Freeware World

If you’ve dreamed of being Indiana Jones, but find the idea of learning about history and then organizing adventures to go one too complicated, never fear: I have a game that can help:

One Button Bob is a great little flash game that manages to be really inventive, funny and playable, despite only using one button. Take Bob on a treasure hunting adventure, full of killer spiders, monsters, perilous drops and leaps. All you need to play is one button - of course, in One Button Bob, that button will do different things, depending where you are, and that’s what make is so fun to play. The button might mean jump, reverse, or speed Bob up.

The game records how many clicks you make, and if you complete the game, that total will be your score. Can you get a lower score than me? Requires Flash.

Today sees the start of the 21st Winter Olympics, in Vancouver. If you’re thinking of following the Games on TV or, if you’re lucky enough in Whistler, then I can heartily recommend the official iPhone app. The 2010Guide – Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games application is the perfect companion for anyone who is dipping their toe in the icy waters of alpine sports for the first time.

Not only does the app provide a full calendar of events, but it offers concise and succinct guides to each discipline so you can tell your skeleton from your two-man bob. The great thing about the Winter Olympics app is that it allows you to add events to your favorites, building a schedule of all of the competitions you want to watch.

Once you start getting into the Games, you’ll find the Headlines section very handy. It allows you to view all of the latest news from Vancouver, as well as viewing medal tables and following the Games on Twitter.  The 2010Guide isn’t just about sport either, and the app also contains lots of information about all the off-piste activities that will take place over the course of the Games. You can view dates and descriptions of all the dance, comedy, music and arts that will take place.

I’m just going to come out and say it: Google Wave sucks. In fact, I was tempted to use the past tense there, because it’s hard to believe that Wave isn’t dead and buried. The whole experience was so disappointing that I couldn’t help but greet Google Buzz, Google’s latest attempt at web 2.0, with a certain amount of skepticism.

Well, Buzz has arrived in my Gmail, has it made it to yours? There it sits, plonked beneath my inbox, inviting me to “share what I’m thinking”, a sorry-looking cross between Twitter and Facebook. Ok, so it’s barely a day old, but even in the early stages, new services should fill you with excitement and anticipation, not leave you scratching your head and wondering what on Earth Google were thinking of. In fact, this article from ReadWriteWeb is a great rundown of what exactly looks wrong so far.

To those of us who use services like Twitter and Facebook, the concept of Google Buzz is fairly simple, even if we doubt (for the moment) whether there’s a place for it in our lives. But Buzz automatically adds contacts you email frequently, and as we all know, sending an email does not always equal social media literacy or willing. I’m happy to give it a chance and see what the Buzz brings, but not everyone feels the same. The first question from one of my auto-added, technophobe followers, for example? “Ugh, how do I remove this option?!”. I think that just about sums it up….

I guess it was Nintendo who invented ice levels in platformers, and since then it’s become a video game standard. Whatever you’re playing, you can bet at some point you’ll be asked to continue what you have been doing for the last few hours, but on slippery surfaces. I’m not a fan, possibly with the exception of the snowy levels in Mario 64.

I Hate Ice Levels is an ode to everything we dislike about these staple levels. It’s unbelievably tricky - I got cramps in my fingers after ten minutes playing! It’s meant to be a satire of ice levels, and as such it works well. It’s also a tough challenge for anyone who thinks they’ve got skills when it comes to platforming. Play it here - requires Flash.

Well, Apple launched their long-awaited iPad last week and reactions were mixed - to say the least! Some people think it’s the slickest, most beautiful device they’ve ever laid eyes on, while others think it’s a world-class let down. Personally, I was underwhelmed by the news. I couldn’t figure out what the target market was, or who Apple thought would want to buy it.

Since it’s been out, though, I’ve read articles and considered lots of opinions and I think I’m beginning to change my mind. The iPad is probably never going to cut it for the more technically-oriented, but for people who just want to check their emails and watch a few movies (all while looking super-cool) the iPad is perfect. Not everybody agrees, however, so let’s take a look at what some of the other Softonic editors have to say….

