First came the Bob Marley song, and then came the typography-related pun. But have you come across the iPhone game that takes the joke quite literally?

Shoot the Serif by London-based creative studio To The Point is a game that both designers and non-designers can enjoy. Similar in slant to Helvetica vs. Arial, Shoot the Serif has you shooting letters with serifs while sparing the sans-serif ones. In the off chance that you’re not familiar with the definition of a serif, it’s simply the slight extension of a stroke of a letter rendered in a serif typeface such as the widely used Times New Roman.

Hold it right there, serif!

Recently updated to improve its stability on iPhone 4S, Shoot the Serif has three difficulty levels: junior, middle-weight, and senior. Each level contains five stages and has its corresponding time limit and error margin. You get promoted to the next level upon finishing all stages in a level, except, of course, for the last level. In the senior level, you effectively beat the game as soon as you conquer all five stages. I should remind you, though, that doing so doesn’t make you a bona fide designer — unless you already are, that is.

Featuring different serif and sans-serif typefaces, Shoot the Serif is available for free in the App Store. If you somehow happen to be having trouble remembering the game’s basic rule, singing it is bound to do the trick: “I shot the serif … but I did not shoot the sans-serif.”

Via: DesignTAXI

• shoot the serif
• Helvetica vs. Arial

Energy Storm (Free) by Matt Jogela-Hall puts you in the cockpit of a ship capable of switching back and forth between light and dark colors as you gather energy.

This is your classic shoot em up game, with your ship zooming through the sky as it approaches an onslaught of other trigger happy ships.

Your ship shoots automatically and will gather up balls of energy to release against the enemy ships. Just as your ship is either light or dark, so are the enemies.

Shooting enemies of the opposite color of yours means dealing double damage to them. Switching back and forth from light to dark is as easy as lifting your finger off the screen. You’ll need to constantly be aware of what color you are, versus which color you’re up against.

The interface is pretty bare bones. Probably the main thing it lacks is a tutorial.

You’re presented with a brief tutorial as you play for the first time, but it’s easy to get lost in “What the heck am I doing?” that you may not be able to pay attention to them.

Near as I could tell, the only way to revisit the tutorial was by deleting and reinstalling the app.

This app is free, though you’re limited to only one of three ships. The default ship, the Viper, is like trying to win a sword fight with a wooden sword. I mean, you need at least something because it’s dangerous to go alone, but the other two ships are much more powerful.

Luckily, you can demo the paid ships for a limited span of gameplay. The difference in firepower is like night and day and all the bigger ships I feared encountering in the Viper exploded like microwaved potatoes with the higher ships.

Fans of the shoot em up genre will want to give this game a shot. It’s not the most advanced game on the block, such as Bug Princess 2, but its switching back and forth of light and dark is certainly a unique spin on the game.

• Energy Storm
• Bug Princess 2

It’s no secret that Angry Birds creator Rovio intends to be the next Disney. “There is no reason why we should not be able to build a company of that size,” Rovio CMO Peter Vesterbacka has said. “They’re doing a lot of things we want to do.” One of those things, included in an impressive range of Disney merchandise, is jewelry. And now, what do you know? According to a report by Forbes, Rovio is actually doing that as well.

The mobile entertainment behemoth has partnered with Finnish jewelry shop Primesmith in releasing a line of Angry Birds-themed silver ornaments, including rings, necklaces, and bracelets. No doubt the main attraction in this line is the Mighty Eagle ring. Pictured above, the silver band is made in collaboration with renowned Finnish designer Kristian Saarikorpi. “Rovio guards the image of the Mighty Eagle character jealously,” said Saarikorpi. “Just as in the games, only a portion of the powerful bird is depicted on the ring — his shape is never shown in full.”

If the ring looks expensive, especially for a mere tie-in of a casual video game, that’s because it is. Now available for purchase, the Mighty Eagle ring comes with a hefty $290 price tag. But more affordable jewelry items aimed at mass market distribution, including $50 sterling pendants like the one shown below, are already in the works. The piggy antagonists of the Angry Birds series are also set to appear in upcoming items.

Ready to cough up $50 for this birdie?

Should its initial collaboration with Rovio prove successful, Primesmith plans to partner with other digital franchise owners to come out with their own jewelry lines. How about some Fruit Ninja bling? Or are you already quite happy with your Fruit Ninja undies?

Source: Forbes

• Angry Birds
• Fruit Ninja

Hot on the heels of its debut on Wall Street, Facebook has announced that it has acquired the popular gift-giving app Karma. According to TechCrunch, the move is a “real product acquisition” and 16 employees of the startup are set to begin working at the social networking giant.

Released just five months ago and available for free in the App Store, Karma is an iPhone app that lets you send gifts to your friends and family even without knowing their address. The idea is to choose an item to gift from a diverse product catalog including bottles of wine and Netflix subscriptions, and let the recipient specify the shipping address. The recipient is duly notified of your forthcoming gift via SMS, email, or Facebook.

According to Karma co-founders Linden and Lewis, "only good things will follow."

