Modern tower defense games for iOS

 

Place turrets on the path, but also be aware of your Commander (mech) who gives special abilities.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)

The tower defense genre started out with Desktop Tower Defense, a Flash game you could play in your Web browser, but once the iTunes App Store opened, developers quickly realized this type of game was a perfect fit for iOS devices. Soon, tower defense games that are now iOS classics emerged, including GeoDefense, Fieldrunners, and the hugely popular Plants vs. Zombies. The touch-screen interface made iOS devices a natural platform for tower defense gaming, allowing you to place units easily with only a few taps of your finger, and the result was the perfect time-waster requiring both quick thinking and a solid strategy.
Those early games are still fun even now, but the modern entries in the Tower Defense genre add even more to the action with 3D graphics, new types of gameplay, and new ways to take advantage of today's more powerful iOS devices. Whether you're a serious tower defense aficionado or new to the genre, you'll like the direction developers have taken with the tower defense games that are now available.
This week's collection of iOS apps are all tower defense games. The first is the latest sequel to a popular franchise in which you defend against an alien invasion of the homeworld. The second offers up crisp 3D graphics as you defend a flock of sheep from an onslaught of enemies. The last is a new game that takes a different angle, challenging you to become the invader against well-defended maps, using units and abilities that keep your assault force alive.
Sentinel 3: Homeworld ($2.99 - Universal) is the latest installment (released late in 2010) of the Sentinel tower defense franchise, offering more units to choose from, new maps, and new abilities that help you stave off wave after wave of alien enemies. The interface is like many in the fixed-path tower defense genre, letting you drag and drop units on the edges of a path to fortify your defenses against each wave of enemies. Sentinel 3 comes with a 20-level, 14-map campaign and an endless mode, and also offers in-app purchases if you want to add even more levels and maps.
Sentinel 3: Homeworld starts you off slow; you only get one type of unit plus a Commander that offers bonuses to nearby units. As the game progresses you'll be able to unlock more than 20 turrets, orbital ship weapons, and automated drones. The unique Commander unit can be upgraded as well, and you'll need his higher stats and special abilities to defeat some of the higher-level assaults. Once you've unlocked a few units, you can plan for the coming invasion by setting up loadouts of units that will work best against specific types of enemies.
Overall, with new turret types, the addition of the Commander, four skill levels, OpenFeint support, and original music from Specimen A, Sentinel 3: Homeworld makes for an excellent addition to the franchise. Anyone who likes tower defense games will enjoy this well-polished title.
TowerMadness ($2.99 iPhone - $7.99 iPad) has been around for a while now, but the unique challenge and several updates over time make it a must-have for tower defense fans. Featuring 3D graphics that look great on the Retina Display, TowerMadness challenges you to defend a flock of sheep from an onslaught of attacking aliens. You can view the action from above or use a reverse-pinch gesture to zoom in on the action. You'll play on 49 included maps, but you can purchase 28 expansion maps from within the game. A recent update added 5 more maps, and two new weapon upgrades to add to the replay value.
TowerMadness offers both campaign and endless game modes along with an easy tutorial mode in the beginning to get you comfortable with the gameplay. TowerMadness is a bit different from the other games in this collection in that it is an open field rather than a fixed-path tower defense game. This means you'll need to place your units in such a way that the enemies will need to navigate around them to reach your flock of sheep. You'll quickly learn that the best strategy is to create a sort of maze with your turrets, forcing enemies to pass by a mix of turrets several times. TowerMadness also includes replays so you can analyze your strategies to see which work the best.
Tower Madness has Game Center support with 29 achievements you can earn. You can also compare your scores with other players' online, adding additional challenge to an already challenging game.
While we continue to enjoy this title, we think the pricing may be a bit steep for a game that's been around as long as it has. The game seems to go through cycles of going on sale and recently was free for a time, so maybe you'll want to wait for the next sale. Still, if you like strategy games and want an incredibly deep tower defense experience, TowerMadness offers plenty to keep you interested.

As your units move through the war-torn streets, you'll need to use repair and other abilities.

(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)

Anomaly Warzone Earth ($1.99 iPhone - $3.99 iPad) takes a different tack with the tower defense genre by having you play as the invading force, completing missions on a (somewhat) fixed path against a number of deadly turrets. Your heavily armored squad of vehicles and units has guns of their own, but as with every tower defense game, the more turrets you're up against, the harder it will be to stay healthy and reach your goal.

