Halloween Speical: Angry Birds Halloween

Yes as suspected Rovio is back again for the third Halloween themed update so far for Angry Birds Seasons. So what is new? Ghost blocks that's what! Ghost blocks are these brand new block which, in the name of Halloween, are pure evil. Basically they can hold up other blocks, but if you launch a bird right at it, the bird will just continue right on through. The only way to destroy the ghost blocks are to have them tumble down causing them to split into four which, if they tumble enough, will then finally cause them to disappear.

Other then ghost blocks, though, there isn't really that much that is new. A new pig called Frankenswine is introduced and the other pigs have various Halloween costumes on, but other then minor aesthetics like that nothing has changed. The levels are still fun to play nonetheless and they get you in the Halloween spirit.

If you somehow don't already have Angry Birds Seasons you can click either of these links to pick it up.                                                            App Store | Google Play

iOS 6: Part 7

Welcome back to the next segment in my ongoing talks about Apple's upcoming iOS 6 update. Today we're going to talk about how the Mail and Safari apps have changed and been improved.




Mail:

So the mail app has been redesigned (though if you ask me it doesn't look much different) to be more streamlined and easier to use. There are also improvements to add attachments like photos and the like to your emails as well there is a new feature that lets you create a "V.I.P." list so that you'll lever miss an email from the sources that matter most.

Unfortunately that is it. If you were hoping for some substantial changes to the way you used your email app on Apple's iOS devices then this will come as somewhat of a let down. Sure it's great to make things easier to use, but don't tell me you've "redesigned" the whole app when picture by picture comparisons to older versions of the app look almost identical. But minor improvements are still improvements, so it will be interesting to see just how useful and good these improvements turn out to be.

Safari:

Unlike the new Mail app, the new Safari app actually brings in a number of substantial and great sounding changes and enhancements. First off Safari works through the cloud with iCloud tabs meaning that you can open a tab and start looking at a website on your iPod and then resume looking at that same page over on your iPhone. Secondly Safari now saves web pages to your Reading List which allows you to still be able to see and read everything that is on a particular web page even when you don't have Internet connection. And thirdly if you're posting a picture to a website you no longer have to go through the arduous process of leaving Safari, opening up the camera app, taking a picture, going back to Safari, then posting the picture. Now you can do all that right in Safari, something that sounds great to me.

All of these improvements to Safari actually sound like the sort of features that I would use and all sound like, if done right, they could be great. With so many problems with Safari in the past, I've slowly grown to hate (I'm among friends when I say this) Safari. But changes like these could slowly start to change my opinion. It's still going to take a lot more then that to make me start loving Safari, but it's a step in the right direction.

iOS 6: Part 6

Welcome to the next segment in my series about iOS 6. Today we're going to talk about additions and improvements to FaceTime and that thing that you might remember called phoning.





FaceTime:

So the only major change to FaceTime is that you can now use it over cellular and Wi-Fi services. This also extends to iPads where you use your phone number to FaceTime. So FaceTime hasn't really received any drastic changes, but this is quite a handy one, although I feel like it should have been there since the beginning. If you've read my other parts in this series you'd know how critical of everything Apple does these days is and I'm not going to change that now. FaceTime is a great feature, don't get me wrong, but this change isn't the type of big thing that will get me excited.

Phone:

Apple has done something really smart here. For the last few years everyone has spent so much time improving every other aspect of the phone that they sometimes forget about improving the sole thing that phones were originally made to do- that being phone people of course. But Apple remembered this time around and they made some pretty nice enhancements. If you get a phone call but you can't answer it at the moment (say you're driving, at the movies, or in the middle of some important conversation, etc.) then you can swipe up on the screen to reveal options like a set of preset messages that you can quickly select to send to the person notifying them as to why you can't answer like "Can't talk right now, call you later". This is actually such a useful feature that I could see myself using quite often, of course there are those people that never phone at all anymore who might feel that this improvements and the ones that I'm about to talk about are pointless, but for the rest of us this is great.

One of the other options you can select once you've swiped up is the reminder options which remind you based on preset times when to phone that person back. Again this is a feature that I could see myself using. I'm a very forgetful person and I'm constantly setting reminders on my phone for just about everything. So to have one more thing taken care of for me would be a warmly welcomed help.

Up last is the "Do not disturb" options in which you can select to not to be notified about any incoming calls or any other notifications for that matter. You can also pick to only receive calls from a select group of people or contacts. This is probably my least favorite new feature, not because there is anything wrong with it, but because I could see the above two enhancements being more useful.

All in all the new FaceTime features fall short, but the phoning options are greatly enhanced.