CE Wills

   Hey, everyone. It is a lovely morning here at the green retreat and I have been busy. As I pause to check my stats on blog and books I thought I might tell you a cautionary tale.      As you may know, one of the most wonderful things about choosing the I-Pad as a tablet is its app store. Apple does a nice job of running it and this is not an Apple-bashing post. There are some people that are abusing their apps and the opportunities that they have. Let me be specific.      The other day I was playing one of my favorite games called Iron Man 3. There have been some problems with this game. For instance, they went back and put in ads with an update, failed to give me back my in-apps when I re-downloaded the game and other things. The most recent deal was interesting. I was playing the game and it switched me to a video ad about retirement planning. About the same time there appeared a warning on my screen that stated " Iron Man 3 is r...

     Hey everyone. It has been a busy few days since last I posted. My wife has bought the I-Phone 5s (more on that later) and I have bought the I-Pad Air. But first I want to talk about the new Smart Case I bought for His Airness. I think you should consider getting one of the pricey rascals. Mine is beige and it looks good. It feel good in my hands, also. It has two parts that are permanently joined and the back is cup-shaped so that the Air sits snugly down inside it. It protects both the front and the back in a sleek little cocoon complete with the Apple logo.      Perhaps one of the best things about it is this: the slick back of the I-Pad Air is encased and no longer wants to slide off things to the floor. There is also a huge difference in the ease with which you can hold your device with this case on it. The slimness of the Air, and its noted lightness, makes the case a big improvement. $79 is significant grindage but it is worth it. ...

    Hey, everyone. Recently I bought the new game by Polarbit Studios called Reckless Racing 2. I really don't intend to review the game but I do want to talk about a brilliant innovation in the controls.    In the picture above, notice the silver bar and just above it the box you can check for Dynamic Difficulty. The studio people explain that dynamic difficulty is the practice in the gaming community of making a game get harder as you progress and have success in it. This is the instrument that ruins gaming for the casual gamers because they get stuck at levels and can't progress and enjoy the game they have paid for.     As you know, I have constantly griped about this, even threatening to give one star reviews for games I get stuck on when I have selected the easy level. (see my post entitled The Shadowgun Manifesto). The gaming industry has catered to the hardcore gamers who want games to be super hard so that they can prove something o...

    Hey, everyone. I've been playing a lot of games today and I have several subjects to touch on. Firstly, lets talk about Shadowgun's new Leftover Expansion Pack . In this set of levels, there is a new bad guy. They are the armored shooters who are so difficult to kill. So far, it is my experience which dictates the following strategy. If you can find a place where you can cower behind a barricade without getting killed, the shooters get a little cheeky and walk slowly up to you. Then you can pop up and give them a shotgun blast to the face. This will settle their hash but it has to be at very close range. Otherwise, they merely do the thing where they sort of wilt and discharge electricity, then spring back to vigorous life. Other than this, even the plasma gun seems not to be a solution.     I read an interview with the co-founder of Madfinger Games the other day. This is the company that came out with Shadowgun . I noticed that the company is located ...

    Hey, everyone. My wife bought me the Steve Jobs biography for Christmas. I thought I'd give you some early impressions of Walter Isaacson's work even though I am not at the half-way point.     To begin with, I almost never read biographies or autobiographies. On the rare occasions that I do, they typically bore me to tears. For this reason I determined just to open to a page here and there and read parts that I found interesting. Much to my surprise, about one flip did it. I just read and read about this fascinating man.      Let me say that I have the utmost respect for the fact that Steve and his wife told their friends and others who were involved in this book to be absolutely honest with the writer during his research. This is so unusual for a biography and makes it informative and interesting. The book scarcely flatters Mr. Jobs, in most cases. It shows a brilliant, flawed, passionate individual. Except for his brilliance, goo...

    Hey, everyone. It's no secret that I am an Apple fan. I love gaming on the I-Pad and the whole thing. I was proud of Apple the other day when they stopped Big Fish Games from initiating the subscription gaming deal on the app store.     However, it seems that I can see a bit of a change in the general spirit of the company. I read a quote from Steve Jobs biography to the effect that Steve was not thrilled with the direction he foresaw the company moving under some of the people at the top.     Since Steve has left us it seems that there are quite a few of the developers on the store taking little liberties with app updates and in-app purchases. Things that, while not dishonest or illegal, are a bit unsavory. With the former regime, the customer always was a factor in the decision making process. Apple really 'got it' about how to treat people.    Forgetting the app store for the moment, let me talk about the I-Cloud. Are they trying to...