Say what you want about the iPad, but…”
Say what you want about the iPad, but the bottom line is that Apple is so cool it can afford to do things the other way around. I mean, traditional producers went from big and ugly devices to small ones, while Apple has gone from a small one to a big one! Apple is Apple and there’ll always be people to buy its products, even if this one does look like a giant iPhone!

Simone Gerevini ( Softonic IT)

I’m not sure if I can justify owning one, but I can’t rule it out…”
So: No flash, no camera and no USB ports. And it sounds like it’ll be just as closed as the iPhone. Not a geek’s dream then, but I’m sure it’ll be difficult to hate once we’ve had it in our hands. I didn’t want an iPhone at all until I picked one up - now I can barely put mine down. Like all Apple products, it’ll no doubt work beautifully. It’s not a NetBook, but I bet it’ll turn on a million times faster, and such a big touchscreen will make it incredibly easy to use. Having seen how well the iPhone’s little screen has been used by app developers, I’m sure there’ll be some incredible stuff for the iPad. I’m not sure if I can justify owning one, between my MacBook and iPhone, but I can’t rule it out…”

Jon Riggall ( Softonic EN)

My first reaction to the iPad was “wow”
My first reaction to the iPad was “wow”, but after Steve Jobs’ presentation, it turned into more of a “meh”. For mobile users who aren’t used to computers, the iPad will be great for watching movies, listening to music, editing documents, playing games, reading e-books and surfing the web, all using a touchscreen. For us hardcore Mac/PC users, however, the iPhone OS is really limiting and forces you to rely on the App Store for any programs you need. Maybe the iPad 2G or 3G will look a little more attractive to people like me, but for now, I’m sticking with my MacBook - despite the lack of a touchscreen!

José María López ( Softonic ES)

It may be a netbook-killer, but the iPad’s definitely not a Kindle-killer”

As a proud Kindle owner, I’m surprised to see the iPad being constantly compared to Amazon’s reading device. For me the iPad is more like a sleek notebook with which you can do some interesting stuff, but it’s not suitable for reading ebooks at all. A backlit screen is nothing against the e-ink technology used on ebook readers - and I’m sure anyone who has ever used a Kindle, or any other ebook reader, will agree with me. The iPad seems to be oriented for people who use their computers mostly to browse the web, watch videos, blog or check email. It may be a netbook-killer, but definitely not a Kindle-killer.

Elena Santos ( Softonic EN)

It’s revolutionary, especially for games”
The long-awaited iPad is here, but is it what we wanted? Well, that depends on how you look at it - it’s what we all expected, but not exactly what we were hoping for. Given all the things it lacks, the iPad could have been much more than it is. Even so, it’s still a seriously advanced device and its kick-ass multitouch screen has huge potential. In the world of games, I think we’ll be seeing a lot more of the iPad. I can’t wait to try things like R.U.S.E or Pixeljunk Shooter on it - it’s revolutionary, especially for gamers.

Raúl Pérez ( OnGames)

Apple already tried to launch a tablet… and it didn’t exactly take off”
Apple already once tried to launch a tablet - the Newton - back in 1993 and it didn’t exactly take off. Of course, both Apple and mobile computing have come on in leaps and bounds since then and the iPad surely won’t have the same fate as the Newton did. Its biggest stumbling block is something that a tablet device simply can’t help - the lack of a keyboard. I can’t imagine having to work, send e-mails and spend much time doing anything online using just a light-pen and a touchscreen.

Nicholas Mead ( Softonic EN)

As you can see, the editors have spoken and the general feeling seems to be that the iPad is pretty cool, but… A lack of features, namely the absence of built-in USB port and keyboard, as well as the fact that the iPad will be tied to the iPhone OS and therefore the App Store, mean that it won’t be versatile enough to catch the eye of more intensive computer users. Then again, Softonic editors are a pretty specialist group, and maybe what looks like a stumbling block to us will be a major selling point when it comes to convincing the average Joe that the iPad is the device for him.

