Mar 22, 2013
City building games are a good style to play when there is a lot of time to kill. Because they take a while to accumulate money, resources and other things the game cannot be played all in one sitting usually. Some of these games will run in the background and give notification when something is ready and needs to be done. This can be a distraction to some and helpful for other people. Let us know if there are other games like this we missed.
Megapolis
Like many city building games, Megapolis starts off with a small city. As the city infrastructure grows, more things need to be managed. Everything from the finances to designing new areas, airports and sea ports and more. Not only is there a need to make the city great, the neighboring cities play a role in the game too. Trading resources for theirs and teaming up with them will make things happen a little faster. Take the time and build it right or there might be some issues later on.
Virtual City Playground
G5 ENTERTAINMENT makes some pretty fun games. Virtual City Playground is similar to others on the list because the city will start small and as it grows, so do the parts of the city that need to be managed. One thing that’s different with Virtual City Playground is there is an option to stage public events to keep the citizens happy. Happy people usually mean more growth and less crime. Keep that in mind Mr. Mayor.
Download Virtual City Playground
Airport City
Airport City is the same premise as the others on the list but involves making an airport from scratch. A lot of the same things apply when making an airport vs. building a city. Making sure everthing is built in a logical place as well as keeping things running smoothly. As the airport grows, more planes can be out in the air which means the airport is making more money (exotic rewards for different flights). There is money to be made at the commercial buildings like eateries. This means there is more chances to build a bigger and a better airport.
City Island
Sometimes there is limited space but it makes sense to have a city there. In this case, this limited space is an island. Building a city on an island poses some unique design challenges. Mainly what to do when all of the space is used. Well, the answer is to build up of course. With over 85 different building types, there is sure to be a great combination to make the people happy and things moving smoothly.
Building Tower
Okay, Building Tower is nothing like the rest of the other games on the list. Here the goal is to make a tall building. The block are dangled by a rope from a crane. Because of the wind there is a sway to the rope. The hard part is releasing the block at the right time and having the blocks line up as straight as possible so the tower doesn’t fall over as it gets taller. Easier said than done.
HootSuite is a great app for anyone who is just starting out using multiple accounts on Twitter. It was one of the first app I tried solely because it can schedule tweets. Many of the other apps couldn’t schedule them when I was searching a while back. Not only can HootSuite for nadr schedule tweets, it is also linked to the cloud version which offers more features. The links are shortened and can provide some good analytics to see who is clicking on what links.
Tweetcaster is a super cool and easy to use Twitter app for Android. The layout is a little more colorful and fun than HootSuite. Like HootSuite, Tweetcaster can show and interact with both Facebook and Twitter. One feature I like with this app is the way a person can be muted if they are posting too much. This means they will not show up in the main feed but can be seen in a List. There is also a feature to help find new people to fo follow. It works well.
Buffer is a pretty great app. I have been using it to schedule tweets and Facebook updates for both myself and clients for a while now and love it. The cool feature here is, Buffer picks a schedule based on when followers are most likely to see the tweet. Pretty cool huh? The amount of times during the day can be adjusted otherwise Buffer sends one or two tweets a day. There is also analytics for the shortened links. 
During winter months in the Midwest all of the lakes are frozen so there is no option to race RC boats on them. Absolute RC Boat Sim will help calm the urge until Spring. This is a pretty realistic RC boat simulator. Several different boat types are available to make it even more fun. Use the on-screen controls to maneuver the boat around the water even hitting a few jumps along the way.
Remember the game Toobin’? Well this has some similarities to that. Basically there is a beer truck that tipped over and its up to the guy in the boat to get all of it as he paddles down the river. There are also women in bikinis on rafts. Bump into them to up the love points. Gat all the beer bottles to keep the beer level up. Bumping into the other people on tubes will lower the beer level.
The easiest way to explain the game is, it’s like the light bikes in Tron only with boats. The boats travel really fast through the water and leave a wall behind them. Try and leave a wall in the path of the other boats so they crash into it. The game goes until there is only one boat left. As the level is being played, it gets harder and harder to maneuver around will all of the walls in the way.Good luck!
This game is all about catch and rescue. As the parachutists are falling from the sky, it is the job of the people in the boat to catch them and move them to shore. With only 2 additional people per boat, it can be pretty difficult to catch all of the skydivers and get them to safety.
As the captain of the USS Kick-Ass, there is a need to go to battle. There are a lot of other vessels in the area and they are all out to sink of the submarine that’s attacking them. Pummel the other ships with mines and torpedoes while avoiding their attacks as well. This is a super fun game and different because it is on the water. 
One of the tools I have needed from time to time and never seem to be able to find is a stud finder. The way this finder works is by looking for the screws or nails holding up the studs. By starting near the floor about 5 or 6 feet from the corner of the wall might be the fastest way to find one. If the drywall is a little thicker, this app may have a harder time finding the stud. But hey, the app is free and worth a try.
When there is a need for a simple fraction calculator, RationalCalc Free should do the trick. While the idea is simple, the app is powerful. When building something or in machining, there is a need for pretty accurate measurements and calculations. This easy to use calculator is will let you round up or down to the nearest common fraction (e.g. 1/4 or 1/8). not many calculators will do that. 
Start the game by running through the tutorial to get the hang of the game. A lot of the activities are just like they would be on a farm. There is milk to deliver, fueling up the tractor, getting hay bales and bringing them back to the buildings. Because the game has a lot of driving in it, there are tasks like connecting the trailers and parking them in specific locations. The camera angle and ads are not always in the best postition, but the game is pretty fun regardless
Demologic is a skill-based demolition game. The goal is to knock over the correct items so they land on the statuette. Many times the statue can be knocked over with the force of blasting through the obstacles in the way. However, as the game progresses, more skill and planning is required to finish the level. Don’t think just because the graphics aren’t as high-tech as other games, that makes the game really easy. It takes some thinking to get through some of the more advanced levels.
