Paco Underhill science-math facts about Paco Underhill.

also, i really really like his name.

applicated

the most delightful thing about iphones is the application store. a veritable orchard of juicy entertainment fruit. apples for the mind. the beauty of it is: anyone can make/submit an application. which means there exists a wealth of applications ranging form the very tidy and complex to the very simplistic (for instance, the bubbles app), to the very, very baffling.

most useful to date:
wikipanion (one-touch access to wikipedia. awesome)
dictionare (dictionary)
showtimes (locates where youa re with GPS, tells you what movies, where they're playing, their proximity to you, directions, etc etc.)



most entertaining:
this one belongs to hangman. my personal favourite. the only app i visit so regularly, besides the weather bug. simple, engaging... recently updated with a 2-player mode and cateogires - whereas previously, everything was one mysterious, generic mish-mosh.




most baffling:
Knots
by far, knots is the most nonsensical game i've downloaded. and there are no game instructions or help information to speak of. i've spent an inordinate amount of time trying my darnedest to figure it out. so this is how it goes:

you have a blank screen with a dot.
you put your finger on the dot and another dot pops up.
you put another finger on the second dot. if you let go of the first dot, you lose. holding the two dots, these bouncy rings ripple out from one of them.
and then nothing happens.
sometimes you can move a finger and a new dot pops up.
but sometimes, this makes you lose.
no rhyme. no reason. no instructions.


2nd most baffling prize goes to: JumbleSolvr. now i was under the impression this game gave you a mix of letters which you had to solve. my kinda game. unfortunately, this is not the case. you have a field where you can type letters in and the app tells you what those letters could be, if un-jumbled. the redeeming feature is, they know it's useless and that seems to be their whole developer strategy.


simple & noteworthy:
bubbles touch the screen to make a bubble. touch the bubble to pop it. make as many as you want. the bubbles float away, who knows where.

light saber pick a star wars character (though they all kinda suck). pick a light saber color. it makes an electric hum and wooshes/clashes when you swing your iphone around.



couldn't hold my interest
cookie bonus solitare (basically solitare, but with cookies. also the cards have cookie pictures on them. too bad, it sounds like something i'd like.)

JumbleSolvr (see above)


downloaded today:
pacman lite; free translator; touch hockey; mazefinger; & jellycar ("driving a squishy car through squishy worlds")