This week’s timewaster is casual gaming at it’s best: simple, addictive and relaxing. Gluey is essentially Bejewelled, but with liquid blobs. Click any gluey blob with two or more eyes to make it disappear, and the blobs around it will roll and join together if they’re of the same color.

Start playing, and before you know it you’ll have lost an afternoon! The colorful graphics are well animated and the music suits the relaxed pace of the game perfectly - although eventually you might want to turn that off. Play Gluey from your browser, and install Flash if you don’t already have it!

Bored of your blog? All tweeted out? This week I’ve been having a second look at Tumblr, which sits somewhere between those two. When I first played with it over a year ago I wasn’t very excited. I don’t know what’s exactly happened since then, but Tumblr looks great now!

You’re not limited to 140 characters, but like Twitter the social aspects are central and built into Tumblr. Posts are split by category - text, photo, quote, link, chat, audio and video - and sharing any of these things is a breeze. The site gives you a Dashboard, which shows you a news stream of posts by you and the people you follow, like Twitter, but as it supports rich media, your Tumblr dashboard will be full of audio, video and images.

Go to the website to set up your account with an email address, and then off you go. The site looks good and is very usable, but even simpler is the Firefox add-on Tumblr Post. If you want to share something, simply drag it to the little icon in the status bar, and it will post on your Tumbleblog automatically! Until computers achieve sentience, I’m not sure blogging could be easier!

When away from your computer, that’s no excuse as there are Android and iPhone apps that allow you to blog just as easily on the move. The free iPhone app Tumblr is especially well designed, allowing you to record audio, photos and video on your phone and upload them, as well as use all the other Tumblr features.

While I love Twitter for keeping up with news, Tumblr seems much more fun. It doesn’t have the huge user base of Twitter but I’m sure it will grow as more people try it, as it’s so easy to get into. Come on, join in: Facebook and Twitter are so last decade!

It’s taken us just over six months but we’ve finally got our hands on one of the hottest download tickets in town - an invite to test Voddler. In July we had an exclusive interview with Voddler co-founder Mathias Hjelmstedt and couldn’t wait to give it a go. Now, we’ve finally had the chance to try it for ourselves and can safely say, Voddler looks like a genuine contender for the future of movie distribution. From a huge selection of films and documentaries to an easy to use interface and stunning video/audio, Voddler is all I expected and more.

Unfortunately for most, at the moment its still only available in Scandinavia but we’ve been able to give it a proper test run for you.

If you’re lucky enough to receive an invite, you can install the beta client for Voddler on Windows or the Alpha client on Mac. I installed the Mac client but it works exactly the same on both platforms.

When you install Voddler, it takes you through a quick setup wizard which checks the suitability of your connection. The test takes a few minutes but if you’ve got a 2.5Mbit connection or more, you’re good to go.

When Voddler launches for the first time, it goes straight into full-screen mode. I would prefer to have been prompted whether I wanted to open in windowed or full-screen mode but you can revert back to windowed mode (so that you can access the rest of your Mac normally) by pressing Command+F.

The first thing to note is that you can’t use your mouse when Voddler has started. Everything is controlled via the keyboard - mainly the Cursor, Enter and Esc keys - which is a bit disorientating and awkward at first. Alternatively, you can use an Apple remote instead which is a bit easier.

The reason for this is that in future, Voddler plan to launch a box that connects to your TV without a computer (known as a Voddler box) and presumably you’ll be able to use a virtual keyboard. However, I think it would still have made more sense at this stage to have allowed users on a computer to use a mouse.

Once you setup a profile and log-in:

You are presented with three options in front of a scrolling background displaying iconic movie stills. The options are Settings, Movies and Quit. Use the left and right arrow keys to scroll through them:

The Settings option simply allows you to resize the screen for your monitor. However, I found this a little un-intuitive. Drag each corner and the position of the subtitles, hit Enter to confirm each one when you’re happy. It would have been far more useful though if there was a way to see exactly how big, and where on the screen, an actual movie will look once you’ve finished and I later realised that its much easier to do this during a film when you can press the Escape key and select the resize-screen symbol.

