Playing this game is very simple! You use a slingshot to launch a variety of birds into the air, aiming for huge amounts of [pig] destruction. The more birds you have left in the end of the round, the bigger your score. There’s a star rating system (1 to 3 stars) which gives you a good idea of how talented you’ve become. More after the jump…

I particularly favor Angry Birds and other games of this sort because of how helpful they are. Target practice using a slingshot, on top of a pretty good physics engine trains our brains to react and plan every move carefully. Things like how far back you pull, the angle you launch the birds in, and what you hit is what’s important when trying to figure out how to pass the levels. This training can potentially be applied to real world scenarios where coordination is needed.

To sum up Angry Birds, it’s addictive! I bought this game a week ago and I’m still at it. I play it all the time, on the train, at home, at school… yea. Quite possibly the best $0.99 I have ever spent. Check it out at the App Store. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

iPad owners can check it out here. Note that the HD version is $4.99, but probably still worth every penny.

Related posts:

1. iPhone Problems – Time for a New One
2. First Impressions: iPhone 2.0 Firmware Update
3. iPhone future looks stronger than ever, thanks to Palm Pre

Historically, it is known that there were roughly 40 attempts to take Hitler’s life, unsuccessfully. This movie reinforces the fact that not all of Germany was on Hitler’s side, which is good since most World War II movies express otherwise. Note: This is NOT an action film! Don’t expect crazy battle scenes and explosions.

I have never seen a movie of this sort, but I can say that it was executed pretty decently. One event lead to another, so, boring moments were  seldom. This is movie is definitely for those who are curious about how it all went down, broken down into pieces.

Score: 8 out of 10

Related posts:

1. Movie Review: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
2. Movie Review: Helvetica
3. Movie Review: The Day the Earth Stood Still

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is based on a short story by F. Scott Fitzgerald, starring Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett. If you have seen the trailer, you have a pretty good idea of what the film is about, but the execution of it all is astounding! I have not read the short story, but I have a feeling that this movie is just as good as the story itself.

The acting is wonderful, the storyline and the level of detail althoughout the movie is something to be desired by other movies. Having a run time just a few minutes short of 3 hours might be annoying for people who need to go often, but a couple of minutes away from the screen won’t do you any harm.

This movie had me wondering, hoping, and thinking every minute of it. The concept of this film isn’t something you see too often (in this form, at least), but the fact that it is based on a work of written fiction may have something to do with it. I highly recommend this film.

Score: 9 out of 10

Related posts:

1. Movie Review: Valkyrie
2. Movie Review: The Day the Earth Stood Still
3. Movie Review: Helvetica

For a good portion of the beginning, you don’t really know what’s going on, and it’s all mostly mystery. The lack of a story line made it difficult for me to stay interested. In other words, it got boring. The message I believe this film wanted to deliver was good, but it wasn’t carried out successfully. This message was “we are slowly bringing this planet to an end – if we don’t change our ways, the planet will change for us in a way we won’t like.”

There was an abundant amount of special effects to go along with the cliche choreography, which wasn’t that great. After having watched movies like Iron Man, Transformers, and War of the Worlds, it just feels it was subpar in terms of the story, and special effects. I honestly did not know what to make of the acting, some moments were good, most were…ehh. I haven’t seen the original 1951 version, but I am sure it will be interesting once I do, haha.

Score: 3 out of 10

Related posts:

1. Movie Review: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
2. Movie Review: Valkyrie
3. Movie Review: Helvetica

There aren’t many cameras that are targeted for the general consumer, but the Flip Video Ultra looks like it’s the one to beat.

Continue reading after the jump for the entire review!

Performance: For a camera that retails at $150, you can’t possibly ask for more (yet, at least). In daylight and standard lighting conditions, the quality of the video is great as 640×480 screen resolution. At night you will see some noise in the videos but it’s definitely bearable and the videos still look great. A lot of people boast about the good low-light performance and I can definitely vouch for that.

I have used the Flip Video Ultra for a couple of weeks in nearly every type of lighting condition and it has not let me down. One thing I will point out that may not be a big deal to the general consumers is the panning distortion. Cameras that have CMOS sensors like the Flip Video generally have a wavy distortion when panning quickly.

