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Here's the 'Words With Friends' TV show you didn't ask for
Zynga's Words With Friends is one of those few smartphone games that has survived for far longer than many early mobile titles -- it still has a huge fan base (55 million active games at any one time) 8 years after its debut. And now, the developer wants to milk that ubiquity for all it's worth. It's teaming up with MGM Television on a Words With Friends game show that would translate the phone-friendly Scrabble-alike to the big screen. While the two aren't saying much about what the show will entail, they expect to draw on the "rich social experience" of WWF and integrate pieces of other With Friends games (Crosswords With Friends seems a natural fit).
Ludacris releases new 'Slang N' Friendz' crossword app
If you've ever been disappointed when Words With Friends refused to accept "bae" as a real word, then noted actor, rapper and pun aficionado Ludacris has a new app for you. The wordsmith behind Word of Mouf and Back for the First Time has partnered with filmmaker and startup founder Edwin Benton to create Slang N' Friendz, a remixed Scrabble and Words With Friends app with a much less rigid view of the English language.
New Words with Friends lets you play solo even when you're offline
Still playing Words with Friends? Well, then Zynga's rewarding your loyalty with a huge update on the app's fifth birthday, complete with a redesigned interface and new features. The New Words with Friends (yes, it's been renamed, as well) doesn't only look flatter than its predecessor, it also comes with a new feature called Solo Mode, which lets you play on your own without internet connection. It's apparently the game's most requested feature, most likely by folks who spend a lot of time outside coverage area... or those whose friends have abandoned the game years ago.
Google web search reveals English letter frequency, helps our Scrabble hustle
Wordsmiths go to great lengths to master a game of Scrabble or Words With Friends. Rarely are their efforts quite so calculated, however, as what we're seeing today. After Google research director Peter Norvig used his company's search engine to determine letter frequency in the English language, Deadspin and developer Kyle Rimkus compared it against Scrabble's point system and available words to determine which letters generate the most value relative to how often they can play. In short: H, Y and Z produce the most bang for the alphabetic buck, while J and Q are plagues on the rack that are seldom worth saving for a special moment. We can't guarantee that following the Google-derived tips will have serious opponents begging for mercy -- a wide vocabulary is often the real clincher -- but they may help a few of us wondering what to play on that triple word score.
Holiday iOS game sales: Sega, Square Enix and plenty more
We told you to expect more holiday sales, and here they are. First up, Sega is hosting a round of holiday drops, including Jet Set Radio for just US$1.99, Crazy Taxi for the same price, and the new Sonic and Sega All-Stars Racing for just 99 cents. Great prices on those great games, so don't pass those up. Taito's got a sale up, too, with Gardening Mama for $3.99, Space Invaders Infinity Gene for $1.99 and a few more deals on too. Square Enix has the original Chaos Rings on sale for just $4.99 on iPad. Final Fantasy Tactics is only $8.99, too, which I'm pretty sure is discounted from the usual price. djay for iPad is just $9.99, so that should make it fun to play some tunes at the holiday parties this weekend. Words with Friends HD is now just 99 cents, if you haven't already bought it. The great Dungeon Raid is only 99 cents as well. This is a classic, as far as I'm concerned. Capcom's got some deals on as well, including Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and Street Fighter 4 Volt. Bastion is only 99 cents, which makes it a must-buy. Apple's choice for iPhone game of the year, Rayman Jungle Run, is also only 99 cents. Grand Theft Auto 3 and Grand Theft Auto Chinatown are both only 99 cents, which is kind of insane, and Rockstar's also got Max Payne Mobile selling for the same price. Holy moly! Here's the deal: If there's been an iOS game you've been waiting to buy, odds are it's on sale now, or will be so in the next 24 hours or so. Developers are getting nuts with these prices, trying to claw their way into the charts over the holiday break. Go grab some new apps!
Mobile Miscellany: week of July 9th, 2012
Not all mobile news is destined for the front page, but if you're like us and really want to know what's going on, then you've come to the right place. This past week, Motorola debuted the RAZR V in Canada and the Sony Xperia Ion was spotted at Rogers -- curiously, the phone has yet to be formally announced for the carrier. These stories and more await after the break. So buy the ticket and take the ride as we explore the "best of the rest" for this week of July 9th, 2012.
Merriam-Webster announces Dictionary API for developers, coming to a word game near you
Merriam-Webster just announced its new Dictionary API, which gives developers access to the full dictionary and thesaurus, along with more specialized content like medical, Spanish, ESL and student-targeted vocabulary lists. The API will let app makers integrate word definitions, etymologies, audio pronunciations and more. While this content will no doubt make it into a slew of educational apps, Merriam-Webster says it will also enhance word games, so maybe Scramble and Words with Friends will finally start accepting those obscure three-letter words you have up your sleeve.
