Patent Wars

So this has been going on for years/months (I'm not sure which) but it's been getting a bit crazy right about now, so I thought I would have a little talk about it. Apple are a bit like Marmite when it comes to the internet; people either love them or hate them with a fiery passion.

Now I use an iPhone and yeah it's an okay phone, it does what I want and I like how it does it. It has a few problems, but what doesn't technology wise these days? I am in no way an Apple fan-boy, the iPhone is the only thing I own and yes, I agree they are overpriced for what they are but I don't mind paying for it because I think it's worth it.

However, I don't like Apple as a business... They make a lot of overpriced stuff and although I think (I may be wrong but don't kill me!) that the iPhone revolutionised what a smartphone was and brought them into the public spotlight, they haven't been the first to create a lot of what they claim and they are a bit crazy when it comes to enforcing patents...

Now I've never understood patents or copyrights, I'm a very sharing-is-caring kind of guy and think that although competition is good for innovation, so is sharing. Now I have a limited knowledge of the past to all this, the first thing I heard about anything was a lawsuit between Apple and Motorola concerning the slide to unlock function... Yes, it's that's stupid! I can't remember who won that but I think it was Apple?

The second lawsuit I know about all this was between Apple and Samsung concerning the Galaxy S and the iPhone 4/ iPad... Apparently the Samsung Galaxy stuff look mighty similar to the iPhone and iPad... I personally don't see this, but courts did and awarded Apple $1BILLION for patent infringement! Now I can't help but ask myself, why? You're a billion dollar company Apple, why do you need to sue people over stupid things? Slide to unlock functions and phones "looking similar", all of this just seems childish and a bit absurd...

Now Google and Android, who have connections with Samsung and Motorola are very annoyed about all this. Google bought Motorola and are now suing Apple and wish to stop the sale of Apple products in the US? I would say Apple bought this on themselves, but is this really a mature reaction? Patent laws are crazy and things like this will keep happening, with people suing each other into oblivion until there are no phones for anyone.

And as if that wasn't crazy enough, a company in China got their hands on some leaked photo's of the iPhone5, which Apple were hoping to announce in the coming weeks. They've banged out a quick copy (only China...) called the GooPhone I5 and are threatening to sue Apple if they release the coming iPhone in China...

My mind is just like... WHAT?! To all this... This is quickly getting out of hand, and honestly I think this will all end in Apple getting into serious trouble, if not going bankrupt. And they only have themselves to blame in all this! I honestly think this is bad... I didn't care much for Apple but honestly after using the iPhone1 almost 5 years ago I can't go back to using something else... People have told me that Android is better but I've invested a lot of money into my Apple product, through buying the phones and the apps, even recently going as far as purchasing some Hank Green on iTunes...

If Apple were to go bust, I (and many more people) would possibly be left with useless phones that wouldn't get serviced any more, wouldn't get upgrades any more, wouldn't get replaced or fixed if they broke any more... And I would hate that, I've paid a lot of money for my iPhone 4S and I don't want to see it become a brick that I can't use...

So I honestly hope that this gets sorted out soon before either Apple or Android become a thing of the past...

iPad Super micro reviews.

In honour of the passing of Steve Jobs, this weeks reviews will all be written on my iPad, and will be 10 single sentence summerys of things I have been playing on playing on my iPad lately

Rest in peace Steve Jobs, thanks for changing the world.

(Expect full reviews of some of these in future weeks.)

Back to the future - The game

Set after the events of the back to the future films, this episodic series sees you take control of Marty Mcfly for some good old time travel adventure.

Tales of monkey island

Guybrush Threepwood is back, and is as great as ever, join him and Elaine Marley and lechuck for an episodic adventure series!

Plants vs. Zombies

Zombies are attacking, defend your brains with a bunch of defensive and offensive plants...

Angry birds

Kill the pigs by flinging birds at them... everyone knows this game by now, no need to go into details.

RunRundash!

Run left and right avoiding birds who turn into water and fall on your head... no really.

Zombie highway

Drive down a highway, as zombie after zombie jumps onto your car, steer using the gyroscope and scrape the zombies off on to the enviroment.

