"If there is an app for that"

Draw the Line: Wils Adventure Is an Amazing iOS Puzzle Game

May 02, 2016 by macjeff

Reviewed by Sarah Hanlon

If you’re like me, you enjoy puzzle games because they allow you to immerse yourself in something other than the real world for just a little while.

However, there’s nothing worse than picking up a new game and finishing it within a matter of hours because the puzzles were too easy or there were too few of them.

Draw the Line: Wils Adventure is a fun puzzle game that’s definitely challenging for hours on end.

It’s rare to find a puzzle game that’s both fun and challenging and this one is worth every penny.

Concept and Gameplay:

If you’re not familiar with “draw the line” games, the overall goal is to draw lines on the screen in order to help complete a puzzle. In the case of Draw the Line: Wils Adventure, from Andrey Krasnov, the goal is to reunite the main character with his sidekick, Amy.

Draw the Line: Wils Adventure iPhone Game

One of the first things I noticed about Draw the Line: Wils Adventure is the fact that it definitely features better graphics than the most games in the genre. Generally these kinds of games are cartoony and are almost always designed to look like the player is drawing on a piece of paper and making doodles come alive.

Draw the Line: Wils Adventure takes a different approach by adding an actual storyline to the game, which means that it’s truly immersing the player in the world of Wils and Amy.

Features:

Currently Draw the Line: Wils Adventure only offers single player content, but the developer notes that multiplayer functionality is due to be released shortly in an upcoming update.

It looks like multiplayer mode will be cooperative, which will certainly make the game more exciting.

Achievements are another feature that the developer is working on, and users can see this by tapping on the faded achievements button on the main screen.

Value:

Draw the Line: Wils Adventure is available to download from the App Store for $0.99 and is universally compatible with iPhone and iPad. Everything that’s available within the game can be accessed right away, meaning that Draw the Line: Wils Adventure is truly a “pay once and play” type of game.

Personally I think Draw the Line: Wils Adventure is worth every penny and anyone who is a fan of puzzle games should consider giving it a try. The game offers hours of fun and players can always improve their score.

Draw the Line: Wils Adventure requires iOS 8.0 or later and is compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch.

Tilemetry for iOS Offers over One Thousand Puzzles to Solve

May 02, 2016 by macjeff

Reviewed by Sarah Hanlon

Tilemetry is a free game for iPhone and iPad that’s similar to puzzles like 2048 and Sudoku; it is a game that’s definitely worth trying if you enjoy challenging math puzzles.

Concept and Gameplay:

Tilemetry by Theodore Neustaedter is incredibly easy to learn, but difficult to master. There’s a very handy tutorial in the first level of the game that does a great job of showing new players the basics. As you progress, puzzles become harder to complete.

The goal of Tilemetry is to flip number tiles to solve equations. The fewer flips you use to complete the puzzle, the higher your score will be. Scores are tracked by stars and the ultimate goal is to solve every puzzle with three stars.

The interface of this game is very simple and free of distractions. This is definitely a puzzle game at heart and the focus is totally on gameplay, not fluff and other graphical nonsense. This is great news for anyone who just wants to sit and solve puzzles without extras.

Features:

Tilemetry iPhone Game

The harsh truth about most games is that they’re often limited by levels. Once you finish all of the provided levels, you either have to spend money to unlock more or wait for the developer to release an update.

Luckily this isn’t the case with Tilemetry. There are different puzzle board sizes ranging from 2×2 to 9×9, and each board size includes 35 puzzles to solve.

For example, you can solve puzzles on a 2×3 board, 7×4 board, 9×8, and so on. I counted a total of 36 boards, meaning there are over 1200 puzzles to solve. You definitely won’t be able to blast through this game in a matter of a few hours.

Value:

Tilemetry is available to download from the App Store for free and is universally compatible with iPhone and iPad. You don’t have to worry about in-app purchases or unlocking extras to enjoy every feature of the game- there aren’t even ads to disturb you while you’re playing.

Tilemetry is a great puzzle game that offers countless hours of challenging gameplay. The number of puzzles to solve is astounding and the fact that it’s totally free makes it an impossible game to pass up.

Tilemetry requires iOS 8.0 or later and is compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. A small expedited fee was paid by the developer to speed up the publication of this review.

Biz Stone's Jelly app relaunches, promising to revolutionize search

April 29, 2016 by macjeff

Jelly’s back—but does it have a winning formula this time?

The Q&A app from Twitter cofounder Biz Stone relaunched this week—on the web and in Apple’s App Store—after Stone last year deemed the original version a failure.

In a post at Medium, Stone said the re-imagined app combines the wisdom of human users with artificial intelligence to quickly produce answers—sometimes fact-based, sometimes larded with opinion—to a user’s query.

“Each query and every answer is freighted with metadata,” Stone wrote. “But all this science is in service of getting you the right responses from the right folks. People who can help because they’ve been there, they have the experience, they have the opinion, and most importantly, they have the answers you need — and you can follow up with them too.”

In the original version of Jelly, users had to sign up with Twitter to ask or answer questions. Now questions can be submitted anonymously; people who want to answer questions are required to create accounts, but the Twitter tie-in is no longer required. The original version was available in iOS and Android apps; the web version is newly available with the reboot—and, so far, there is no Android app available for the relaunch.

