Briefly: Bastion for iOS, Politix, News360, Pac-12
updated 07:06 pm EDT, Wed August 29, 2012
Bastion now available on iPad for $5
Bastion, a popular console and PC game featuring rich artwork and music that has garnered industry raves and user awards, has arrived on the iPad. The quest-oriented RPG, which features high-definition hand-painted artwork, reactive narration, variable difficulty so that all levels of players can complete the story and new touch controls for the iPad, requires either an iPad 2 or 2012 iPad and offers Game Center compatibility and all the features of the original game.
Players take the role of the title character, who must discover the secrets of the Calamity that shattered his world. While the game features upgradeable weapons, there are no in-app purchases available, and various modes that make the game easier or harder as desired. A New Game Plus mode is available for those who finish the story. The 1GB-sized app sells on the App Store for $5.
Politix site releases iPad, Android versions
The iOS vs. Android debate can sometimes resemble a political catfight, but the bi-partisan political discussion forum Politix has released a mobile version of the forum for users to be able to debate political points anywhere. The site is powered by discussion software Topix and lets users stay up-to-date on the latest headlines and issues of the US presidential campaign, build a political profile that defines the user, and share thoughts and opinions both with the social network as well as through Facebook and Twitter. The app is available for free (free membership in the forum is required to write posts). Versions for most Android devices as well as iPhones are also available.
News360 offers attractive news reading
Another startup is offering what it believes is a smarter and better way to offer aggragated news. News360 for the iPad uses the reader's social feed not to post stories from friends but rather to get a feel for the reader's preferences by studying their social feed. It then files potential feeds and stories into broad categories that the user can further narrow. The app learns more about the user by noting what is read and fine-tunes the options.
News360 also offers the option of reading the same story as interpreted by several different news sites, for example the BBC perspective on the presidential election as well as the Chicago, New York and Los Angeles reporting. The app itself is free and offers a Reader view like that found in Safari, access to 30,000 sources, can provide local news through GPS and other features.
Pac-12 for iPad arrives in time for football season
College football fans get an early Christmas present in the form of a streaming app named after the conference it covers -- Pac-12 -- that lets most cable television users (except Comcast) with a login and password see games live. The login is required for games that are broadcast on TV but not required for sports events that weren't otherwise broadcast, such as UCLA football. In addition, fans can embed unbroadcast clips such as interviews and recaps on their own blogs and websites.
The app, which is currently iPad-only but will add an iPhone version eventually, offers seven channels of Pac-12 sports that can be filtered by a users' preferred sports or schools. The Pac-12 covers teams in the western US, including teams from Arizona, California, Utah and Washington state. The app itself is free of charge.
