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Once the names Burton, Elfman, and Depp in the same film made me giddy with an…ticipation. I knew that I would be lost in a loopy fantasy world for 90 minutes. Their early films were innovative and astonishing and I watched them over and over and over. I even went so far as to follow in their footsteps and study film at the same college (Elfman didn’t technically go there but he did crash the classes). However, the time came that with every Edward Scissorhands, Nightmare Before Christmas and Sweeney Todd, they’d shovel out a Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Corpse Bride. Today I no longer have high expectations from this gothy trio and go into Dark Shadows with trepidation.

Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows is based on the campy soap opera from the 60’s that bears the same name. The Film’s plot takes us way back to the 1760’s where we’re introduced to Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp) who’s family is responsible for building up a fishing port in Maine, Collinsport. From the very first scenes the soap opera formula kicks in and quickly builds as Barnabas breaks the heart of a witch, Angelique (Eva Green) by falling in love with another woman, Josette. Angelique gets her revenge by putting a spell on Josette and has her jump off a cliff. Pushing her revenge further she turns Barnabas into a vampire, locks him in a coffin where he is buried alive to suffer for all eternity. These first few scenes are played straight which greatly prods the story along and sets up the ensuing comedy-like nature of the film.

Fast forward to 1972 and Barnabas’s grave is dug up by a construction crew which brings us to the bulk of the movie focusing on his struggles with integration in this new environment and its society. Most of Barnabas’s interactions refer to the weird 70‘s which is neither original nor funny. Thank goodness my watch doesn’t light up in the dark or I would have been tortured by how slowly the movie ticked by. There’s  glimmers of what the movie could have been, but only glimmers that soon fade back to ho-humness. One such scene has Barnabas commenting on his relative Carolyn Stoddard who lives a single lifestyle (not to mention that she’s a teenager) “15 and no husband, you must put those birthing hips to good use at once unless your womb shrivel up…and die”. Unfortunately moments like this are sparse and instead more often than not the comedy falls flat.

Even though the comedy inspires no more than a wilted chuckle here and there, what hinders the film the most are the characters. Sure all of the Collins’ and the other characters are quirky and strange, but with so many characters making an appearance in such a short amount of time, every  character comes across as shallow and undeveloped (with the exception of Barnabas), leaving me uninvested in any of them (again with the exception of Barnabas). I was disappointed with the usually fascinating Helena Bonham Carter and Michelle Pfeiffer. Fortunately Depp’s convincing satirical performance saves the day and you believe that he is Barnabas Collins.

Tim Burton’s cinematic shots are eerily beautiful with the sets having his signature gothic architecture as well as a few wild contraptions. Danny Elfman’s original score, that at times quotes themes found in the original series, easily outshines his recent work(thank you for not rehashing Nightmare before Christmas themes again…). He adds to the creepy  atmosphere by layering heavy bass, vibrato strings, scraping cymbals as well as support from a vibraphone. Other moments Elfman brings in inspiration from ‘70s horror flicks and includes classic synthesizer sounds. With all these orchestration elements this is is surely one soundtrack that you may want to pick up.

The Bottom Line:

Johnny Depp brings a brilliant performance accompanied with both Tim Burton and Danny Elfman’s mischievous dark nature to Dark Shadows. However this trio can’t save the film from suffering with paper thin characters, lackluster comedy, and a so-so plot.

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If at first glance you assume that MotionRunner is an endless runner…you’ll be fooled. Instead, MotionRunner takes its gameplay inspiration from parkour and brings a game style that I’ve rarely experienced since EA’s Mirror’sEdge.

MotionRunner stirs memories of Mirror’s Edge, both take inspiration from parkour along with using a similar swipe-control method. By directing your swipes your man is directed to run, jump and flip over obstacles and pits…emphasis on the running. The designed stages bring more demanding challenges and entertainment than many of other iOs runners that have come out this year.