“We’re thrilled to announce that Karma has been acquired by Facebook,” said Karma co-founders Lee Linden and Ben Lewis in a blog post. “The service that Karma provides will continue to operate in full force. By combining the incredible passion of our community with Facebook’s platform we can delight users in new and meaningful ways. As we say … only good things will follow.”

Even before the acquisition, Karma is already well-integrated with Facebook. The app connects with the social network to search through your friends’ walls for any events that might call for a thoughtful gift, such as birthdays, weddings, and job promotions. The app was also recently updated to include great gifts for Mother’s Day and push notifications for important events.

Karma joins the ubiquitous photo sharing app Instagram and the ambient location-based app Glancee in Facebook’s list of recent purchases. What next?

Source: TechCrunch

• Karma
• Facebook
• Instagram

Already, we’ve seen pictures of Ashton Kutcher in his black-tutleneck-blue-jeans costume for the upcoming “jOBS: Get Inspired” TV movie adaptation of the Apple co-founder’s life. Now, we’ve heard that the movie is to begin filming in the actual house where Jobs was born – and better still, will include scenes in the garage were Jobs and Wozniak put together the first Apple computer, according to Apple Insider.

The news was announced in a press release, which hit the Web recently:

The film chronicling the life of Steve Jobs, the Apple Inc. co-founder and charismatic master of innovation, begins principal photography in June and in keeping with the project’s commitment to accuracy and authenticity, will film early scenes in the actual Los Altos home where Jobs grew up and in the historic garage where he and Steve Wozniak founded Apple.

So far, the only actor known to be attached to the project is Ashton Kutcher, though the word on the street is that Josh Gad from the “Book of Mormon” has been approached to play Wozniak. Producers hope to create a movie that is “dark, honest and uncompromising,” and apparently the film should be finished by Q4, later this year.

If any more news hits the Web, we’ll let you know – so be sure to check back with us.

Source: Apple Insider.

A new jailbreak tweak called SwipeSafari promises to add a bunch of great features to Safari for iOS, according to iDownloadBlog.

Once downloaded and installed, users can take advantage of a number of multi-touch gestures in the small-screen Safari. Additionally, it’s also possible to pull the app’s screen in one direction to perform an action. Such gestures can be configured in the Settings app: SwipeSafari adds a new pane, via which the tweak can be adjusted.

It’s a handy app, but as iDownloadBlog notes, SwipeSafari is rather similar to FullScreen for Safari – another jailbreak tweak that adds gestures to the Safari app. In terms of price, the two are also near identical: you can grab SwipeSafari in the Cydia Store for $1.50 (half-price for a limited time only), while FullScreen for Safari is available for $1.49 – also for a limited time.

Which is better? Jeff from iDownloadBlog praises Swipe Safari’s clean interface, but notes that currently, the tweak isn’t all that stable. Take a look at the video walkthrough below, and let us know which tweak you decide to download in the comments!

Source: iDownloadBlog.

After not receiving any updates for more than seven months, PDF Expert for iPhone and iPod touch finally gets some attention. Released to the App Store yesterday, v3.0 adds audio notes, a secondary display view, sorting, signature support, Microsoft SkyDrive support, and more. In fact, this now brings the iPhone and iPod touch inline with PDF Expert for iPad

Add useful notation stamps and even watch embedded video or audio clips.

Making it easier to recognize documents beyond the file name, the first notable change brought along by PDF Expert v3.0 is a shelf-style view. Replacing the text-only list view, documents are now shown in a grid organized gallery with the images created from the first page of the PDF file. Views are toggled by swiping downward on the documents list and tapping on either of the view mode buttons in the top-right.

Also available within the new options bar are sorting preferences. You can now choose to sort documents by name or date, and in ascending or descending order.

It's no longer a hassle to work with documents needing signatures while on the go.

Continuing into document editing, Readdle provides iPhone users with four handy new features. Already available for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch users can now enjoy media, such as videos or audio clips, embedded into files, plus tap and hold anywhere within a document to add a signature or stamp, including both preset and custom choices. Signatures can also be added by tapping the Signatures button at the bottom.

The fourth feature is unique to iPhone: audio notes. Similar to adding text notes within a document, audio notes can be applied anywhere and work as reminders, footnotes, etc. To create an audio note, tap and hold where you want it pinned and then select Sound. Recording begins immediately with a decibel level indicator to help determine recording volume. Once added, recordings show as circled audio output symbols. Simply tap to play or delete.

PDF Expert is designed for iPhone and iPod touch running iOS 4.3 or later, and available in the App Store for $9.99.

• PDF Expert (professional PDF documents reader)
• PDF Expert (professional PDF documents reader)

it’s me! Peter Pan (Free) by etribe is filled to the brim with interactivity. Whether you and your child are moving Tinkerbell around the page, titling the iPad to mimic the rocking of a boat, or playing drums Garage Band style with Indians, there’s plenty within this app to do.

At the core, the story is a faithful rendition of the classic Peter Pan. The main feature is that you can take pictures of your child’s face and use them on the iconic character.

This is nothing new, really, for children’s iPad stories. The “Mom, It’s Me!” series is an example. But what is unique is that you have three different facial expressions to use: happy, surprised, and angry.

