Instagram, Free
What can I say about Instagram. It’s free, it’s fun, and it simply had to be on here.

Camera+, $0.99
I love Camera+. It is my go to camera app and I always use it in lieu of the normal photo cam. You’ll notice Hipstamatic is not on this list, thats because Camera+ can do everything Hipstamatic does but better.

Magic Shutter, $2.99
I love apps that make new things possible. Magic shutter lets you to leave the sensor turned on to record light for a longer period of time. The exposure builds up and voila dim subjects are not so dim anymore. Also who doesn’t love light trails!

Pro HDR, $1.99
Basically the closest you’re going to get to ‘real’ HDR photography on the iPhone.

Grid Lens, $0.99
Customize your own grids by simply adding and placing lines as you like, to create an cool final product.

Pano, $1.99
Create panoramic photos on your phone with a good enough output quality to print.

Impression, $1.99
Simple but useful, Impression watermarks your images with a signature that declares your copyright.

Image Blender, $1.99
It is what it is. An app that blends images together. Good if thats what you need.

Tiny Planet Photos, Free
A gimic, but a fun one, create stereographic projections with your photos.

Filterstorm, $3.99
A photo editing suite with touch interface that can also be used on your ipad.

Below is Dubai’s Nuqat Design Conference 2012 line up: (in no particular order)

Karim Bakdache
Nasser Bader Abu Al Hassan
Alfred Tarazi
Asad Faulwell
Hamza Bounoua
Khawla Al Marri
Ali Omar Ermes
Sultan Darmaki
Ahmad Konash
Halim Choueri
Kameel Hawwa
Salem Al Qassimi
Azza Fahmy
Shaikha Al ANoud Al Sabah
Nedda Al Asmar
Hala Anvari
Osama El Sid
Pascal Zoghbi
Tarek Attrisi
Nadine Chaine
Ahmed Angawi
Younes Duret
Plus Aziz

I saw Tarek Atrisi last year and he was awesome, so I can definitely vouch for him. As for more info on the rest of the speakers, that can be found on Nuqat’s facebook page here, and look out for their new webiste www.nuqat.me for complete bios and photos of their speakers.

The games premise is one of school boy wish fulfillment. You are tasked with liberating a small island nation from a tyrannical queen by her exiled ex husband the former king. With all the money the king escaped with you have to hire a squad of elite mercenaries, outfit them with the best killing instruments and, if you want, buy some life insurance on your soldiers of fortune.

Using an isometric view, as seen in Diablo 2 and Fallout 1 and 2, it mixed turn based game play during combat and real time gameplay for pretty much everything else. Despite this out of body perspective you felt very immersed by almost every other aspect of the game. When you ran the program it opened as a faux desktop with icons like “email,” “Internet,” and “Finances.” All of which were basically menu options. Email’s were how you kept track of your quests and objectives and clicking on the internet gave you a list of websites where you could buy guns and equipment, hire mercenaries or oddly send flowers to an address in the game. (There was a great cutscene to be seen if you sent the queen some dead roses as a warning.)

The fake "Sir OS" running laptop from which you coordinate your freedom fighting.

In terms of gameplay it was very reminiscent to “tactics” RPG’s mixed with point and click adventures. Except that instead of head on collision combat you would spend most of your time setting up favorable situations for you to engage the enemy. You would constantly be outnumbered 6 men to 20 or 30. It was addictive as much as it was intense as every shot could be realistically lethal. Climbing buildings and creating snipers nests or blowing through the side of a building with C4 explosives to kill a general made it so things never got old. You were only limited by your creativity.

So Jagged Alliance: Back in Action has a lot to live up to. Sadly it has gutted a lot of the charm of the classic, changed the combat system entirely, replaced much of the great art with uglier 3D models and made much of the micromanaging more difficult. Yet its still a game worth playing and inevitably getting addicted to.

The characters are still very engaging because they are the same great men and women from the original Jagged Alliance 2. They use much of the same dialogue but the voice acting has taken a step down. But the drama between members that are married, or the hells angel interacting with the British aristocrat endear these mercenaries so much to you that you can’t bear to let them die or even endanger them recklessly. Dealing with their phobias, fashion choices or addictions adds a layer of depth rarely seen in video games, simultaneously humanizing your soldiers even further.

The Central new mechanic of Back in Action is the “Plan and Go” system. This system allows you to chain commands to your mercenaries while the game is paused and then play and watch them unfold. “Plan and Go” is actually quite robust. It allows for any sort of movement changes and tells you how likely you are to hit a target factoring in where you will be and not simply where you currently are. It also allows you to synchronize events so that your flanking attacks or breach and clears work fluidly with the enemy being alerted only when everyone is in place and ready. For example if it takes one of your guys 10 seconds to get into place to fire from a rooftop but his support only needs 3 seconds to get a clear shot you can synchronize their fire so that they only shoot when both have a clear shot. When you compare this system to the turn based, action point system Jagged Alliance 2 it becomes clear that a lot of the strategy has been streamlined in favor of speed. It is still satisfying to tackle a garrison that outnumbers you 3 to 1 but instead of feeling like you outsmarted them you just feel like you simply out-shot them. Its akin to the difference between rainbow 6 and Counter Strike in terms of game-play.