While MotionRunner brings a invigorating experience, it does stumble in a few key areas. The simplistic art style wears thin quickly…please something more than bricks, bricks…Next issue is the length; I played through the entire game while waiting for someone in a coffee shop…they weren’t late either. It’s really that short. Lastly, although the swipe control scheme is promising, I found my man plummeting to his death more times than I would like to admit with MotionRunner randomly misreading my finger swipes. Instead of leaping sometimes he would come to a complete halt or vice versa. These issues are bothersome but not enough to completely spoil the overall parkour experience.

The Bottom Line: (6/10)

MotionRunner brings an Indy feeling to Mirrors Edge. If you can overlook the shortness of the game as well as lack of polish than you’ll definitely find yourself enjoying jumping and flipping throughout each stage.

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We’ve all seen movies where AI takes over our devices and brings the the downfall of humanity as we know it. Knowing that this will happen someday (it has to since there’s a bajillion movies telling us so) what will become of our beloved iPhone when it becomes self aware? Now there’s an app for that! Literally… well kind of.

Description doesn’t do Self Aware the justice that experiencing it does…but here goes… The concept behind Self Aware is what would happen if an Ai took over your iPhone and the only way to take back control of your iPhone is by carrying out a set of varying mini-games.

The mini-games themselves vary greatly from one another with each mini-game being attached to one of your iPhone Apps/Settings (I.E. Calendar, Calculator, Airplane Mode).   In order to reclaim each app you’ll need to pit your wits against the Ai. An early mini-game will have you reclaiming your calculator app by spelling out answers to a simple riddle using numbers to spell words. Such as “what are men obsessed with” (okay not a direct quote but close enough) and you’ll answer this with 58008. This will most likely bring a flash back to your JR High days where spelling naughty words was cool (“58008” spells “BOOBS” upside down).

While  mini games  that are similar to the calculator example are interesting enough, it’s the mini-games that require you to play around with your iPhone settings that makes Self Aware’s originality stand out. One mini game will require you to set back your date on your iPhone to Jan 1st, 2000 and another will have you turning Airplane Mode on in order to solve each mini game. This is all done in your actual iPhone settings which makes it rather cool.

While messing around with your actual settings is a cool idea, it’s also a bit annoying. I’m not one to mess around with my settings and I don’t like having to sign into other social outlets to progress.  One irritating prime example is needing to sign into FaceBook. I don’t have FaceBook and I’m not going to create one to play Self Aware. While somethings are rather annoying, I applaud the unique experience that Self Aware brings.

The Bottom Line: (8/10)

Self Aware ties in quick mini-games as well as utilizing your actual iPhone settings in one unique experience that is great for quick on-the-go gaming.

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When Words with Friends was first introduced it interested gamers and not gamers alike. Since then, copy-cat versions that offer little-to-no variation have infiltrated the genre. MindFeud updates the game by swapping out the letters for colored symbols, thus creating an intriguing new experience.

Playing MindFeud feels a lot like Scrabble (as well as Words with Friends) where you’re lining up tiles and hoping that one falls onto a bonus square. However,  instead of being limited by your vocabulary, you’re matching objects (instead of letters) in order to make the biggest score. These combos need to be either comprised of the same color (without repeating shapes in the line), or of the same shape throughout the line (without repeating the same color). This experience puts a heavy emphasis on strategy and skill which creates an enjoyable slightly more laid back experience than Scrabble or Words with Friends.

Like other games of this nature, you can play several games simultaneously and at your leisure, allowing you to sneak in a little gaming on those busy days. No friends? No problem. Setting up a new game with an anonymous person is easy since there seems to no shortage of people to play with.

The Bottom Line: 8.0

MindFeud brings a new experience that can be enjoyed by anyone, even those hesitant to jump into a word game.

Disclaimer: This is a paid review

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With so many great productivity apps, games, web searches…there’re times when I forget that my iPhone can actually make phone calls. While the iPhone can make calls without the need for a third-party app, making conference calls just got better with Powwownow (Powwow Now).

Powwownow makes setting up conferences hassle-free. Besides inviting people to the scheduled call thru email, you can set up reminder  notifications that make sure that people can’t use the “that was today?” line on you. Powwownow excels in the amount of options it provides during the actual call. The ability to take roll call and lock the conference call once it starts to ensure an interruption free and secure meeting is an invaluable asset.