The audio/microphone is improved from the previous version of the Flip Video. Now, it’s not the best audio in the world but it works fairly well in windy and noisy conditions. In terms of sensitivity, it may not be suitable in noise-polluted areas, but most of the time you’ll be able to make out the dialogue (if any). The built in speaker during playback is not that great in loud areas, but it’s fine in normal circumstances.

Features: The Flip Video is perfectly shaped to fit comfortably in your hand while recording or playing back video. It has a built in USB 2.0 plug that flips out when you pull down on the latch and hides away seamlessly after using it. The 1.5″ screen is big and bright enough for all sorts of lighting conditions. The Flip Ultra is available in 1GB and 2GB versions recording 30 minutes and 1 hour of video, respectively.

Lasting Appeal: I purchased this camera knowing that I couldn’t expand the storage capacity. It doesn’t bother me since 1 hour is enough for me on a daily basis. This is definitely not a camera to rely on for a family vacation, but instead, it’s something you can carry with you everywhere you go to capture the rarest and most random moments in life.

Living in New York, catching a bum urinating on the steps of a church might not be amusing, but how often to do you see something like that? I carry my Flip Video everywhere I go, and have been doing so for the past 3 weeks. It seems to be pretty popular as I’ve gotten a lot of attention for carrying it around with the wrist strap.

Bonus: The Flip comes with pre-installed software for Macs and Windows that allows you to do some minor editing and compressing. It records videos as .avi files but the software can convert it to mpeg4. With the software, you can also upload your content to online video sharing sites such as YouTube.

If you have a tripod, you can mount your Flip on it for those steady shots. It runs on 2 AA batteries which last for a pretty long time depending on use. I was able to go 1 week with about 5 hours of combined use (recording/playback/transfering data/viewing on TV).

For more info and tech specs on the Flip Ultra, visit the official website over at TheFlip.com. I’ll be uploading some videos I captured using the Flip to share with you all. If you have any questions, ask away and I’d be glad to answer them as well as I can.

Frequently Asked Questions:
• Can it be used as a storage device? Yes. Just plug it in and off you go!
• Does it require a codec? For the raw .Avi files, yes. It comes with drivers for for Mac & Windows.
• Can I edit content using different software? Yes. Use this program to encode videos on Macs. (If you know of a Windows equivalent, please link to it in the comments below)
• It looks cheap, why should I get it? Go to a BestBuy or CircuitCity and see for yourself.

Related posts:

1. Getting Into Filming and Video Production
2. Random Thoughts, Part 002
3. iPod Shuffle Has Arrived! – Mini Review

Lately, I’ve been playing around with a bunch of different applications such as Shazam, Last.fm, Twitterific, vSNAX Videos, and more. I’ll be posting mini-reviews of the applications that I like, and the improvements that can be made in them.

I haven’t paid for any applications yet since there isn’t much to lure me in at the moment. One thing that I am really looking forward to (that I will purchase) is language learning software. On top of dictionaries and translators, which should be cheap or free, I’d like to see well developed apps that can teach me Russian, Cantonese, Spanish, and other languages. On top of all that…a bunch of cool games would be nice, too!

Related posts:

1. Adobe Flash CS5 and Native iPhone Apps
2. iPhone Hype for WWDC 2008!
3. iPhone 3G, App Store, and a whole lot of fun!

The first thing you will learn about Times is that it’s very well thought out. The animation and transition effects throughout the application look very pleasing, and makes it a fun application to use. From the perspective of a traditional RSS Reader, your subscribed websites would generally be grouped into one section, while the article feeds would be displayed in a window right next to it. Times takes the approach that aggregates your feeds into a newspaper-like design.

You have the ability to create categories for the different types of websites you subscribe to right next to the ones that already exist. Times comes with a big list of popular websites/blogs you may want to follow, but you can definitely add new feeds and remove existing ones at your command. If you’re an existing user of an RSS Reader, you can import your .opml feeds directly into Times so you don’t waste time creating new feeds for everything. Continue reading after the jump…

The icon of this application has a story to tell itself. You have a digital newspaper that shows you what you want to see, and a coffee cup to take a break at any time from work to check out the latest buzz around the world and on the web. Each section consists of 3 content regions:

Right Column: You can load feeds from multiple websites into this column, and scroll specifically through this region as needed. It displays the title, image, and a small excerpt of the article.