Fortunately, as you progress through the game, you'll gain abilities that will repair your vehicles and make it harder for enemies to hit you. You'll be able to deploy special weapons that are strong against specific enemy types, making it crucial to select your unit loadout wisely. You'll also have to select your path; Anomaly Warzone Earth has a tactical screen you'll visit before each quest to design a path through several city blocks of strategically placed turrets. Often the quest will require that you take out specific enemy types, so you'll need to design your path to maximize damage against them. To keep you well fortified, a drop ship occasionally drops health and other abilities that you'll need to tap to add to your arsenal.
Overall, Anomaly Warzone Earth is a very well-made and challenging game that turns traditional tower defense on its head. With excellent graphics and a unique take on the game genre, this title will keep you coming back to try new strategies against increasingly difficult enemies.

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Sandy Bridge processors on sale at Malaysian retailers

Intel's Sandy Bridge processors aren't due for release until early 2011, likely coinciding with January's Consumer Electronics Show (CES), but some retailers have jumped the gun. According to Lowyat.net, Malaysian retailers Compuzone, StarTec and Viewnet have begun selling several versions of the next-generation chips along with LGA 1155 motherboards.

The retailers have listed six Sandy Bridge processors for sale, including the 2.8GHz Core i5 2300 ($185), 3.10GHz 2400 ($195), 3.3GHz 2500, 3.3GHz 2500K, as well as the 3.4GHz Core i7 2600 ($300) and 2600K. If you're curious, the 'K' versions feature an unlocked multiplier for easier overclocking. We don't see a price for these yet, but you can expect to pay a premium.



Lowyat.net also discovered a few photos of Sandy Bridge chips and motherboards on Compuzone's Facebook page, but they appear to have been removed or blocked from public view. We're not sure if the retailers have received clearance from Intel, but it wouldn't be the first time a major tech product was launched prematurely -- especially in Asian markets.

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Microsoft sells 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices in six weeks

Microsoft has announced that it has sold over 1.5 million Windows Phone 7 devices through its various partners in the first six weeks the mobile operating system has been on the market. This is the first time the software giant has revealed sales numbers; until now, the company has been avoiding the question, leading many to believe the results were abysmal.
Microsoft says these early sales figures meet the company's expectations for a new mobile OS in an already crowded market. The company is working on multiple updates to Windows Phone 7, the first of which is rumored to be landing next month.
It's important to note that the 1.5 million number represents sales of Windows Phone 7 devices from OEMs to carriers, as opposed to devices sold from carriers to customers. Windows Phone 7 devices went on sale in Europe on October 21 and in the US on November 8. In the US, AT&T and T-Mobile offer Windows Phone 7 GSM devices. In January 2011, Verizon and Sprint are expected to begin selling CDMA Windows Phone 7 devices.
"I think our expectations are realistic for a new platform," Achim Berg, Microsoft's vice president of business and marketing for Windows Phones, said in a statement. "We started fresh with Windows Phone 7, and it's a different kind of phone. Measuring for success is more long term than short term. We launched with many of the top mobile operators in the world, and even more in the coming year in 2011. We have 18,000 developers who are developing for our marketplace. It's just getting better and better."

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Elliptic Labs brings Minority Report interface to the iPad

If you liked the Minority Report interface demonstrated on Microsoft's Kinect motion controller, you'll like this one for Apple's iPad. Norwegian company Elliptic Labs is going to demo its touchless user interface for iPads at CES 2011. For now, we'll have to make do with the video embedded below.
"The idea is that you use touchless gestures to operate primary functions of a docked tablet in situations like when you have wet or greasy hands in the kitchen," Elliptic Labs CEO Stian Aldrin told Mobile Magazine. "In general tablets are made for being handheld. When it is docked you are often walking or standing further away, and then using a finger on the screen involves a change of modality. Rather than bending down, leaning forward or picking it up you can use larger movements a little bit further away to do things like volume up or next song without changing modality."
The technology emits an ultrasound field around the device that detects your hand movements and takes them into account. The iPad has a small screen, so standing back and using it without touching it seems a little pointless. Aldrin does, however, mention one use case that makes soem sense: when you're cooking and you're using the iPad to look at a recipe. Can you think of any others? 

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Netflix working on HTML5 standard for streaming video

Netflix has officially embraced HTML5 video. The company doesn't just want to just push forward with its own flavor of HTML5 video, the way Apple did with its iOS devices, but it wants to build an industry-wide consensus on issues like video codecs and container formats used for browser-based video delivery as well as DRM content protection. Because many of these issues haven't been resolved yet, Netflix has yet to adopt HTML5 video, but the streaming website is clearly distinguishing itself from Apple by putting emphasis on cross-platform standards.
Netflix wants to actively get involved in standards bodies like the MPEG committee for Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH), which is trying to come up with a standard for adaptive bitrate streaming to browsers with HTML5 support. The committee, which also includes companies like Microsoft and Apple, will get help from Netflix beginning early next year, by means of a profile describing a limited subset of the MPEG DASH standard.
Netflix currently uses Microsoft's Silverlight to deliver video to PC-based web browsers, but has to leverage various other technologies to support Linux-based CE devices, mobile phones, and tablets like the iPad. HTML5 video would help to simplify the roll-out of its online video service across different devices and would also help CE partners and end users.
"What's still missing is how to address the last item - how exactly to tie advanced streaming standards (MPEG DASH and others) into the HTML5 video tag," a Netflix spokesperson said in a statement. "To this end, we are starting to get involved in the community with the goal to help shape a great standard that will be useful to everybody involved in building browsers, CE devices and services for streaming video over the Internet. We know that achieving this goal will take a while. In the meantime, we’ll continue to evolve our own streaming technology to make sure our members have the best streaming experience possible and to get to as many platforms as we can."