My favorite feature, even more so than the conference portion is the recording log where the phone conversation is recorded for accuracy. Once the call has ended, you can download the recorded file thru your Powwownow account and either keep it for your records and/or share it with others.

The Bottom line: (8/10)

If conference calls are part of your business agenda then we highly recommend Powwownow.

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If you asked me back in April 2010 when the first iPad was released if  I thought I would be able to run a chunk of my business on it I would have snickered and said  “great device but ah…no.” While this may have been true then, apps such as Egnyte allow me to easily manage my business on my iPad.

To run a business today one needs to be able to upload/download any type of file on a cloud service at anytime and anywhere. Now you can easily do this with Egnyte on your Mac/PC , iPad  and just about any other mobile device (even the Nook). In order to familiarize myself with Egnyte I did what needed to be done and jumped into the desktop portion of Egnyte. Within a minute or so I was pleased, no make that delighted, at how easy it is to upload files, encrypt files and share information. This is all done with the clean interface that allows almost anyone to jump in and immediately start to organize their files. The robust amount of options is astounding and fit all of our needs.

Of course one of the main reasons why you want to upload files to any cloud is so you can access the files on the go. With Egnyte’s iPad app this is easy. Once logged into the app, all of my uploaded previously synced files were there in a tidy and manageable interface. While my personal files have always been disorganized (not anymore) Egnyte came to my rescue with a built in Search feature as well as being able to place bookmarks that allow swift navigation. Now those pesky misplaced files can be found in a moment.

Sharing files in the app is effortless  and allows you to email the file(s) or a link to the file thru email.  All the other features such as uploading, making notes on files, viewing files and deleting files on your iPad uses an intuitive user interface that like its Mac/Pc counterpart is a snap.

As a whole Egnyte brings a fantastic service that easily tops the current service that my studio uses (used). While Egnyte has some great features such as being able to hook up an iPad to an overhead projector (I was unable to test this feature due to lack of an overhead projector), I was left wanting a smidgen more of functionality. This is disappointingly  due to the lack of being able to open up/view several format types within the application from .zip, .rar, as well as Adobe files to name a few.  Nonetheless, this hardly dampened the experience and I am pleased with the fluidity of Egnyte.

The Bottom Line: (9/10*)

Even though it lacks some functions, Egnyte surpasses our expectations on a Mac/PC and brings a Hybrid Cloud service that outperformed all others that we’ve tried.

*The final score reflects the overall Egnyte experience with Mac/PC as well as iPad.

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When people meet me for the first time…or so, I come across as a completely serious person. I don’t smile or laugh…I even look too serious to be part of the British Royal Guard. However, after people spend some time around me they realize that I’m rather goofy spirited individual with a dry wit. So why am I talking about myself you ask? That’s because something rare happened when I played Just Funny Games Jake Escapes HD, I cracked a smile…a small one but still quite the rare achievement.

In Jake Escapes HD, we’re introduced to Jake, a master thief, and his scientist buddy, Doc. They steal an artifact in Area 51 which transports them to other territories (2 locations at the moment). Throughout their escape, Jake climbs buildings, eludes the governments greatest agent, Bob and takes down crime lords hell bent on stealing the artifact from him! Why this simple story works so well is not from any type of plot twists, instead it’s the whole character of the game. The cutscenes are told in amusing comic panels and the character designs are easily my new personal favorite as far as iOS gaming goes. Add on top of this the other absurd people Jake encounters and yes you’ll find a smirk appear on your face as well.

Through each stage you’ll take control of Jake by having him crawling up the building from windowsill to windowsill. However Jake’s escape becomes more problematic with having boarded up windows (Jake can’t get a grip on these) as well as a laughable cast of characters that Jake encounters on each building. In Paris the buildings are crawling with suicidal-like mimes who strangely get joy by walking along the ledge of the windows. So make sure your fingers don’t get stepped on! Jump over to Moscow and you have women dropping Tetris-like pieces from their windows as well as bears wearing Shriners hats. Are the characters absurd? Yes. Luckily these people will not stop Jake since he has one more trick up his sleeve, his buddy Doc. In each level you can tap on any person and you’ll see Doc fly to the rescue and zap the person out of the way. These two elements turn a casual-like experience into a deeper challenge.

