You'll Never Guess What Happens in Blaster Tank

Blaster Tank, as the name implies, involves a tank blasting away at airborne enemies. You pilot your tank left and right, back and forth across the same area of terrain via a control on the lower left side of the screen. On the right side, you fire your cannon and adjust trajectory.

The best hint for staying alive is to simply keep your tank moving. Especially in the early rounds, mobility is the key to avoiding damage. Between rounds you can bulk up your tank with money earned through the previous level, or you can make an in-app purchase of $250,000 game dollars for 99 of your hard-earned real U.S. pennies.

Here's a look:

Blaster Tank in the App Store.

Book Of Thoth Brings the Worlds of Bejeweled and Zuma to a Tile Game

Damian Filigree: Book of Thoth is more than just a contender for the app store game with the longest name. It's also a fun mix of several existing game styles.

The main portion of the game focuses on a series of tiles in the top portion of the screen. You must manipulate these tiles via rotation to match three (or more) of the same tile in a row, which are then eliminated from the screen. As you clear more tiles, Damian (the tiny guy at the bottom of the screen) will move accordingly. That's important as you need to keep Damian ahead of the angry mummy/zombie who isn't thrilled that he came to visit.

Other than a few quirks with the secondary game element of "traps" that tiny Damian must avoid, the game is fun and fresh, yet familiar at the same time. Not convinced? Give the free version a try.

Here's a look:

Book of Thoth in the App Store. Or try the free version.

Boggle for the iPhone Eliminates the Skull-Crushing Sound

For some people, my self included, the loud thud-thud-thud of the Boggle pieces as they settle into their spots in the board is the thing most associated with the game. For others, it makes the game nearly unbearable. Fortunately, everyone can enjoy Boggle on the iPhone and iPod Touch.

While there's still a sound when shaking the pieces, it is decidedly higher pitched than its physical equivalent. Otherwise, the game is largely the same, with the advantage of fast scoring, and the ability to guess at potential words. A data-filled stat screen allows you to easily keep track of your Boggle conquests, although there's no GameCenter integration, so you have to rely on a clunky email to invite others to play.

As a plus, the self-scoring mode allows you to use the app as the center of a physical game of Boggle: the screen merely shows the letters, while you and your friends write down words the old-fashioned way. Or I suppose you could use two iPads, but that just seems silly.

Currently priced at 99 cents, Boggle is a solid iOS-ification of a familiar family game.

Here's a look:

Boggle in the App Store.

Retro Tech Tuesday: Telefunken Tubes!

A brief history to make sure we're all on the same page. Today's electronics rely heavily on microchips. Before that, it was mainly solid state transistors that kept TVs and radios humming. Going back further you had the wonderful world of vacuum tubes.

Somewhat similar in appearance to a lightbulb, tubes would need to be replaced  when they would blow out. Which meant buying new tubes. Which meant tube manufacturers had to reach potential customers, and what better way than an odd (and possibly racist) animated ad, showing just how much better musical notes are treated when you choose Telefunken tubes.

The company, which still exists in some form today, was a German electronics powerhouse, founded in 1903. This ad dates from the 1950's. In this age of non-user serviceable parts, we will probably never see a similar ad for an iPhone battery replacement, or hard drive upgrade. The good old days...

Apple Posts Quarterly Results. You Can Guess The Rest

It has to be the easiest post to write: Four times a year, Apple posts their quarterly results, and each time it is a record quarter, and the company has brought in a boatload of money. The latest results are no different, with Apple reporting $24.67 billion in revenue for the Jan-Mar quarter, along with net profit of $5.99 billion.

Of note, iPhone sales were up 151 percent compared to the year-ago quarter, and Mac sales continue to outpace the industry with growth of 28% compared to a 3% decline for the PC industry as a whole.

You can read the full results here, but suffice to say, Apple made a bunch of stuff, then a bunch of people bought it.