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Financial Times names Steve Jobs Person of the Year

Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been named Person of the Year by The Financial Times. Love him or hate him, it's pretty much widely accepted that Jobs has managed to make Apple very successful in the last few years.
"When Steven Paul Jobs first hit the headlines, he was younger even than Mark Zuckerberg is now," according to The Financial Times. "Long before it was cool to be a nerd, his formative role in popularising the personal computer, and Apple's initial public offering on Wall Street – which came when Mr Jobs was still only 25 – made him the tech industry's first rock star. Now, three decades on, he has secured his place in the foremost ranks of the West Coast tech titans who have done so much to shape the world around the turn of the millennium. Long-time nemesis Bill Gates may be richer and, at his peak, arguably exerted greater sway, thanks to his monopoly over the world's PC software. But the Microsoft co-founder has left the stage to devote his life and fortune to good works. It is Mr Jobs who now holds the spotlight."

Last week, Time Magazine named Mark Zuckerberg Person of the Year. Which publication do you agree with, if either?

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Skype to release video-calling for mobile devices?

Skype, the company known for providing voice and video calling services over the Internet, might be getting ready to release video calling for mobile devices that have a front-facing camera. Skype has been hinting for a while now that it will be making video-related announcements at CES 2011 and that it's participating in a panel called "Video Calling Gets Ready for Primetime." In other words, the details will become official next month.
Skype recently posted a help document on its website detailing how to make video calls using Skype for iPhone, according to Engadget. Unfortunately, there did not appear to be a corresponding document for Android, BlackBerry, Symbian, Windows Phone, webOS, or other mobile operating systems, but that doesn't necessarily mean that Skype is limiting the launch to the iPhone. Remember, most tablets that are currently available or that are launching early next year, also have front-facing cameras.
Skype already has video conferencing built into its PC and Mac applications that users can access via their webcams. Bringing video calling to Skype's mobile app, one that is available on multiple platforms, would be revolutionary. Skype already has a huge user base and it could grow that number very quickly if this leak is right on the money.

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Toshiba strikes chip deals with Samsung and Sony

Toshiba, the world's third biggest chip maker behind Intel and Samsung, is planning on outsourcing output of some system chips to Samsung Electronics and selling a production line to Sony. The company wants to reduce its non-memory chip exposure by restructuring its chip operations after the business lost the company billions of dollars during the global financial crisis two years ago. At the same time, Toshiba wants to build a new domestic factory to make LCD panels with total investment likely to be over 100 billion yen ($1.21 billion), according to Reuters.
In the next financial year, which starts in April, Toshiba will design cutting-edge system chips but will outsource production to Samsung and possibly other companies. This will free up resources for other projects (like memory modules) by eliminating the need for capacity upgrades, which could actually benefit Toshiba in the long run. Toshiba is the world's second biggest supplier of NAND flash memory; Samsung is first.
The company will also sell its system chip production line in the Nagasaki prefecture to Sony. The line produces chips used in the PlayStation console and is housed in a factory owned by Sony, so the transition should be a smooth one. An industry source has estimated the deal at 50 billion yen ($603.05 million). Sony originally sold the facility to Toshiba for 90 billion yen in 2008.

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Dell Streak 7 : Full Touch 7-Inch Android Tablet Dell Streak 7

Dell Streak 7

The new 7 inch Android Tablet, Dell Streak 7 gets Wi-Fi certified. The Dell Streak 7 is coming soon Android device and expected to hit T-Mobile USA.

The Dell Streak 7 is powered by Android OS and features 7-inch touchscreen display . The Streak 7 is a 3G device recently got Wi-Fi certification, and features Bluetooth, LAN, USB data connectivity.
The Dell Streak 7 Android Tablet sports a Dual Camera for video calls and offers an easy to use interface of social networking applications. The Android Tablet from Dell has built-in GPS, Android Market access and loaded with office software.

Price and Availability: Dell Streak 7 is expected to arrive at T-Mobile USA but no official wording on its launch date yet.

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