I’m just going to come out and say it, no clever paragraph transitions or anything like that. I’m exhilarated that Jake Escapes HD feels and plays like it’s conceived for touch devices! No virtual analog sticks or any other virtual buttons, instead intuitive and responsive finger swipes will have you jumping Jake from window to window. As already mentioned, calling Doc in for back up is as easy as a simple tap. Controls this intuitive create an experience unlike any other. All I can say is that I hope other developers take note of this and put more thought into their games.

Jake Escapes HD is a great game but it does have some faults…very few I might add but here they are. First off is that it feels a bit short with only two environments. (Fortunately, more levels are in the works.) The other snafu is that the levels rarely feel distinctive from one another. Besides the Boss Battles (which are great by the way), the stages have you collecting objects again and again which tends to hinder the variety that I so desire.

The Bottom Line:

Jakes Escapes brings a remarkably new enjoyable experience over to the iPhone ad iPad. Smile.

Throughout the last few years the Marvel universe has been building up to  release The Avengers by slowly introducing the super heroes one by one in their own movies. Some have been lackluster such as The Hulk that had me walk out of the theater before it was over, others top notch like Iron Man which is easily one of the best Super Hero movies we’ve seen. Now after years of anticipation, Marvel successfully unites The Avengers in one massive movie.

As Super Hero movies go, The Avengers plot  tends to follow a formula we’re familiar with. Our world is threatened by an Alien, Loki (Thor’s brother), who’s intent on conquering humanity. Fortunately we have S.H.I.E.L.D.’s director,  Nick Furry (Samuel L. Jackson), who calls together the mash of Super Heroes to form the Justice League! I mean The Avengers! However, since this is the first time this group bands together we get to see how they’re brought together, how they socially interact and how they squabble amongst each other all while endeavoring to defeat the goofy helmet wearing Loki. Come on how can someone who looks like he’s wearing a golden beetle antennae helmet become such a threat? Oh yeah, that’s right…he’s got an army.

Our biggest notable concern with The Avengers, or any movie of this magnitude   is if the plot, characters, and overall pacing becomes nothing more than a tangled mess. Fortunately Joss Whedon, writer and director, has done the seemingly impossible: tell a massive story (perhaps the most complex Super Hero movie since Watchmen) that is comprehensive and damn entertaining.

Part of The Avengers charm is how Whedon humanizes the heroes through dialog and their interaction while not in battle. Here we get to witness how Tony Stark’s (Robert Downey Jr.) ego clashes with the much more noble Thor (Chris Hemsworth). Of course the interactions with the other heros as well as other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents is as well developed. While we can give credit to the dialog driven scenes playing nice with the well written script, the acting is top notch especially for a Super Hero movie. Robert Downey Jr. gives his usual screen stealing performance ripe with expert whit and timing. Even more surprising though is Mark Ruffalo’s take on the Hulk that not only brings the best Hulk experience as of yet, but complements Downey’s Iron Man and at times steals the scene from him. While these two actors dominate the movie, the other actors aren’t slouches and are almost as entertaining to watch. The dialog is sharp and highlights the–Super Hero Ego Battles!

A BlockBuster Super Hero movie needs action and The Avengers has a lot of it. We get to see Thor fight against Captain America and Iron Man and….These action packed moments come often and bring some of the best fighting sequences that we’ve ever seen in a Super Hero movie. Besides fighting each other, they band together to form The Avengers (what do you expect—it is The Avengers movie) to fight Loki and his army.

The climax of the movie pits The Avengers against Loki and his army of weird dragon-like monsters and hovercraft speed bike-like vehicles is the pinnacle of all the action scenes and trust me there’s some great action sequences leading to this one. This final  battle takes place in Manhattan and seamlessly cuts from hero to hero with the amazing action continuously flowing from shot to shot. Add the exhilarating graphics to the mix and you’ve got the most spectacular fight scene that we’ll most likely see this summer.