Peter Pan’s face will change several times throughout the story, making use of each of the facial expressions. You can even decorate the face further with clipart when it comes time to go to Tiger Lily’s party.

No two of the 28 pages are alike. Each one features at least one interactive element, if not more. What’s amazing is how intuitive it is to discover these elements.

My favorite one was where the Lost Boys lob rocks and arrows up in the air, knocking all sorts of animals out of trees.

As if all that wasn’t enough, there are puzzles with different difficulty levels, a couple of different scenes to paint, and an option for recording the story in your own voice.

Options for having the story read are available, such as whether you want the story read to you, auto flipping the pages, and turning off the music.

The only complaint I have about the setup for this book is how the interactive elements one-up the voice over narration. It’s easy to get caught up in touching things to see what they do as the narrator patiently reads. I imagine turning the narrator off would help.

The developers hint at other titles being released soon, including Snow White and Hansel and Gretel. If those stories are anything like this one or better, then there will be a lot of postponed bedtimes for kids.

This app is offered for free, while the paid version at $3.99 offers more interactivity. Regardless, children will enjoy seeing themselves in the role of the boy who never grew up.

• it’s me! Peter Pan
• A Trip In The USA – Mom, It’s Me!™

Lately, Samsung — and, not so lately, a host of other electronics manufacturers — have been flexing their muscles digital displays in a sci-fi-inspired attempt at shaping the future. Unfortunately, the tech’s a functional gimmick; barring a series of unlikely and illogical “advancements,” we’ll never see anything like this bendable iPhone hit the consumer market.

While mobile mockups with these flexible screens always pack a good bit of pop, they’re complete nonsense every time. Beyond the progressively counterintuitive nature of the idea itself, there are several technical limitations to consider.

There’s a lot more to smartphones and tablets than just a display. Sure, the screen’s an important, visible aspect of any mobile device, but it’s far from the only important component. And in the real world, circuit boards, processors, and batteries don’t bend. Not yet, at least. And not any time soon, either.

But even if such technology actually existed en masse, what possible practical reason would Apple have to include it in future iPhones or iPads? Another brand might try to make waves with a bendable device in some last-ditch effort to poach Cupertino’s hundreds of millions of (largely satisfied) customers, but remember: Apple doesn’t think different just for the sake of different.

And that’s all a bendable display will ever be.

Think about it: Why do people actually want bendable displays, anyways?

You can trace the idea’s origins back many dozens of years, as concept designers and so-called industrial futurists have been chasing down the dream of foldable, flexible electronic “newspapers” — screens that combine dynamic image capabilities with newspaper-like physical attributes. But that’s backwards thinking, especially in this day and age. Newspapers are not an inherently convenient or ergonomic way to share or consume information; they exist because print on paper was (and still is) a fast, cheap, and — most importantly — disposable commodity. They’re a bottom-dollar means to an end, not a lofty target for tech perfection.

So comfy!

Beyond the flawed metaphor, what possible benefit could bendable display-based mobile devices provide? Curved screens? We’ve got those, and they’re nothing special. Foldable portability, then? Well, “foldable” and “flexible” mean very different things, and screens capable of the latter aren’t close to meeting the taxing, invisible-seam standards of the former. If you’re looking forward to something along the lines of a smartphone that “unfolds” into a tablet (and vice versa), consider the dimensional realities: Facing a minimum tablet-mode thickness of around five millimeters (which is probably too thin to be comfortably held considering the iPad 2′s sharpish 8.8 millimeters), you’d be holding a veritable brick once the thing’s folded over a few times for phone mode. I don’t know about you, but a handset more than twice (or thrice!) the thickness of the iPhone 4S isn’t exactly compelling. Plus, if you really look at the landscape, people don’t seem to have an issue toting around the current iPhone, and iPads fit just fine in backpacks, briefcases, totes, and purses. Even a roll-up tablet wouldn’t be appreciably easier to carry around than the flat rectangles we’ve already got.

So what’s left? Durability? Yes, flexible screens are potentially more durable in certain impact scenarios than the screens currently used throughout the industry. Of course, unless flexible screens are also of inherently better image quality and markedly cheaper to produce than traditional alternatives (they’re neither), it won’t matter. The real cons outweigh the theoretical pro. And a flexible screen packed in an otherwise rigid frame would be effectively rigid itself. Corning’s Gorilla Glass already has a pretty good track record in the face of rough use, and it’s inexpensive and ubiquitous. And don’t forget about the multi-billion-dollar protective case market, either.

All things considered, bendable displays are nothing to get excited about, and they represent only one piece in a much larger — and equally unnecessary — bendable puzzle. The purpose they’d serve in the mobile marketplace lacks the combined staying power where want meets need, and they’re little more than a trade show curiosity. There are zero practical large scale benefits, and there’s no twist to this tale. In the context of smartphones and tablets, bendable screens are useless.

And honestly, when you think about it, our iDevices are flexible enough. You can browse the web, play games, write articles, take photos, paint pictures, check email, send IMs, you name it.

The mobile marketplace isn’t a limbo contest.

Although that’s where bendable displays will forever remain.