E3 2012: Sphero Brings Third-Party Tangible Fun to your iOS Device

How do you make the iPhone more fun? You give it it's own little R2-D2-like companion. Enter Sphero, the plastic ball that you control with your iPhone. Though we covered it briefly at CES earlier this year, we got a better look at the device while perusing this year's E3 show floor. At first glance, it's hard to tell Sphero's purpose. But once it's calibrated with an iOS device, Sphero is all at once a toy, a game controller, and even a programming tool.

After removing Sphero from it's induction charge cradle, two quick shakes brings this little device -- hardly the size and weight of a tennis ball -- to life. As it connects to your iOS device, a small radial dial will appear on the touch screen as a blue light appears on the side of the ball. As you rotate the dial, you only need to aim the blue light in the direction of your device to calibrate. After the easy setup, there's plenty to do with Sphero.

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E3 2012: Fieldrunners 2 Preview

Fieldrunners was one of the first big iOS original sensations, delivering a slickly animated and well-executed take on tower defense strategy, but it's been nearly four years since its 2008 release, and we're only now talking about a sequel. Why the lengthy wait?

Luckily, Fieldrunners 2 looks to have been well worth the wait. I had a chance to scope out and briefly play the game this week at E3, and not only does the game build upon its predecessors most successful elements while incorporating other tower defense titles' best qualities, but it also makes some innovations of its own along the way.

Giving the follow-up a sense of progression was essential for the studio, and it shows in the new world map, which depicts a series of challenges spread across four distinct environmental designs. The familiar grid-based approach is retained, in which you'll spend in-game cash for offensive towers, all with the hopes of keeping swarming enemies from reaching your base; and like in the first game, you can pause the action to precisely place towers without the threat of incoming foes. But while the original was built with open-area maps, Fieldrunners 2 also experiments with forced-path designs at times, as well as a mix of the two and hazardous terrain (like heat panels), all of which give you a lot of choice in how you direct and attack the invading forces.

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NAB 2012: Editor Reveals Apple’s Future Plans for Final Cut Pro X

The annual National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show is officially underway in Las Vegas, and pro editor Larry Jordan has hit the ground running by documenting an on-the-record pow-wow with Apple discussing the future of Final Cut Pro X.

Larry’s Blog is reporting from the NAB show, where he had an on-the-record sit down with Apple to discuss where the company plans to take its Final Cut Pro X software. The video editing app received a major overhaul last summer and it wasn’t to everyone’s liking -- but it appears that Apple is listening, judging from four updates since the original release which has largely returned most of the key functionality from the prior version.



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PAX East 2012: Getting Wooded Revenge with Jack Lumber for iOS

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PAX East 2012: Ms. Splosion Man Gets Reworked for iOS

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