The Avengers doesn’t disappoint, leaving us very little to criticize. As already stated is that the story is a little cliche but we don’t expect brain benders in our action Movies. The biggest disappointment is found in Samuel L. Jackson’s performance that seems to be phoned in. Surprisingly he manages to bring down nearly every scene that he’s in. With Nick Furry being a great character in the comics, Hopefully Jackson will step up his game in the sequel. Other than that grab a bottle of pop and head on over to the movies.

The Bottom Line:

Whedon expertly weaves together this fantastic cast of characters, great acting and jaw-dropping action. The Avengers is one movie that you don’t want to miss seeing at the theaters.

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Way back in the good old days of the SNES when I was mooching off my parents and the WWE was still the WWF (well the mooching hasn’t changed), we were treated to a multitude of button mashing wresting games. Now the genre has faded into the corner of the ring as well as our minds. However as Hulk Hogan managed to re-pop up as a current TV persona, so has a retro-like wresting game. In the right corner, its first appearance in the Mac AppStore (OSX), Powerslam!

Powerslam at its core is a button masher but if you’re one to really focus on attacks you’ll be pleased with the small variety of moves that’s included to break up the button mashing. All the moves are lined up on the keyboard allowing a swift line of attacks from kicks, grapples to even taunts. If you’re new to the fighting genre and you find yourself getting pulverized instead of landing attacks, you can adjust the Ai difficulty anywhere from very easy to very difficult. If you play it on very hard you’ll need to break away from button mashing and focus on lining up a string of attacks as well as a good defense. In other words, Powerslam will allow the most novice to succeed while still bringing a challenge for the more advanced.

Throughout Powerslam you’ll come across a wide variety of matches that change the gameplay experience. With the 11 types of fights you’ll encounter a variety that ranges from wrestling one on one to a massive brawl with four wrestlers at once. Best of all is that some of the matches include objects such as chairs that you can whack the opponents with. The amount of variety helps make up for the short comings of the graphics (all the characters for the most part look the same) as well as limited variety of attacks.

Powerslam contains a couple unlockables that will push some gamers to play through the whole tournament (it’s a long tournament made up of 48 rounds and a final boss battle). You can unlock “Big Head Mode” that will totally conjure up memories of anyone who played games on the PSX (or earlier). Also if the standard 18 wrestlers are not enough for you to choose from, you can unlock an editor mode that’ll allow you to create up to 95 custom wrestlers!

The Bottom Line: 6.0

PowerSlam is a decent wrestling  game that’ll bring some enjoyment and nostalgia to fans of this genre.

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Some people such as my father-in-law have the amazing super power to memorize strings of random numbers while others, such as myself, have a hard time remembering any set of the simplest numbers. Solving this dilemma, Pierre Hérigone invented a new system in 1644 (or “DoG” + “ReX”) that uses the memorization of images (this is because images are easier to remember than numbers). Now IDI-Create brings over the mnemonic calculator, Memorize IDi, to the iPhone and the iPad.

-A little confused? Click Here to read more about Pierre Hérigone’s method

Memorize IDi assumes that this method is new to you (I never heard of it until now) so it breaks down the bare basics and explains the memorization of numbers to letters. Soon you’ll be memorizing that 0 equals “s” or “z”, 1 equals “d” or “t” and so forth. But why spend your time memorizing these letters? Because they’re going to be used to spell phonetically the words of images to remember numbers.

Once you start to get a grasp on Memorize IDi, you can begin to test your memorization through a series of Beginner to Advanced questions. The beginner mode will quiz you on matching letters with numbers. Step up to the more advanced levels and soon you’ll be spelling out images with numbers! This works well and although not technically a game, it kinda feels like one.

If you find yourself needing to memorize anniversary dates, or perhaps history dates for a school quiz than you will want to give the built in Memorize Calculator a try. This calculator allows you to plug in any date and press the equal button and there you’ve got your date displayed in easy to remember images!

The Bottom Line: 10/10

Before I say “The Bottom Line” don’t let your eyes wander. Now that your eyes are focused  tell me the year that I mentioned in the first paragraph. Can’t remember? I bet you remember “Dog” + “Rex” (equals 1644). There’s your “Bottom Line” for you.