Cut the rope.

Get the candy into the little green monsters mouth, by... you guessed it. Cutting rope.

Stupid Ninjas

Kill ninjas in such a way that they kill the ninjas around them, surprisingly difficult and compelling.

Cat Physics

Get one cat to pass a ball to another cat, using physics!

Guns'n'Glory

Essentially a tower defence game, where you pay a bunch of outlaws to kill settlers and take there money, so you can pay more outlaws to kill more settlers.

Talk like a pirate day.

Avast shipmates an' welcome t' pirate week here on zombie outbreak. as ye ortin' ta all know today be international talk like a pirate day, an' in celebration o' this, ever' post for the next seven days be in some way pirate related.

I be here t' start ye off wi' some pirate themed mini reviews, but make sure ye check aft ever' tide fer more pirate fun!

(fer ease o' readin', th' reviews be in "proper" English)

Munchkin Booty - Card game

Ah munchkin, you may be my favourite card game available, and you know what? Your pirate edition is a whole lot of fun.

Munchkin is a simple game, be the first to level 10. this is hampered somewhat by monsters to kill and curses. However your quest to level 10 is most hampered, by the other players.

They play curses against you, make the monsters your fighting tougher, and just when you think your about to win, add 3 more monsters to the fight, ruining your chances once and for all.

In this version of munchin, you play a scurvy sea dog, instead of a new race, you get a accent (french, english, spanish or dutch) and instead of the standard classed of wizard or fighter, you get to play as a pirate, merchant or a member of the royal navy.

This game also adds ships and sharks, ships are a new type of item, that are... wait for it... ships! Sharks on the other hand are a new monster type, and when an enemy is fighting a shark you can add any sharks you have in your hand to the combat. Very nasty.

All in all a great version of munchkin, maybe not my favorate (I think Munchkin Zombies just wins out) but a close second.

Pirates of the Caribbean on stranger tides – blu-ray

we all know the story by now, Johnny Depp as captain jack needs to get some kind of magical dodad to stop some magical bad guy while making himself immortal or something.

The pirates films are predictable, but man are they awesome.

I saw this perticular pirate film at the cinema twice, and now I have it on blu-ray, its great, even if the story is a little weak. The fights are good, its very pretty to look at and Johnny Depp plays a great pirate.

The blu-ray gives you a couple of interesting features and the always welcome “Bloopers of the Caribbean”

Go see it if you have not already. Its not as good as the first one, but its better than the second.

Pirates! -  Ipad

Pirates! is a pirate simulator, the game starts with your family getting kidnapped and you enlisting with a crew of a ship to get them back. Pretty soon you lead a mutiny against your evil captain, take the ship for your own, and start your career as a fearsome pirate.

The game is mostly you sailing your ship around, finding rich ships to plunder, hunting down your lost family members or making a choice to help the efforts of one country in its war against... pretty much every other country. You can also seduce governors daughters, hunt down the ten most fearsome pirates in history for their ships and treasure or simply buy goods cheap from one port to sell them high in another.

Me and my little brother had the PC version of this game back in the past, and I sunk a lot of time into travailing the seas sinking the ships that annoyed me and capturing the ones worth some gold, so when I saw it had been re-released on the iPad I jumped at the chance to go down memory lane once more.

The game is mostly the same, but with a few changes, instead of the rather frustrating key pressing mini game when dancing with governors daughters now you have a rather nice rhythm game, a little like elite beat agents. The game also adds the very welcome addition of being able to add a tracking marker on the map to lead you to your next goal (so you don't need to constantly consult the map) and gives you the option of auto sailing to ports you have visited before (very handy when you have miles to go and the wind is against you)

Gone also are the old (and very clunky) land sections when you either hunted for buried treasure or attacked ports. Now you have a much better bombardment mini game when attacking ports, and as long as you have a complete treasure map, you can automatically find buried treasure.

All in all, pirates is still a good game, and the iPad changes go a long way to turning it into a great game.

It's almost time fer me t' leave ye. but before i do, sea dogs an' land lubbers together now, lets sing!