Interesting iPhone Note

Upon an iPhone (or iPod touch) restore, it loads in the default applications from the previously saved backup first, then the web apps on the next blank page, and finally loads in the other applications from the first blank spot (even if it goes back to the first home screen) in alphabetical order.

Playing Monopoly in 2008

Last week, I had purchased the official Monopoly Here & Now: The World Edition game for the iPhone and iPod touch. It currently sells for $7.99 and probably will for some time to come. I don't see a major discount to be likely, so get it now! It's worth it. (App Store Link.)

The game's biggest features, according to Touch Arcade:

Give your iPhone/iPod touch a shake to roll the dice or animate the movers
Use your touch screen to flick and drag property cards and simulate real-life game experiences
3D view of the board and movers
Select full-board view or zoom in for a close-up
Play solo against the computer or Pass n’ play for 4
Wi-Fi Multiplayer Mode allows 4 players to connect via the same router on a Local Area Network
Automatically replaces players who leave with AI

Besides being an amazing time killer at work and fun game during the commute, the game was something very interesting. Having been familiar with only the original Monopoly as Charles Darrow had intended, with Ventor Avenue and Reading Railroad, I was excited to see the "Here & Now" world edition of this classic game. Check out the Wikipedia page on Monopoly for a very insightful read. In 2006, the "Here & Now" properties were decided with an online voting process. Wikipedia outlines the results. (I'm glad to see that Taipei made it on the map!)

What makes this edition of Monopoly interesting is that its scope covers actual world cities (albeit, superficially) as opposed to neighborhoods of Atlantic City or fictitious places of themes in other editions of Monopoly. And playing this game in one of the worst recessions in recent history is an attempt to bring this game back to its roots. Or at least, to get you thinking about money and what it means not to have it as you traverse the playing field, a kind of metaphor for life. When money comes into the picture, events and people's decisions can change drastically. In the game of Monopoly, the goal is not team building and not reaching out to your peers. Its premise: bankruptcy of others through competition. Its goal: to win and to cheat one's way to victory through any legal means necessary. The next time you sit around a table in a dimly lit room playing Monopoly with your friends, try to experience Monopoly for what it is and for what was meant to be.

I have dug up a few more interesting articles on Monopoly. (I do not necessarily share the opinion of their author.)

Before the October 2008 "Crash": Is The Monopoly Game Teaching You To Go Broke?

During the October 2008 "Crash": High Anxiety: We went from playing inflation-era Monopoly to playing depression-era Monopoly in mid-game.

After the October 2008 "Crash": The Economic Crisis Hits the Markson Family Monopoly Board

Yay, Chinese!

As you might have found out already, the new iPhone 2.0 software update and the iPhone 3G came out last Friday. I was looking forward to the update for iPod touch, and the features I was really looking forward to were the new scientific calendar and the improved calendar. Perhaps the biggest thing about the new software is the support for applications. I have already purchased two games for the iPod touch (which I expect to also work when I get an iPhone down the road).

One of the most interesting features to me is the support for East Asian languages now. See below for Chinese (Traditional). There are two ways to do it: (1) writing (more like drawing) the word with your finger, which I found a bit easier to use for simple words, but difficult at the same time because of my lefthandedness*; (2) using pinyin to spell out the sound of the word, which I prefer because I am better at speaking than I am at writing the Chinese (usually**). The nice thing is, there is the option to type whichever way in between sentences or word phrases with the simple touch of a button. It's nice when I see a word but don't know since I am able to still writing it onto the iPod. Very nice . . .





* I tend to write the wrong way, drawing lines right-to-left rather than the proper left-to-right. The iPod seems to take into account the direction in which a line is drawn, so I saw I kept receiving words that did not look anything like the one I had "drawn".

** My Chinese is overall still pretty bad, unfortunately.