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- App Review: Ramp Champ
Arcade bowling style games are very popular. In the real world, skee-ball is probably the most recognized of these. In the iPhone world there have been several who have risen to the challenge, but Ramp Champ, the newest game from The Iconfactory and DSMediaLabs, brings a very interesting and addictive twist to this genre.
Boasting an interface designed by The Iconfactory (and award-winning designer Louie Mantia), Ramp Champ takes traditional skee-ball and throws it down in a series of four stylized arcade games, based on the idea of flicking balls at targets of varying points. Right out of the proverbial box, users can play a variety of mini-games, including ones set in a clown environment, an underwater environment, an arcade-style outer space environment or, for Apple fanboys out there, a classic “Icon Garden” style setting. Unlike traditional skee-ball, each environment has multiple targets of varying weight as well as hidden easter eggs.
Each mini-game rewards great gameplay by providing tickets, like a traditional arcade. A “loot” section showcases a page of prizes per each environment, allowing users to trade in tickets for a very diverse collection of prizes. Each mini-game also provides for three goals and awards players with collectible trophies upon completing those goals.
The game also supports in app purchasing of additional environments, including an Adventure Pack which adds ninja and tiki island themed levels as well as a Challenge Pack which adds fantasy and dental themed levels. These additional in app purchases are 99 cents and also include additional goals and prizes.
Ramp Champ is a very fun and addicting game and perfect for long term gameplay or just when you have a few minutes to spare. The original soundtrack and amazing graphics make this a definite must have. Ramp Champ is $1.99 and available on the App Store.
P.S. Among the easter eggs you might find in this game is everyone’s favorite dogcow, Clarus. When playing The Icon Garden level, knock over all of the icons and then one of the two differently colored flowers in the second wave. If you’ve played Ramp Champ, tell me what you think!
Read our latest analysis piece, "Can the News Industry Move Beyond Its Napster Phase?" Only on GigaOM Pro.
Переслать - Apple's Untapped Marketing Tool: Price
Apple’s advertising is clever, visually attractive, hip, and funny. It does a great job of showing off what its products can do, and how your life could change as a result. What Apple ads don’t talk about is money. As someone who’s already more than willing to part with my little disposable income in order to nab Apple gear, I’m fine with that. But what about everyone else?There are no doubt reasons Apple doesn’t talk about price. I’ll mention a few of them later on in this post. The thing is, especially at the low end of its product line, Apple stands to gain a lot by trumpeting its price tags to the masses.
Why People Are Switching
In the past three months, I’ve seen three friends buy their first Mac computer. None of them purchased the 13-inch MacBook Pro that Apple has been so lauded for online and by the tech journalism community. Instead, all three bought either a Mac mini or a white plastic MacBook, and all three did so because these machines represent the lowest cost of entry into Apple’s Mac lineup.
That’s great news for Apple. Its low-end computers are doing their job, and bringing people in who otherwise might not have looked at a Mac. The problem is that none of those three people would’ve considered a Mac if I hadn’t recommended them. The reason? They all perceived Macs as too expensive.
I know this evidence is anecdotal at best, and doesn’t mean this is the case for the general computer-buying population, but everyday I meet people who just weren’t aware that there existed such a thing as a Mac that costs less than $1,500 or $1,600. Some used to use them for work in the eighties, when it would cost you $1,800 to get one for home use, but speak with fond longing about the user experience they remember.
When I tell these people that they can get back into Mac for as little as $600, they are completely flabbergasted. As in, never even conceived such a thing was possible, totally unaware. To me, that means that Apple isn’t doing its job right on the marketing side of things. Of course, word of mouth is probably part of the company’s marketing plan, but why depend on individual evangelists like me to spread pricing info when televised media is so much more efficient?
The Great Unmentionable
Apple has some very good reasons not to talk about price. For one, they can’t beat PC manufacturers in that area. There will always be a cheaper PC with better specs on paper out there. But talking to PC users, that isn’t as big of an issue as I thought it was. People who remember Macs from times past don’t care that you could get a better spec’d PC for the same price or better as the Mac mini. They care that Macs are so affordable as compared to their precursors from 20 years ago.
