Josh & Emma Go to the Beach means well, but when
judged on its educational aspects, it falls a bit short. There are plenty of less expensive (and free) apps that teach just as much or more. The graphics that accompany the story are nice, but children aren’t likely to be engaged more than one or two times. At a lower price, Josh & Emma might be worth a look, but if you’re searching for an app that will keep your children’s attention and teach them something more than the most rudimentary skills, you can do better.
Author Archives: Chris Morris
The PS3 becomes a 3D Blu-ray player
You have to give it to Sony. When 
they made the decision to join the 3D battlefield, they jumped in with both feet.
Starting Tuesday, Sept. 21, every PlayStation 3 on the market will begin supporting 3D playback. (The move will come via a free software update.) That instantly puts 3D hardware into 38 million homes worldwide.
Study: Video game ads boost real world sales
While ads in video games may not be popular, they are effective.
A new study by Nielsen finds that targeted advertising can result in a substantial increase in sales – and that could spur companies who have been sitting on the fence to jump into the gaming world.
The study looked at in-game Gatorade ads in six EA Sports titles, including the last two installments of the company’s “NHL” franchise and the 2007, 2008 and 2009 versions of “NBA Live”. People who played those games increased their household dollars spent on the sports drink by 24 percent.
Nielsen: Video game ads are unusually effective
As if the television industry didn’t have enough 
to worry about with video games stealing eyeballs away from its programming, now it might have to worry about advertisers jumping ship as well.
A new study from Nielsen of six EA Sports titles found that in-game ads for Gatorade boosted household dollars spent on the sports drink by 24 percent.
7 best ways to save money on car insurance
Because the initial steps in getting car insurance 
at a good price can be so frustrating, most people tend to ignore it once they have it. That could be costing them considerable sums of money each year.
While it’s easy to mistake auto insurance as something that’s a relatively fixed cost, it’s not. It can be lowered — often easily — to help you save money, the Insurance Information Institute says. Your savings will vary greatly depending on your driving record, vehicle and location, but it could add up to hundreds of dollars per year.
Review: Halo: Reach
Prequels rarely resonate with audiences – regardless 
of the medium. So when Bungie Studios decided to make its last “Halo” game a prequel, there was some cause for concern.
Thankfully, those fears were misplaced. While the final chapter of “Halo: Reach” is something well known to any fan of the franchise, the game itself is perhaps the best in “Halo’s” nine-year history. And it’s a fitting sendoff for the developer, who is responsible for creating and growing one of the biggest series in the video game industry.
App review: Medieval HD
Tower defense games — titles that have you defend 
a position against a seemingly never-ending stream of enemies — have been around for a while and they’re often very similar. Medieval HD adds a few new bells and whistles to the genre. The addition of ground troops is a welcome one, but they’re not particularly well integrated into the game. It’s easier and cheaper to buy powerful, infinite weapons and deal with the marauders from atop the castle. There are also a variety of ways to earn bonuses, ranging from the method you choose to shoot your weapon (i.e. pull the bow back vs. simply tapping the screen). Ultimately, this is a fun game, but one that’s best played in short doses.
App review: Flashcards Puzzles – ABC & Numbers
Flashcards Puzzles – ABC & Numbers makes learning 
fun for toddlers and has remedied the biggest flaw in the app’s initial release. (The first version didn’t read the letters aloud, so kids playing alone didn’t get the full educational effect of the game.) With that corrected, it’s a terrific learning tool that blends problem-solving with an introduction to letters and numbers that’s fun for kids to use themselves — or with a parent. On the easy level, kids rearrange 3-4 rectangular pieces to complete the flashcard, and on the harder level, they work with 5-6 pieces.
App review: Jaws
As a film, Jaws was a masterpiece of its time. As an app, it’s a bit 
toothless and, frankly, boring. Playing Roy Scheider’s character of Chief Brody is not particularly exciting — and it’s hard to work up any sympathy for the dozens of swimmers who stay in the water after the shark attacks. Less than perfect onscreen controls make the game even more exasperating.
The fun of Jaws is Bruce the shark. And you never get to play as him. While there is plenty of diversity in the levels, none are particularly engaging. The developers did do one thing perfectly, though: They made certain that the classic Jaws music plays heavily into the game — acting as an audible clue for players.
Plants, Zombies, Zuma head to Korea
Despite what it might sounds like, PopCap World
is not an amusement park – although it probably would be a really cool one.
Instead, PopCap Games is partnering with NCsoft to create an online multiplayer social game service in Korea. The service will offer 13 free-to-play games with optional paid elements in the queue for the coming months.
Chris Morris: Journalist 