In the past you could also train the civilians in the liberated areas to defend themselves. Effectively creating militias that could become tough enough to hold their own against the Queen’s toughest soldiers when they inevitably come back to suppress the rebellion. In Back in Action this has been reduced to simply giving a predetermined amount of NPC’s in each area a looted or purchased weapon and they magically turn into a militia man. Yet another layer of depth stripped from a game over 10 years old rather than built upon and improved. This is not helped by an inventory system that is actually clunkier than the original as well. There used to be an inventory system for entire areas so you wouldn’t have to clear the entire town room by room to get everything worth getting. That has been done away with so prepare for at least ten minutes per mission wasted just to manage everyones gear.

One of the best moments in Jagged Alliance 2 was taking the “online personality test.” It contained a series of hilarious questions and multiple choice answers. Your answers would get “analyzed” and your own character would be generated as a permanent member of your squad who is basically a representation of “you” in the game world. This as well has been dropped for Back in Action.

    On the plus side the story line has been changed very little. The distinctive dark humor of the original has been maintained but not with the same level of twisted wit. The island of Arulco is still as evil and interesting as ever. Although the game feels remade for the worse it is still addictive. You constantly want to push forward to tackle the next group of thugs, get the latest equipment, hire a new mechanic or explosives expert and so on. I just cant help but feel that this game actually makes me want to play the 1999 classic which is just as easily available on steam. But I will always support any Jagged Alliance title to let them know that us hardcore fans are waiting patiently for something as unique and ahead of its time as Jagged Alliance 2.

The lackluster graphics of Back in Action. This is 2012!

Lily Allen – Heart of Glass (Blondie Cover)

The Bamboos – The Wilhelm Scream ft. Megan Washington

Oh Darling! – Florence and the Machine (Beatles Cover)

Sam Sparro – American Boy (Kanye West Cover)

Whatever You Like – Anya Marina (TI Cover)

Crazy – Ray Lamontagne (Gnarls Barkley Cover)

Black & Gold – Adele (Sam Sparro Cover)

And if you like fleet foxes they cover a bunch of songs here.

P.S. if you love covers download the Coverville podcast for multiple takes on some awesome original tracks.

Enjoy

Thanks His & Hers

The classes are being held at the Bachata club in Salmiya. So take some time and make pretend you’re Ashwaria Rai for an hour or so.

For some inspiration, one of my all time faves.

The Apple Company has long been accused of owing their excellence in design to german industrial designer Dieter Rams and his contributions to electronics with his designs for Braun.

A few decades before this dispute and prior to both companies being considered pioneers in product design Bang & Olufsen was the caliber, and now they’re back. B&o have continued to design great electronics throughout the years and have set industry wide standards persistently, and to announce that they have released a new product is only saying that they’ve done it again.

Any day now Bang & Olufsen are releasing the Beolit 12 speaker (set to be released in February) as the first of  a new line of products titled B&o Play. The speaker has 8 hours of rechargeable battery life and comes with wireless compatibilities to all Apple devices through AirPlay (other MP3 players also compatible through wireless Mini-jack cable provided) and can connect to a wireless network through a laptop. B&o is a leading company in the field of sound engineering, so it would go without saying how powerful this elegantly perforated speaker can be. Thanks are due to designer Cecilie Manz for crafting this graceful technology, using a matte metal surface supported by a simple leather strap. Looking at this design one can’t help but see the similarities between all three companies’ designs, which rests the case that they have all not only were inspired by each others’ designs, but admittedly “stealing” from one another in hopes of elevating design standards in the industry. As Steve Jobs quoted Pablo Picasso “good artists copy, great artists steal”, there for we certainly hope that there will be more stealing in the industry.

What have set Bang & Olufsen apart in the past in comparison to the electronics market is the pricing of their products in regards (or rather disregard) to their competitors’ pricing whether it be in televisions, radios and even cellphones. In the past, their reputation for designing elegant products have become unanimous with their reputation for being unaffordable by the mass market. With the company’s new line of electronics B&o Play, this speaker comes at the not very playful price of $799 as an attempt to lower their costs and compete with new electronics companies aimed at performing supportive roles to larger companies by producing accessories.

This Youtube channel has in depth videos of the new product.

1. 8-Bit Dynamic Life Shirt

Measures Proximity to Lovers. Basically you wear one and give one to your valentine and whenever you’re both “in range”, the pixilated hearts start glowing to full charge. Oh the cheese factor is strong in this one.

2. The Cookie Sutra.

Yes the Karma Sutra, re-enacted using cookies. The things people come up with…

3. Couples DNA portraits.

Yes for just $225 dollars you and your significant other can have one of these babies hanging in your hall. Click here if you don’t believe me.

And for you singletons out there don’t think I’ve forgotten you! This valentines treat yourself to ‘Grow a boyfriend’. Just throw him in water and he’ll increase 60% in size.

‘Free Kuwait’ will include works by Jassem Bu Hamad, Hameed Khazaal, Sami Mohammad, Abdul Rida Baqer, Ayoub Hossein Al Ayoub and Issa Saqer.The Opening Vernissage of the Group Artists Exhibition is on monday Feb 13th 7-8pm, and will open to the public Feb 14th to March 1st.

So if you’re interested check out their website here.