Another reason Apple might not want to talk about price is that it would be inconsistent with its branding to date. Apple’s computer products are targeted at a demographic that doesn’t list price as its top priority. The average Apple consumer is financially comfortable, and willing to pay for a quality product that sets them apart. “Think Different” really means “Buy Different.”
Getting Past Taboos
The fact is, Apple’s changed its pricing policy to target new growth and new demographics, and it should change its marketing strategy to be more in line with those new sales goals. A Mac mini commercial, done with all the usual Apple visual appeal, with a simple “Starting at $599″ at the end would do wonders for raising consumer awareness regarding pricing without diluting the strong brand Cupertino’s worked so hard to establish.
You can talk about features and reliability till you’re blue in the face, but if you want price-conscious consumers to listen, you’ve also got to talk about cost. If Apple really wants to convert new pricing structure into an exponential increase in sales, it would do well to make sure people know about it.
Переслать - iTunes U: Learning Wherever You Are
iTunes U (iTunes Link), part of the iTunes Store, is an amazing venue for top-notch educational content from the world’s greatest universities, institutions, museums and other public educational foundations. From language lessons to audiobooks to lectures and more, iTunes U is a great place for those who love to learn. With the release of iTunes 9, Apple has put an even bigger spotlight on this great content by featuring it prominently inside the application.
When iTunes U first launched, many of the top universities, such as Stanford, Cambridge and Carnegie Mellon, jumped onboard to provide engaging content. As the original institutions first began producing content for the free service, some implemented their content as podcasts that would download into the “Podcasts” section of iTunes whereas others would implement their content so it would download in the “Music” section. Furthermore, as more engaging content was added to the service, it became problematic to keep this content organized. Some universities would automatically create playlists for their content, and others would just create multiple podcasts.
iTunes 9 attempts to solve this disarray by providing a specific iTunes U section inside the application and a specific iTunes U tab for iPods and iPhones to sync the content. This allows users to specifically choose which content they wish to sync, by a particular topic from an iTunes U content provider, or a specific “episode” within that topic. The iTunes Store redesign itself also prominently features iTunes U content accessible via a button across the top navigation bar. Though this section of iTunes still physically resembles the iTunes Store pre-version 9, Apple is in the process of updating it to match the look and feel of the rest of the redesigned store.
The 3.0 Software Update for the iPhone and iPod touch also brings about a specific section for iTunes U in the mobile iTunes store. Much like traditional podcasts, users can browse this section to view top downloaded content or content organized by category. Due to the flexibility that Apple gives institutions in organizing and presenting their content, navigating all of this directly from an iPod or iPhone can be a bit daunting, though.
As mentioned earlier, iTunes U content is completely free and currently features over 200,000 educational audio and video titles available for download, even including content on how to get started creating your own iPhone applications. It’s a great resource to further your learning whether you’re at home or on the go.
Переслать - Windows 7 Takes Pricing Cue From Snow Leopard
Snow Leopard is selling like hotcakes. It’s selling much better than Tiger, and a lot better than Leopard, too. If I had to hazard a guess, I’d say those strong sales numbers had something to do with price. Microsoft appears to think so, too.For a limited time, Microsoft is offering students the opportunity to grab one Windows 7 upgrade to either the Home Premium or Professional versions of the upcoming operating system for only $29.99, the same price that the single-user version of Snow Leopard retails for.
That’s $90 cheaper than the Home Premium upgrade costs at regular retail prices, and $170 off the price of the Professional version. There is a catch, though. You need to have a valid student email address from a U.S. educational institution (college or university) in order to qualify.
AppleInsider claims that there are similar deals in place in the UK, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Korea and Mexico, though I could only find a “Coming Soon” notice when I tried to change the country using a drop down menu at the top of the order page. Entering a valid Canadian university email address also got me nowhere.
Microsoft is very much aware that Apple’s student market share is one of the company’s most consistent strengths, despite recent incursions by low-cost netbook machines into that demographic. This deep discounting, and the accompanying 741.com micro-site on which it can be found show that Redmond is willing to go to great lengths to try to recapture some of the youth market.
If you’re planning on taking advantage of this deal using yours or a relative’s student email address to install Windows 7 on your Boot Camp partition, remember that the deal only applies to upgrades, not full versions, so you’ll already need either Vista or XP installed for it to work.
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