Did John Moore own an Atari system? We’ll find out as we celebrate the 40th anniversary of Pong. I’ve also reviewed a fantastic photo-editing app for Android users and explored a new interactive book on robots that’s been released for the iPad.
Pong World
Free
Remember Pong? Those two white dashes and a dot may seem awfully antiquated today, but forty years ago they gave the world its first glimpse at a video game. To celebrate the anniversary and give us all a reason to look back, Atari has released an all-new version called Pong World.
The new version offers paddles with faces that speak. There’s a paddle with teeth and covered in fur, for example, another is dressed in a suit of armor like a medieval knight. Strange, yes, but it seems to be an effort to attract younger players. A better idea are the obstacles that have been added to the playfield such as vision-obscuring fog or spinning wheels that redirect the ball in unpredictable directions.
It’s still Pong, but updated with modern graphics, music, and a system of rewards earned by collecting coins. Each time you play you can pay to widen your paddle or give It a shield. Naturally the coins run out quickly you find yourself spending money on the “free” game to buy more.
That money-grab, along with the constant in-game advertising, takes away from the fun, but Pong World does offer enough of a new twist that you can play it again for nostalgia’s sake and not feel old doing so.
Pixlr Express
Free/$0.99
Autodesk is one of Hollywood’s leading creators of software for digital effects. With Pixlr they have turned their expertise towards making photo-editing software that anyone can use. It’s controlled using a system of simple and attractive icons that make it easy to choose from among 600 different tools and effects, ranging from teeth whiteners and red-eye removers to filters, boarders, and of course, special effects. This includes tools that are often missing in photo-editing apps, such as the ability to resize a photo or to “denoise” it, to remove any pixelations or anomalies that can appear in low-light photos or images capturing fast motion.
There’s chemical burns and exposure leaks, firework displays and flame effects. Smoke clouds and retro posters work alongside vintage filters while focal blurs and color splashes let you bring it some aspects of a photograph while ignoring the others. Each can be applied with a single touch or, for more advanced users, adjusted with sliders bars to better control the results.
It’s a great photo app, particularly for Android users who get all the effects for free while iPhone users must pay an upgrade price for Pixlr Express Plusor settle for just a default of 200 effects.
Robots
$4.99
When I was a little boy I had a big book of robots that fueled my dreams of the future. It was full of drawings and illustrations because robots did not yet exist. Today robots are very real and this iPad equivalent of my childhood science book profiles many of the different robots in existence around the world.
There are 126 robots featured including ones that sing, dance, and work together in organized teams. There’s a robot that looks eerily human, another that can perform heart surgery, and robots designed to explore outer space. Assembled by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, the list also includes Google’s self-driving car, an exoskeleton to enhance human strength, and toy-like creatures designed to help in different fields of therapy.
Many of the robots have been scanned by panoramic cameras that let you turn them about and examine them in detail. With a swipe or a tap it can also show you how they move or in some cases, what electronics are hiding inside. There are plenty of videos and interviews with roboticists, enough to make this a rich resource to inspire young minds who may be keen to design their own robots one day.
