Tag: Art »

This week at 148Apps.com, writer Carter Dotson reviewed one of the most anticipated iOS games in recent memory - Infinity Blade II. Dotson writes, "Most of what is new here is a modified and extended progression structure. Instead of one path leading to a final boss, where failure means starting over, there are now several of them, with more branching paths to explore. There are 3 different weapon types now: the traditional swords, slow and heavy axes that deal more damage, and speedy dual swords that deal less base damage, but can do double damage once combos are started. The story is more fleshed out, with actual speaking dialogue from characters besides the God King."

Read the full review at 148Apps.com.

Meanwhile, our attention was turned to more artistic matters at GiggleApps, as Amy Solomon reviewed Auryn – Van Gogh and the Sunflowers. Solomon says, "The look of this app is terrific, with illustrations evoking the style that Van Gogh is known for, complete with bold color choices and noticeable use of brush strokes, but maintains a childlike quality that fits well within this storybook. The jazzy music used is also wonderful, relaxing as well as engaging and very enjoyable to listen to even for long periods of time. The narration used here is also quite good. Parents will also like that each spoken word is highlighted red to aid the young children new to the world of reading."

Read more about our take on Auryn – Van Gogh and the Sunflowers at GiggleApps.

Finally, 148Apps.biz site editor Rob Lefebvre reported on tablet users and their media consumption. LeFebvre writes, "In a study put out by comScore and reported by Fierce Mobile Content and the appside, interested parties can see that the number one use of tablet devices is games, with 67% of surveyed tablet users saying they’ve played a game at least once in the past month, as compared to 49% of smartphone users surveyed. 23% of those surveyed said they’d played a game on their tablet EVERY DAY. That’s a good number."

Dig deeper into this study and read the full report on 148Apps.biz.

That's our wrap-up for this week. While you're out getting all of your holiday shopping done, don't forget to check us out on our Facebook and Twitter feeds to find out the latest and greatest news, reviews and contests. Feliz Navidad!

This week at 148Apps.com, site founder Jeff Scott welcomed the Kindle Fire into the tablet fold with an overview of his impressions of the device. Scott says, "...while the Kindle Fire is around 40 percent the cost of a base level iPad, it’s capabilities are even less. It just so happens that those capabilities match up well with what a typical consumer uses a tablet device for. Because of that, the Kindle Fire will be a strong competitive device to the iPad. When it comes down to it, it’s the cost that matters to a very large portion of the buying public, not the capabilities."

Read the full review on 148Apps.com.

Meanwhile, our sister site, GiggleApps, took a closer look at a new educational app for children, iLuv Drawing Animals. Reviewer Amy Solomon writes, "iLuv Drawing Animals is a nice choice for kids who are interested in learning the very basics of drawing cartoony animals that are cute and relatively easy to draw. I like how these illustrations are broken down into smaller shapes that kids will easily understand and have had experience with, and the narration is pleasant and easy to follow."

Read the full review on GiggleApps.

Finally, on AndroidRundown, Carter Dotson announced the public availability of Google Music, an interesting development for all music lovers, no matter the device. Dotson writes, "Most importantly, this means that Google is now in the business of one of the big pillars of media, and it addresses a gaping hole in the Android Market. With videos and books already addressed, now the store is complete with music to go along with apps. Google is directly putting themselves in competition with iTunes, and they are making their operating system much closer in terms of features to iOS devices. This was a necessary move for Google."

Read more of Dotson's commentary on AndroidRundown.

As we head into the week of Thanksgiving here in the US, remember that you can still enter to win an iPhone 4S, courtesy of 148Apps and Gameloft. To enter, just become a 148Apps and Gameloft Facebook fan – www.facebook.com/gameloft and www.facebook.com/148apps.

Or you can follow both of us on Twitter as well at www.twitter.com/148apps and www.twitter.com/gameloft. Then, write the following public tweet: “Upgrade to a 4S yet? Follow @Gameloft & @148Apps & RT for a chance to win an iPhone 4S! Gameloft gaming on the 4S: http://glft.co/uIR3Y1″

See you next week, true believers! Start thawing that turkey!

Banksy is a mysterious soul indeed. A British graffiti artist and political activist, he travels around creating street art that's frequently dark and satirical. It's admired by many, considered as vandalism by few, but ultimately it's very memorable. Banksy himself is memorable by name and reputation but he's also an enigma as no one knows his true identity. That's boosted his career a fair bit however with books of his artwork selling well (I have one on my coffee table as I write this) and his first film Exit Through the Gift Shop also proving very successful.

While fans can always consult his work online or through his book, a much more satisfying way of doing so is to go to the artwork itself. A new app by the name of Banksy-Locations sets out to make that all the simpler by offering a personal tour of all the street art. The app allows users to find Banksy locations via dropping a pin on a map, looking up via the user's current location or by searching through images in a gallery or by name. It's pretty acurate stuff too and certainly saves a lot of aggravation.

For users who would rather stay at home, there's always the option of viewing videos by and about Banksy as well as the image gallery that offers photos of his street pieces as well as installations. Banksy news is regularly kept up to date too with presumably new artwork kept track of once he devises some.

Throughout the app maintains an appearance that is bound to appeal to the minimalist nature of Banksy style art with a great gritty edge. Banksy-Locations is a pretty comprehensive app for the graffiti or Banksy fan and looks set to be a great way of discovering new art.

It's out now, priced at $1.99.

Create A Monster HD is a very creative app for iPad allowing players to create the monster of their dreams with some unique and very helpful features not typically included in apps such as this.

The app offers many different choices including head shape as well the basic eyes, nose, mouth and ears choices, with these choices typically including a monster slant to them, such as bloodshot eyes, single eyeball, and varied fang choices included with the mouths. There are many odd selections available for great interesting details like horns, scars, and antennae, as well as some quirky choices like hair pieces and eyeglasses, plus much more.

Read the full review at GiggleApps.

Who doesn't want to be inside a comic book? Exactly. While ComicBook! doesn't exactly enable this, it does at least ensure that its users can pretend to feature in a comic book.

In case it isn't already obvious, ComicBook! is a comic book creation app enabling users to star in their own adventures with the ability to add realistic comic styling, captions, graphics and multi-panel page layouts. Finally, everyone can kapow their way out of trouble.

Options are pretty varied with a whole plethora of different graphics and layouts to use. There are 55 comic book style illustrations alone that can be included in a composition. It's simple enough to add photos and it's even simpler to go onto share such creations via Facebook, Twitter or email. Users can even print out their creations from within the app if they so choose to. The only real limitation is the depth of the user's imagination which can certainly be inspired by this app.

ComicBook! looks set to be a very entertaining app for young and old alike. It's available now as an universal app and priced at only $0.99 for a limited time.