bust

Smiley Pops offers yet another take on the match three like-colored bubbles game concept. Open it up, and it may feel familiar, but take a closer look, and you'll notice that the bubbles are oriented in a unique way. Smiley Pops' bubbles are not stacked in perfect columns and rows the way they are in many other games. They're staggered, with one wedged between the two below it.

To play, swipe around three bubbles to rotate them. If the new arrangement results in at least three matching colors in a row, on the same line, they'll all … Read more

Bubble Blast 2 for Android is a free puzzle game that, yet again, pits players against poppable, monochromatic bubbles. Choose from two game modes: Puzzle and Arcade.

In Bubble Blast 2, each level is covered in a different configuration of bubbles, with some bubbles being more difficult to pop than others. In order to advance, you must set off chain reactions of bubble-poppage to clear each screen. The game is not only fun and addictive, it's also quite a brain teaser, as it forces you to weigh several different courses of action when attempting to clear each level.

If … Read more

Calendar and to-do list applications are incredibly common, so a program of this type has to be really special to stand out from the crowd. Unfortunately, SimBust Calendar Manager Lite doesn't do much to distinguish itself. The program works just fine, but there's nothing about it that really impressed us.

The program's interface is plain and a little dated, with standard-issue menus and icons across the top. The main pane displays a calendar view. Another pane displays a to-do list, and a third lists folders that to-do items are stored in. The only thing remotely useful or … Read more

With 2010 coming to a close, it's time to look back at some of the greatest games to hit the iOS over the course of the year. I have many more favorites than I've listed in this slideshow, but I guess I have to make a cutoff somewhere. In any case, many factors have contributed to the iPhone becoming one of the greatest gaming platforms yet, and I think it will continue to get even better in 2011.

There's no question that the popularity of the iPhone made game developers see an opportunity to create something special … Read more

Space Miner Blast is a slimmed-down arcade version of one of our favorite games on the iPhone called Space Miner: Space Ore Bust. The original game included a storyline in which you tried to keep your uncle's space-mining company afloat by mining various sectors of space and using the ore to make money so you could upgrade your ship. Though we still recommend the original as a more involved and unique game, Space Miner Blast takes the basic gameplay mechanic (flying around and shooting asteroids) and makes it into a fun challenge on its own.

Space Miner Blast tasks … Read more

Macworld Expo 2010 started on Tuesday here in San Francisco, and will continue through tomorrow (Saturday) at the Moscone Center. I had a chance to walk the expo floor on Thursday and though there weren't nearly as many vendors as in years past, I was able to talk to a few iPhone developers about their products and all seemed excited about showing off their latest projects.

Even though Apple is no longer in attendance at Macworld, Moscone North was crowded with throngs of Mac and iPhone fans, looking at the latest software, peripherals, and gear. While the big Apple … Read more

A mini-controversy is brewing following comments made last week by YouTube's leaders about how the video service is headed to profitability.

In the wake of YouTube's good news, Chris Dale and Aaron Zamost, two YouTube public relations types, appeared to gloat when they posted a blog designed to do some "myth busting" about oft-written assumptions about the company. Two of the "myths" are "advertisers are afraid of YouTube" and "YouTube is only monetizing 3 to 5 percent of the site."

Dale and Zamost were taking the opportunity to debunk these … Read more

An anthropologist has built what she claims to be the most realistic reconstruction of Johann Sebastian Bach's head.

Using computer-modeling techniques, anthropologist Caroline Wilkinson of the University of Dundee in Scotland, created a new image of Bach. Most of us when envisioning the composer think of a saggy old man with a white, curly wig. Instead, he was rather big-boned with a slight underbite and short hair, as the new rendering shows.

The bust is currently on display at Berlin's Charite medical school and will then be the centerpiece of an exhibition at the Bach Museum in Eisenach, … Read more

Online activist group MoveOn.org is poised to announce a campaign targeting Facebook's "Beacon" advertisements, which post information about users' activity on partner sites (movie rentals, purchases from online retailers) onto their friends' News Feeds. According to MoveOn representatives, the organization considers this to be a "glaring violation of (Facebook's) users' privacy," and has launched a paid ad campaign on Facebook, a "protest group" on the social-networking site, and an online petition to encourage the company to allow users to opt into the program at their own volition.

"The bottom line,&… Read more