Superficially, at least, it bears some resemblance to Quora’s own Q&A service—it offers crowdsourced replies to user questions—though Quora requires an account to use any part of the service, and Jelly is more image-driven, using pictures and art with questions to attract answers.

Why it matters: Users will decide if they like Jelly’s secret sauce better this time around. Stone is promising that the service will change the way people seek answers to everyday questions and give them more time to do their own thing; that’s a big promise. A good question to ask Jelly this time: Can Stone ever duplicate the success he found at Twitter?

Ask the iTunes Guy: Missing apps, accessing your Wish List, and duplicate playlists

April 29, 2016 by macjeff

iTunes evolves over time, and sometimes there are good reasons why features don't seem to work as they should. In this week's column, I discuss why apps don't transfer from iOS devices, and how to get them back. Yet some changes are inexplicable, such as one affecting an iTunes Store menu; I explain a workaround for this change. Finally, I look at a problem with duplicating playlists, and offer a possible fix.

Missing apps

Q: All my apps have disappeared from my iTunes library. iTunes also refuses to let me transfer the apps from my iPhone or iPad. The Transfer Purchases menu command is visible when I right-click on my iPhone, but nothing really happens. How can I get them back?

Since iOS 9.2, you can no longer transfer apps from iOS devices back to iTunes. This is because apps now contain only the assets needed for the specific device they copy to. For example, you don't need large graphics for an iPad on an iPhone SE; this saves space on your devices.

If you want to get the apps back in your iTunes library, you'll need to re-download them. This can take quite a while if you had a lot of apps. To do this, you need to go to your iTunes Store account. Go to any main store page (Music, Movies, Apps, etc.) and click Purchased under the Quick Links section in the sidebar. Click Apps near the top of the window, and either click the cloud links at the top right corners of the app icons, or, if you wish, click the Download All button at the bottom right of the iTunes window. If you do the latter, you may end up downloading a lot of apps you no longer use.

If you have a lot of apps, you'll need to be patient, as it could take a long time for them to download; this depends on your bandwidth, of course. If you do click Download All, you might want to do this overnight.

Truncated menu

Q: I used to be able to get to my Wish List and Purchased list by clicking my name in the iTunes toolbar, but those options are no longer in the menu that displays. Any idea why not?

In my reply to the question above, I mentioned another way to access the Purchased list, because of this issue. The iTunes toolbar displays a round head-and-shoulders icon and your name when you're signed into the iTunes Store. If the window isn't wide enough, it may only display the icon. If you click that icon, a menu displays with some store-related options. This menu used to show Wish List and Purchased links, but it doesn't any more, in some cases.

This change appeared in the iTunes 12.3.3 update last month. It turns out that, for some reason, if you don't have Show Apple Music checked in iTunes' General preferences, certain menu items don't display when you click that part of the toolbar.

My guess is that this is just a bug. When Apple Music is turned off, the first two menu items—Choose Artists for You and Following—shouldn't display, but perhaps Apple's developers made a small mistake, hiding two menu items that should display. Interestingly, the person who contacted me about this told me that Apple support claimed this was the expected behavior. We'll see in the next iTunes update.

Duplicate playlists

Q: Seemingly every time I add more songs to my iPhone playlist, iTunes generates a duplicate of the playlist. I currently have playlists named Playlist 1, Playlist 2, Playlist 3, all the way up to 43. They're not exactly the same, though; many of the songs I add get added to the duplicates, but not all of them. I’ve tried deleting them all but they come back. Can you help?

This is, unfortunately, a fairly common problem with Apple's music cloud. If you use iCloud Music Library or iTunes Match, you may see this happening. The only workaround I've found is to delete the playlist, wait for your music to sync to all your other devices, then re-add the playlist.

To save time, and not have to manually recreate the playlist, you can export it from iTunes, then re-import it. To do this, select the playlist, choose File > Library > Export Playlist, and choose XML format. Save the file, then delete the playlist in iTunes.

Wait a while until you see that the playlist is no longer on your other devices, then import the file to iTunes by choosing File > Library > Import Playlist and selecting the file. iTunes will recreate the playlist as it was, as long as all the tracks are still in your library. Note that this even works for smart playlists. The file you export for a smart playlist contains the playlist's conditions, so when you re-import it, you'll have exactly the same smart playlist.

Have questions of your own for the iTunes Guy? Send them along for his consideration.

Apple might start pointing out iMessage autocorrect fails

April 28, 2016 by macjeff

Apple is planning to ruin one of the most hilarious aspects of using an iPhone: iMessage autocorrect, which routinely changes the most basic of texts into something offensive, sexual, or just completely off-base. The company just filed a patent application for a new iMessage feature that would tell a recipient when autocorrect has been at work.

The patent filing, first spotted by AppleInsider, covers an iMessage feature that would highlight an autocorrected word. The person who’s reading your message won’t be able to see what you intended to type, but at least they’ll know that it was your iPhone and not you who made that bizarre wording choice.

There’s even an option for the person you’re messaging to request a clarification. In the scenario to the right, an image from Apple’s filing, choosing that option would automatically send a message that says, “You sent ‘being.’ What did you mean?”

It’s unclear if or when Apple will bring this feature to iOS, but as long as it doesn’t kill the cottage industry of sites devoted to documenting autocorrect’s biggest fails, then we’re fine with it.