Zynga CEO Mark Pincus says 'no thanks' to console gaming, isn't worried about a life detached from Facebook
Zynga CEO and founder Mark Pincus just took the stage here at D10, and in a wide-ranging interview with Kara Swisher, he sidestepped conversation about Words With Friends and Farmville long enough to touch on the murky world of console gaming. In a bid to quell any potential surprises at E3 next month, Mark said outrightly that his company is not interested in getting into the console world. "We're aiming for you," he said while pointing at Swisher. "We're going after the mainstream market. There's too much friction [in the console world]." He also made clear that he tries to not look too far ahead of where the world really is. When talking about the undeniable shift to mobile, he made clear that there's still a huge amount of desktop traffic on Zynga's games -- "lots of people play while bored on conference calls at work," he quipped. It's an interesting viewpoint in a world where PSN and Xbox Live Arcade has given independent developers all new distribution platforms to reach users, but it also highlights the outfit's intrinsic attachment to Facebook in particular.
iPhone and Words with Friends save a life
The widely-played word game Words with Friends has a built-in chat feature that lets players talk to each other, and that may well have saved a man's life. According to KCTV, a player in Missouri named Beth Legler was chatting with a fellow player from Australia named Georgie Fletcher who claimed her husband was feeling ill. Legler's husband Larry, a doctor, asked Fletcher to describe her husband's symptoms. Upon hearing the description, Dr. Legler insisted that Georgie take her husband to the hospital immediately. At the hospital, it was discovered that Fletcher's husband had a 99 percent blockage in an artery near his heart. His doctors said that if he had not been taken to the hospital that day, there's a very real chance he could have died. From my secret lair in the South Pacific, I have an opportunity to see for myself just how interconnected the world has become every time I use FaceTime to chat with my dad in Saudi Arabia, Skype with the rest of my family scattered across the US, or bounce stories back and forth with TUAW colleagues all over the world. Moments like the one described in KCTV's story are where the real magic of all this great technology lies, though; someone who might otherwise have died is instead walking around alive and well thanks to the unlikeliest of tools and circumstances. [via The Mac Observer]
TUAW Best of 2011: Vote for the best iPad game
The nominations are in, and the poll is ready to go! The TUAW Best of 2011 awards are all about you -- the readers -- and what you think is the cream of the crop of Apple or third-party products and software. To vote, select one entry from the top nominations made by readers. We'll be announcing the winner in just a few days. Vote early and often! TUAW is asking for your votes for the best iPad game of 2011. This was a tough call, as we had a wide spectrum of nominations, all of which are excellent and top-rated games for iPad. There are six nominees in this category: Osmos for iPad (US$4.99), Words With Friends HD ($0.99), Carcassonne ($9.99), The Bard's Tale ($4.99), Army of Darkness Defense HD (free), and Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer ($4.99). And now, let the voting begin! The results will be announced on December 31, 2011. %Poll-72371%
Words with Friends now a Facebook game
When Facebook gaming giant Zynga bought Newtoy and rebranded it as Zynga with Friends, it was only a matter of time until games from the "with Friends" franchise started popping up on Facebook. Sure enough, Words with Friends is now playable on Facebook as of a couple weeks ago. The game's interface is basically identical to the iOS games, so if you're already familiar with those, you won't need to adapt much to the Facebook game. The coolest feature by far is the game's integration with the mobile versions. Playing the browser-based version will sync game progress to Words with Friends on iPhone and iPad pretty much instantaneously if you have the app synced up with your Facebook account. You can start a game on Facebook, then pick it up later in the iPad app. It's all very easy to set up. Words with Friends on iPad has almost exactly the same interface Unlike many other Facebook games, Words with Friends does not appear to require Flash, which is a definite bonus if you're playing the game on a MacBook. My wife is a Zuma addict, and I can always tell when she's playing because it sounds like she's got a jet engine in her lap. Words with Friends doesn't spin up the fans at all, and it runs quite smoothly on her Mac. Words with Friends is free to play on Facebook, and there are free versions the iOS apps, including the HD version for the iPad. So if you've been curious to try the game, now's your chance to get in on the fun.
Zynga crowns Lady Gaga as FarmVille's newest cash cow
What better way to market a game that isn't really a game than with an artist who isn't really an artist? Such was the rationale, apparently, behind Zynga's recent decision to partner with Lady Gaga, the freshly anointed face of FarmVille. As of May 17th, FarmVille users will be able to take a much-needed break from wasting their lives and visit GagaVille -- a neighboring but equally fake farm full of unicorns, crystals and terrible life decisions. There, visitors will be able to listen to unreleased tracks from Gaga's forthcoming album, Born This Way, which they can also download for "free," once they've dropped $25 of their parents' hard-earned cash on a Zynga gift card. The campaign will mercifully come to an end on May 26th, but not before Diet Madonna extends her corporate leviathan to every corner of Zynga's gaming universe, including Words With Friends, Mafia Wars and anything else your pre-teen cousin spends far too much time playing. Gaga will win. Zynga will win. The human race, on balance, will lose. If you haven't slit your wrists yet, the PR after the break should do the trick.