When you click Movies, the real fun begins. Movies are categorized by Premium, Recommended and Documentaries. Sort allows you to organize films Alphabetically, Most Viewed and Top Rated. Finally, if you scroll to the far right, you can change the View from Wall View:

To List View:

The choice of films and documentaries in Voddler is staggering. There’s enough free content to keep you going for a long time and if that’s not enough, there’s also a Premium service where you pay in the region of $3 to watch a film. Each film also has a handy synopsis, trailer and average user rating.

Free choices include offerings such as Airplane, Jackass Twopointfive and Trading Places. The odd thing is Premium films are aren’t exactly “hot-off the press” either. In fact, some are actually older than the free offerings such as (e.g. Jackass you have to pay for while the sequel Jackass Twopointfive is free). Other Premium examples include The Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons and Armageddon. There is a definite lack of newer films but that will hopefully change as Voddler becomes more popular.

When the film starts, you have to sit through about 5 minutes of adverts and usually a trailer just as in the cinema.

I’m a little skeptical as to how long this will remain the advertising format in Voddler. Unlike in a cinema, you can simply go and make a cup of tea for five minutes or walk away while the ads - which at the end of the day are the only revenue stream which funds Voddler - play. It wouldn’t surprise me if in future, Voddler adopted a similar advertising model to Spotify - i.e. brief adverts within free movies to make sure ads reach viewers, along with ‘Premium’ titles with no ads in the middle.

Controlling the film can be done using the cursor keys and pause with the Spacebar. Pressing Escape reveals the full controls and selecting the speaker symbol brings up advanced audio and subtitling options:

The streaming stability and sound quality of Voddler are outstanding - I didn’t experience a single blip during streaming of a movie:

Finally, when you’ve finished the film, you’re asked to give a rating:

Voddler is a superb application which like Spotify has done with music, is set to become the blueprint of how movies will be distributed online. Stay tuned for next month when we’ll be doing a follow-up interview with the Voddler team and if we’re lucky, we might even have some Voddler invites to give away.

Though they were already included in a developer build a few weeks ago, it wasn’t until today that Google made it official: Chrome now supports extensions! Thanks to this long-awaited feature, Chrome users can now expand the capabilities of their browser with small plug-ins that add diverse functionality to the program.

You can find and download Chrome extensions in a special online gallery that organizes them by popularity, date and rating. Right now there are about 1,800 extensions available, many of which are exact copies of Firefox’s popular add-ons – which undoubtedly helps a lot in browser switching. Every extension has its own page, featuring a description, some screenshots, user reviews and links to the developer’s site and the documentation, if any.

Installing a Chrome extension is really easy. Simply browse the gallery to find the extension you’re interested in, click the big blue Install button, accept the confirmation message and you’re done. Unlike Firefox, you don’t even need to restart the browser.

If you want to check your installed extensions, open Chrome’s configuration menu (the wrench icon) and select Extensions. The browser will open a new tab with the list of installed extensions, as well as links to disable and uninstall them, and direct access to the extension’s options – if available.

Finally, if you’re a developer and would like to publish a Chrome extension, you can do so from the gallery itself. Click the Publish your extensions link on the left side of the gallery interface and fill in all the details. The extension will be immediately be ready for download.

The twelfth annual Independent Games Festival has released the winners of the Student Showcase category. Don’t think that “student” equals amateurish or poor quality - there are some amazing games in the list, and some will no doubt go on to be commercial titles like DigiPen’s Narbacular Drop, which turned into the wonderful Portal.

The best thing about the list? Of the ten finalists, only two are unavailable, but the other eight are free to play!

There are cool puzzle games (Continuity, Puzzle Bloom and and Puddle), strange 3D experiences (Devil’s Tuning Fork and Dreamside Maroon), art games (Spectre and Ulitsa Dimitrova), and the adrenaline rush that is DigiPen’s Igneous. All are great reasons to be excited about game development, mixing experimentation with great playability.

Dive in and get playing!