Upper Column: This region displays one article with its associated picture and text. The rest of the feeds are placed logically to the right of the latest article, displaying the titles of the articles that you can also scroll through.

Lower Column: The lower region of Times displays the title of the article, its associated image, and an excerpt of the article’s text, just like the right column and the first article in the upper column, but with more detail because of the extra real estate.

One of the great things that I already mentioned is the ability to scroll through the individual columns without disorienting everything else. When you want to read an article, there is a fancy curling animation that occurs as your article is being loaded up. Through the preferences of Times, you can change it to have a simpler sliding animation, but I stuck with the curling effect.

There is also a “shelf’ feature that allows you to elegantly drag articles onto it for future access. You have the ability to build stacks of articles that you want to look at, and remove them by simply dragging it off the shelf. You can toggle the shelf on and off using the spacebar on your keyboard and watch it fade right in and out. All of the animations throughout the interface are crafted to use the latest technologies of Mac OS X such as Core Animation.

Overall, this is my new favorite way of browsing my feeds first thing in the morning. I have my categories, and my feeds split up into the different sections for easy access, even simpler than an actual newspaper. I place the longer articles I want to read on my shelf, and come back later in the day for easy access. Head over to the official Times web page and give Times a shot. I am sure that after seeing how cool this little application is, you’ll be asking yourself why all applications aren’t so thought out. You can grab yourself a copy for $30 and start enjoying your feeds in a more refreshing way.

Related posts:

1. Times: Reinvented RSS Reader (win a copy!)
2. Are Web Users Getting Selfish?
3. Book Review: Humble Masterpieces, Everyday Marvels of Design

The battery life on this little thing is great, and the built in clip is probably the best feature of it – other than playing music and sounding great. I thought that I’d fuss over the lack of an LCD screen, but I realized how much I don’t even care. The only songs that go on here are the ones that I’d listen to all the time, and not have to nitpick to find a song that I like. I didn’t believe it when I read that the shuffle had a better bass response than the other iPods up until now. That’s a nice one-up for me.

I have yet to have any problems with the 12 hour battery life, and the 1GB storage capacity is more than enough to last me through many hours at the gym. I was strongly leaning towards an iPod Nano but I decided that I didn’t need the screen, and I didn’t have the nerve to buy extra accessories to strap it onto my arm, or whatever. iPod Nano Arm Band = Not so awesome. iPod Shuffle Clip = Awesome!

Related posts:

1. Review: Flip Video Ultra, Portable Camcorder
2. Book Review: Humble Masterpieces, Everyday Marvels of Design
3. iPad apps to be more expensive?

Everything from the Post-it note to the Condom is covered in this book. With short historical descriptions of how each product came about, you learn about the fact that almost everything we use on a daily basis today was invented within the last century. If you’re ever in the need of starting a conversation, you’ll get plenty of ideas from this book. Everybody loves interesting facts – why else did the Snapple Facts under the caps become such a success?

Featuring 100 different items, this book is definitely something every designer and non-designer should own for the reason that you learn to appreciate it all in a whole new way. Come on, who wouldn’t want to know that the amount of wire used to make Slinkys since 1943 could wrap around the earth 126 times (and growing)? More after the jump…

I paid the full price of $22 at the MoMa, but you can pick it up for a few bucks less over at Amazon.

Written by Paola Antonelli, she was recently ranked among the top 100 most powerful people in the world of art. She has set up exhibitions all over the world including Italy, France, and Japan. Quite impressive, if you asked me!

If you’re ever in the “Big Apple,” be sure to visit the MoMa and see the Architecture & Design department which she curated.

Related posts:

1. Design Tip of the Day 01: Visit the book store!
2. Design School – Prestigious vs. Not So Much, Part 1
3. Design School – Prestigious vs. Not So Much, Part 2