candy

Cut the Rope enters the lab

Cut the Rope: Experiments is a fun follow-up to the arcade puzzler Cut the Rope, with a few new elements but the same core concept centered on inventive physics challenges, well-designed and replayable levels, and a cute little candy-loving monster named Om Nom.

The interface is the same: you swipe your finger to cut a rope (occasionally more than one, with multitouch) to drop an attached piece of candy into Om Nom's mouth, a task that becomes increasingly complex with the addition of floating bubbles, dangerous spikes, movable anchors, elastic ropes, and so on. As before, you're also … Read more

Feed Om Nom or suffer the consequences

Cut the Rope is an inventive, addictive, and extremely polished arcade puzzler, in which you interact with increasingly complex, physics-based puzzles to get a piece of candy into the mouth of a cute monster named Om Nom.

Cut the Rope's interface starts out simple: you just swipe your finger to cut a rope, which drops an attached piece of candy into Om Nom's mouth. Soon, you're cutting multiple ropes (occasionally more than one at a time), trying to maneuver the plummeting piece of candy to pass over stars on its way to Om Nom (between one and … Read more

Speck's new Darth Vader-inspired iPad 2 case

Speck's black CandyShell Wrap was one of the more strikingly designed cases for the original iPad. Now the company has announced an iPad 2 version that comes in the same glossy finish it calls DarkLord Black that's reminiscent of Darth Vader's helmet.

We're not sure how the shiny finish will hold up over time (it might be prone to showing scratches), but we recently got a look at the case in person and it looks a lot like the previous model, only slimmer and lighter.

Like the PixelSkin HD Wrap for iPad 2, this one's … Read more

Tilt your screen and travel as far as you can in Swing! Frog

Swing! Frog is like a side-scrolling version of the popular iPhone, Android, and BlackBerry game, Doodle Jump. In it, your objective is to take your frog as far as you can through the infinitely scrolling level to increase your score. Also, you must pick up coins and other goodies to help you earn points and get you on the leaderboard.

The interface is simple: while your frog jumps non-stop, tilt your device left and right to direct him onto the stable candy platforms without falling, and be sure to avoid colliding with anything along the way. To make things even … Read more

Jelly Belly-wrapped Mitsubishi EV's sweeten Chicago candy expo

Electric vehicles are sweeter than ever now that four Mitsubishi i vehicles, wrapped in Jelly Belly graphics, have invaded the Sweets & Snacks Expo 2011 in Chicago.

The Mitsubishi i vehicles, along with a pair of Mitsubishi Outlander crossovers, were whipping around the Windy City on Monday and Tuesday showing off for attendees of the Sweets & Snacks Expo.

About 500 companies and more than 15,000 national and international confectionery and snack industry professionals attend the trade show each year.

The Mitsubishi i will be available for test drives at Mitsubishi dealers beginning in November. The EV has a … Read more

Don't wait for the state fair for cotton candy

As the days get longer, many of us start to dream about spending more time outside. Good weather, of course, means good food. But while the protein-packed goodness of seared burgers and franks will be wafting through the air, another, more sugary, tradition also awaits.

Like a carnival midway ride, the Great Northern Popcorn Vortex Cotton Candy Machine stands ready to jolt patrons (except instead of whiplash, this ride produces a sugar rush). Complete with cart, the home appliance produces one cotton candy cone every 30 seconds. An optional bubble top "eliminates potential dangerous sugar spray," and provides safe operation.

The magic of the midway in the comfort of home isn't the only appeal of this machine designed to be used for gatherings of all sorts. No special installation is necessary; the base is secured to the kettle via four clamps that reduce vibration. After a two-stage warm-up period that lasts a total of six minutes, the sugary goodness is ready to go--anytime of the year.… Read more

AMD takes a Valentine's Day swipe at Intel

Update: AMD adds some additional V-day fun with chocolate processors. See below for details.

Any holiday is an excuse for tech companies to send out little reminders to those likely to write about them, and Valentine's Day is no exception.

During the first half of today, only one V-day swag package arrived, and that was a box of Mortal Kombat candy, encased in an edible chocolate box. This was shortly followed by a somewhat more mysterious package--a single rose, wrapped in paper, hand-delivered from a local florist.

Except, this rose seemed a bit off. It was dark red, almost black, and had an odd scent. A dead rose? A poisoned flower? The only clue to its origin, a note quoting Edgar Allan Poe. Clearly some sort of teaser item for a video game, but off the top of my head, I'm not sure which one. Also--a dead rose is terrible for Valentine's Day regifting.

Finally, the guys at AMD joined the party with a ceramic mug with an I [heart] APU logo, touting the combo CPU/GPU platform known as Fusion, and currently found in laptops such as the HP Pavilion dm1.

What really made this worth mentioning was the snarky note that accompanied it. It reads:

Dear Dan, I heard that Sandy B. broke your heart and wanted to let you know that I'm here for you. Oh, and I have a cousin from Llano, Texas I'd like to introduce you to soon--I think you two will really hit it off!

XOXO, AMD Fusion APU

The skinny on Bing's new panorama maker (video)

Microsoft unloaded a dump truck's worth of changes on its Bing service earlier today, and some of the real gems to come out of the lot are the updates to Bing mobile.

New to the company's iPhone app--and soon other mobile iterations of Bing--are two very visually impressive, and downright useful additions: a Streetside viewer for local maps, and something called Bing Vision, which adds a way for users to pick out specific words from photos to create a customized Web search.

Missing from the update but headed to the app in a future release is the real … Read more

Hands-free candy dispensing

Germs are no fun; candy, however, is. Those most notorious of candy addicts, kids, aren't particularly well-known for their fastidiousness. But when it comes to candy, they harbor no ambivalence. Attacking bowls of candy with no regard for others is a common trait, and one that is hard to avoid. Kids will be kids, after all, but don't let that ruin the candy bowl. For the hygienically challenged (of any age), there is hope.

To the sweet-toothed germophobe, the CandyMan Motion-Activated Candy Dispenser is the best idea since individually wrapped candy. Operated with only a swipe of the … Read more

Feed Om Nom or suffer the consequences

Cut the Rope's interface starts out simple: you just swipe your finger to cut a rope, which drops an attached piece of candy into Om Nom's mouth. Soon, you're cutting multiple ropes (occasionally more than one at a time, using multitouch), trying to maneuver the plummeting piece of candy to pass over stars on its way to Om Nom (between … Read more