The best iOS apps I used in 2010
After looking back over Mac and Mac/iOS hybrid apps, it's time to look at the best iOS apps of 2010. As before, this list comes from my particular experience over the past year with these apps. 1) iCab Mobile (US$1.99, universal) is a replacement for mobile Safari. While it is hindered by the fact that iOS doesn't have anywhere to set a "default browser," and therefore most URLs that you open from the Springboard or email/Twitter/etc... will open in Safari, iCab offers plenty of features that make it worth the effort. It is the first app on my dock, and I much prefer it over Safari. Although it uses the same rendering engine as Safari, it comes with a host of features that Safari doesn't have. iCab Mobile will let you download files, which you can either offload to your computer later or upload to Dropbox from right within the app. Tap and hold an image, and you can save it right to your Dropbox. iCab on the iPad also does "real" tabs, with a visible tab present (it will auto-hide when not needed, if you want). You can set it to open links in new tabs, or open only links to different domains in new tabs. It has content filtering built-in, as well as module support for things like Instapaper, viewing HTML source or even downloading videos from YouTube. It also has a forms manager and a kiosk mode, and as Mike pointed out in November it supports VGA mirroring for presentation use. Web browsing is one of the primary uses of my iPad, and iCab Mobile is well worth the minimal asking price. Find out more at iCab Mobile's website. See the rest of my choices below.
Zynga buys Newtoy, studio rebranded as Zynga With Friends
Well how about this -- Facebook and social game giant Zynga has bought up iPhone developer Newtoy, makers of the popular Games with Friends apps, including Words with Friends and Chess with Friends. Newtoy has now been rebranded as Zynga With Friends, and will apparently be working on new titles for Zynga in their own style. There's no word on what kind of money changed hands, unfortunately, but Zynga is worth around $5.6 billion, so it has plenty to spend. This is that company's seventh such deal in as many months. As deals for iPhone devs go, this is a big one -- Newtoy previously also worked on the We Rule title for Ngmoco, so the studio has extensive experience in social mobile gaming and monetizing those experiences. Zynga is the company behind Farmville, the most successful social game out there, with its own deep roots in the social gaming field. So this will be an interesting combination to be sure. We just chatted with Newtoy's David Bettner at the Austin GDC a little while ago, and he'll be stepping into the position of studio director, with his brother Paul Bettner becoming a Zynga VP and GM of the new studio. Bettner also told us that the company was working on "at least three prototypes that were up and playable," but it's not clear whether those titles will continue to be made or whether Zynga will have their own products for the former Newtoy devs to work on. If nothing else, this is a big vote of confidence in the App Store yet again -- Words with Friends has been a runaway hit for Newtoy, and clearly Zynga sees potential in the "with Friends" brand.
GDC Online 2010: Newtoy and Words with Friends' 10 million downloads
Newtoy is the company behind the popular Games With Friends brand on the App Store, featuring Chess With Friends and the extremely popular Words With Friends. If you're on Twitter, you probably already knew that Words With Friends was popular (it's all over the service), but you might not have realized just how popular. Newtoy's own David Bettner took the stage here at GDC Online 2010 in Austin, Texas for a panel and said that the game has had 10 million downloads so far. That's allowed him, his brother Paul, and their cousin to take Newtoy from a company of three people working on laptops in a library (though they admittedly had a lot of good experience as developers at Age of Empires dev Ensemble Studios) to a 30-person game studio with a bright future in what Bettner calls "turn-based asynchronous mobile gaming." And that stat isn't the only interesting one that Bettner shared. Of those 10 million downloads, half have played the game in the last month. The Words With Friends app has two million daily active users and five million monthly active users. And of those users, 60% were brought in to the game by their friends (which makes for a very viral cocktail), and a whopping 40% play the app ten times or more per day.
iPad game announcements out early and often
The trickle of iPad games released last week has now become a flood of iPad software news. Everybody is climbing over themselves to get the word out there about launch titles. Mobile Entertainment has what's probably the biggest news: another new swarm of titles has been found in the App Store's database, including iPad versions of the popular Fieldrunners and Flick Fishing games. Fieldrunners is a little more expensive than the iPhone version, at US$7.99, while Flick Fishing is one the few iPhone games keeping its price, logging in at $2.99. Words with Friends HD has also been announced, and it looks excellent -- big, bright, and beautiful on the iPad's screen. The extra space also gives a little more breathing room for chatting while playing with friends. There's not a lot of actual information about the game out yet, but we presume that you will be able to play with friends still using the game on their iPhone. Doodle Blast HD was announced as well, and it looks good. There's no doubt at this point that the iPad's App Store will have plenty of titles ready to go on day one.
