture lock….it’s near impossible.  Finally I got back in by using my code word in lieu of the secure gesture password.  Many cool new features to try out….stay tuned for an in depth look at the Motorola Titanium – here in the JAMM labs!

There are some games that are just well made, but they go into the black morass.  Such is it with MonsterGila’s NovaRift: Arena.  Given away for free a number of months ago on FreeAppAlert, this little gem had me lost in the depth of space defending the galaxy from 5 different kinds of drone enemies in single player and human enemies in online multiplayer.  After many hours of play, suddenly the online game servers no longer worked.  The game seemed to fizzle out of MonsterGila existance, and the little software company in New Mexico could not be reached for comment as to what was happening.  You can still read the manual at http://www.novarift.com/manual.html or view the old teaser trailer still on YouTube.

So why bring up a dead game that seems to have been sucked into a blackhole? How about because of the countless hours spent playing which earns it one of the most addicting games that I’ve touched?  Yes, dear readers, this game was beautifully made.  (On a side note, do you backup your iPad?  If not, then it certainly is something that should be considered as this is the only way I can load NovaRift: Arena onto my devices now as it is no longer sold.  Stay tuned on an upcoming article on backing up your iOS device and having the ability to version your software.)

One of the best parts about this game was the ability to play multiplayer.  Even with the multiplayer component being disabled due to the missing NovaRift server, the offline arcade mode is loads of fun.  How many drones can you kill?  The game provides you with the choice of 4 different ships – each with its own style of play with different speeds, maneuverability, and weapons.  Your weapons include not just plasma guns, but also spreadfire cannons and proximity missiles.  The ships all have different weaknesses and realistic damage will be taken into consideration – you can fly a ship with damaged wings which affect your movement or even your weapons!

After choosing your ship, you’ll head into battle.  Your two main resources will be shield energy and gun energy.  Shields protect your ship – if they ever become depleted, try not to get hit for a duration of about 5 seconds (those sure seem like long seconds) and you’ll get an immediate 20% recharge of your shields.  Time your shots and make sure to keep moving – else you’ll be bantha fodder!  In the single player arcade mode, you’ll be faced with continuous waves of enemies which become stronger.  It becomes quite the challenge to dodge asteroids while taking out the baddies.  After blowing up the bad guys, there is a chance in getting some powerups.  6 powerups exist that range from refilling shield or gun energy, giving rapid fire, repairing your ship, getting an extra life, or getting invulnerability for a short while!

And hence, we’ve dug up a gem that seems to be gone.  I certainly hope that MonsterGila will bring back this wonderful game.  Until then, know that such a gem exists – and if you’ve downloaded but haven’t given this game a try and it’s sitting in your iTunes library – go ahead and install it…you’ll find this to be one of the best space shoot-em ups of all time which could have been developed into something like SubSpace (now Continuum), an equally exciting Windows 3rd person space shooter.  Until next time, game on!

Do you have a backup system in place?  If so, have you actually tested the backup and made sure it restores correctly?  Many people have backups, but they never ever tried a failure drill – this includes a number of small businesses.  Well worth the cost, such drills will truly test what would happen if disaster struck….would you be able to get back on your feet?

Ask yourself this question:

If you are without your computer tomorrow how crippling will it be? 

There are 2 scenarios here: a hardware one and a software one.  Let’s address software first as that’s the bulk of computer problems.  It usually consists of Windows going belly up due to viruses or a bad update.  

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