iPad

The Thing About Scrabble for the iPad

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This article first appeared on iPad.Appstorm, a popular Envato website reviewing iPad apps. The site was subsequently sold to a new owner and, a number of years later, the article was lost. I have republished it here for reference.

Take a 15 by 15 grid and add one hundred tiles, each with a letter (excepting two blanks), whose distribution and point values were determined by performing frequency analysis from sources including the New York Times. What you have is a 75-year old word game, Scrabble®, that is the world’s second-best selling board game after Monopoly®. It is estimated that one-third of American homes has a Scrabble board.

It’s been one of the best-selling on iOS devices, since it was introduced, maintaining a position usually within the top 50 best selling apps. And now it has received a major revamp.

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In-App Purchases: It’s Not the Parents’ Problem

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This article first appeared on iPad.Appstorm, a popular Envato website reviewing iPad apps. The site was subsequently sold to a new owner and, a number of years later, the article was lost. I have republished it here for reference.

Reports of kids racking up huge bills through in-app purchases (IAP) is certainly en vogue in the mainstream media at the moment. The tech media, too. When the story ingredients include young children, the (on occasion) largest company on the planet and mammoth credit card bills for normal, hardworking parents then you’re guaranteed eyes on the page. The conclusion being that Apple is, after all, evil.

For tech-heads like us, immersed in this technology every day, it’s easy to blame the parents. It’s wrong to do so, though — it’s just too convenient.

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Letterpress Techniques and Strategies to Make You a Winner

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This article first appeared on iPad.Appstorm, a popular Envato website reviewing iPad apps. The site was subsequently sold to a new owner and, a number of years later, the article was lost. I have republished it here for reference.

It has been available on the App Store for less than two months but Letterpress already has a massive following. If you are a fan of word games, or even a fan of strategy games, then Letterpress could be for you. It’s completely addictive, and I’ve come up with a few strategies to turn Letterpress matches to your advantage.

In my previous article, Letterpress: Perfecting the Perfect Word Game, I talked about how the app itself could be improved in the future. In this article, I discuss ways that you can raise your game and win more often.

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Letterpress: Perfecting the Perfect Word Game

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This article first appeared on iPad.Appstorm, a popular Envato website reviewing iPad apps. The site was subsequently sold to a new owner and, a number of years later, the article was lost. I have republished it here for reference.

It’s only been out since 24th October 2012, but Letterpress (the new iOS app from Loren Brichter of Tweetie fame) has taken iOS gaming by storm. The crashing of Game Centre — the weekend following the launch of Letterpress app — has been attributed to its huge success. So what is the appeal of Letterpress, is it really the perfect word game? Following it’s update to version 1.1, on 17th November, is there really any room for improvement?

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