Trails
This is a great little app for me, as I like to geotag my images. I have a dedicated GPS tracker that I use for the purpose. But Trails means that I will be able to create a log at those times I don't have the tracker.
A map showing just how high the hill my house is on is.
Photoswap
The only way of communicating of through the pictures. Its possible to reply to a message, and I've had 'conversations' of sharing pictures of pets, TV's or even writing notes and photographing them. There is the option to send your location with the image, so you can check out where an image was taken. You can also report anything inappropriate.
All in all a cool little app.
Receive random pictures and send your own.
Real Football 2009
Graphically impressive, I was even more surprised to find that it has proper licenses and so a great many of the teams and players are called by their proper name. Gameplay is no FIFA killer, but thats only to be expected. Controls are well thought out, but the game does suffer due to lack of tactile feedback. Of course this a limitation of the iPhone and the game does well to handle as it does.
A good way to kill 5 minutes.
Trism
This is one of the most addicting puzzlers I have ever played. I've lost ages playing with this trying to get as many 'chains' as possible. If you have any interest in puzzlers, do yourself a favour and pick it up.
An-Quest
At its heart it is a simple app that allows you to ask a question and have the community answer it. Or, you can simply stick to answering questions yourself. Replies to questions are anonymous, and it is this which I feel leads to An-Quests biggest problem. The amount of racist or sexist questions is staggering. There are also a great deal of questions of a sexual nature, the kind that you would expect to be asked by a 14 year old boy, who has just had the underwear section of the Kays catalogue discovered under his bed. For an example of what I talking about, simply enter any Xbox Live Halo match before bedtime on a school night.
I love that you can use this as a quick straw poll, or canvasing opinions or ideas. I hate the rampant immaturity of it, and I do wonder if things would improve if there was a reporting mechanism, or some form of moderation.
The app does have a couple of other serious issues. Its one of the buggiest apps I've found, and it has a nasty habit of scrambling text on the 'your questions' page. I'm willing to stick with it though as it can be a highly amusing little waste of time.
Ask a question.
Get an answer.
Some questions are weird. Others just racist or nasty.
Oh c'mon. Everyone knows its 'Empire'!
Bloom
In the next couple of posts, I'm going to give a little overview of a couple of my favourite apps - starting with Bloom
Bloom is a 'generative music' creator, developed in part by Brian Eno. The idea is simple, you select a predefined 'mood' which provides an ambient background harmonic. You then tap on the iPods screen to play a note which repeats and eventually fades. The positioning of your tap (along with the mood) determines the pitch of the note. Bloom recognises multi-touch and so you can play multiple notes at once. High notes at the top of the screen, and the lows at the bottom. In many respects it reminds me of the Tenori-On. But give that cost nearly £600 and Bloom comes in at £2.99 the comparison ends there.
It can produce so nice atmospheric tunes, and I actually intend to use Bloom to do the background music for some of my videos. Since music is not my strong point by any means, I love this little app for allowing even someone as musically talentless as me to knock up a tune.
New Toy
A few photographs
Secondly, I've added some additional candid portraits to the portrait gallery, including this one of Justin which I love.
Looks like I've been hacked!
By day, I'm a mild manned wage slave; but some nights I like to dress up in my robe and wizards hat and join a few million other players in Azeroth.
Yes ladies and gentlemen, I play World of Warcraft.
But Neil, I hear you cry, 'what could someone like you possibly enjoy about such a geeky game?' Well apart from the obvious, I actually enjoy playing it. I get bored with the grinding, same as everyone else, but otherwise I really like the majority of the quest. The game displays a healthy sense of humor, doesn't take itself too seriously (unlike some MMO's I could mention) and best of all - theres a Mac native client so I don't need a Windows box to play. I'm also lucky in that a number of my 'real life' friends play as well, and between us we've got a pretty well balanced party.
Jeff is a Mage, Ed is a Warlock. Jim is a Rouge (what a shocker), and Glenn is a Warrior - our tank.
This is me, Altamiranna.
I play a Blood-Elf Priest, and its pretty much my job to keep the other guys alive. Well when I'm not out of mana that is! Of course, I can always do a bit of soloing as well.
So, I've been happly playing on and off for a few years now. Until tonight that is.
Oh bugger!
Double bugger!
It would appear that my account has been hijacked. I'm guessing that it happened this afternoon, as Jeff told me that he'd seen my online but not responding to any messages. Hmm, I wonder why that was.
Unfortunately, Blizzards customer support line only seems to operate between 08:00-17:00 - Monday to Friday ie, when everyone is work and not able to get to their gaming machines. I've had to report the problem via their web-form, which rather ominously states that it may take some time to resolve the issue.
Since I'm unable to even access my account management, I'm rather concerned that the little runt that has changed both my password and my e-mail address (so that I cannot re-set the password) now has access to my payment options and may be able to get my bank details. Whilst I'm not going to give Blizzard too much stick for only manning the phones during office hours. I do think the lack of weekend coverage when peoples bank details are exposed is an unacceptable risk.
So for the next few days, I'm going to blog the responses from Blizzard and document the damage that has been wrought on my account. I fully expect to log back in to find a naked blood-elf, penniless, weaponless and mountless.
If I'm lucky, Blizzard may be able to restore poor Altamiranna to her former glory.
Stay tuned for the next installment of 'looks like I've been hacked'.