If there are kids in the house who like big trucks, ABC Construction will probably be right up their alley. Okay, this isn’t so much a game as an interactive learning tool for kids to get to know their ABCs. Tapping the screen will show a different big truck with something else on the screen related to the letter in question. The letter is also spoken aloud by the game. If the child learning likes trucks, this game will probably hold their interest longer than a game showing different images.
Ever thought about being a crane operator before? If so, here is a game to help practice. The Building Game is pretty realistic in the way the crane operates. Normal things one would expect to interfere with picking up, transporting and dropping the items come into play. If the crane is moved too fast, the claw will swing past the item to be grabbed. The object in the claw could also be too difficult to drop in the right area if it is moving too much. Once the objects are placed where they want to go, they need to sit there without falling over for about five seconds. It sure can take some practice to get good at. 
Sometimes more than one type of big rig needs to be used for a project. The Little Crane That Could offers up a lot of different cranes, forklifts and pretty much anything else that can lift and move stuff. The controls are made to mimic those of the real machine. Some of the cranes have a lot of levers and other controls to master. Finish the levels by mastering the different machines.
Only a few stock SMS apps have some sort of option to show a pop-up window for new incoming messages. This saves some clicking or opening up the notification bar to see who the message was from and what it said. Once installed, a pop-up window will appear with the incoming message displayed in it. There is a choice to reply or drag it to the trash right from the pop-up window. This may not work with 3rd party SMS apps. 
SMS Backup + is a great app for backing up message threads. When a message thread gets into the 1000 messages or longer range, some phones or apps can slow down and take a whole to load the thread. Having an app to backup the messages, deleting them every couple of days is easier to do. They are backed up to Gmail and placed in a label called SMS. Also, SMS Backup + will backup call logs and place them in Google Calendar if desired. This is great for people who need to track calls for work or other reasons. 
From time to time there may be a need to hide a picture or message from prying eyes. Using an app like Vault-Hide will surely do the trick. Not only is there an option to hide images, SMS messages and even Facebook messages can be hidden from people trying to see who is chatting or sending images. I know there are a lot of reasons to hide a picture or message from people. Not only for the inappropriate images, it can be for work messages that might be sensitive and shouldn’t be seen by other people. 
Basketball Throw! is a pretty simple basketball game. It’s really addictive too. By dragging a finger on the screen, the path of the ball is displayed with dotted lines. Aim at the basket and try to get as many baskets as possible in the allotted time. It is a little harder than it looks.
Some times what makes a game more interesting than the others like it is the different modes or ways to play. That’s the case with Basketball Shots 3D. Not only can is there a chance play 1-on-1, there is also an online mode. This means there can be challenges with friend who aren’t in the same room or state. Battle mode is also a lot of fun trying to block the other player from making their shots.
Real Basketball lives up to its name. Modes like the Time Attack mode are fun to see how many baskets can be scored within the round. The Arcade mode is a real game. Using the realistic physics, popping a 3 from way back is a lot like doing it in real life; it takes skill. The camera angle when taking a shot is an over the shoulder style so it looks like it would in real life.
What I like about Big Win Basketball is the cartoony characters. I have always liked the less realistic games, the ones that use exaggerated physics. Get some power ups in the form of Impact Cards to help get the team the trophy in the competition. The more the teams win, the more Impact Cards the team will get. It’s a circle of winning really so practice up.
Basketball Mania is a really fun skill game like they have at arcades and carnivals. See how many baskets can be made before the time runs out. As the levels are completed, the game changes a little to make it more and more challenging. The basket even moves so it’s a lot harder to time the shots. Some of the skins are pretty cool looking too.
Flipboard is one great looking news reader. The news from the reader’s Twitter, Facebook and other social feeds helps to bring in relevant news. The news is divided into different categories like Technology, News, Photography and more. Click on the category and see news from Facebook, Twitter and other sources like BBC and Huffington Post. Swipe through the different stories and see if there is anything interesting.
Pulse News is a cool way to get news. It connects to Google Reader so there is access to all the subscribed blog feeds. Along with the Google Reader integration, there are other news sources like magazines and news from newspapers. Since not everyone has a lage data plan or access all of the time, there is offline sync mode letting the articles be read while there is not internet connection.
When all of the news starts to sound the same, sometimes it’s good to stop looking at the big news sources and head back to the feeds in Google Reader. Feedly is a great app for making the articles in Google Reader a lot easier to read. The layout is made for either a 4″ phone and 7″ or 10″ tablets. This makes for a great user experience on any device. The clean ans simpleness of the design makes reading the feeds on Google Reader a joy.
Bike Race Free is a a game where the BMX rider is put through many realistic and imaginary courses. Some of the different courses ask the rider to be upside down for in air for a lot longer than realistically possible. The goal of the game is that of many BMX games where the rider is on a course and needs to rider jump over obstacles making it to the end of the course as fast as possible. The graphics of the obstacles could be a little bit better but for a free game it’s not bad and a lot of fun.
Pumped: BMX Free is a popular game. There are a lot of locations to ride and thousands of different trick combos to try. The physics of the game are pretty good. The controls for the game are on screen as well as using the motion detector in the phone. This means there is always something going on and to control the rider. To get the hang of it, they ask for new players to go through the tutorial to learn the basics. Once the tutorial is done, the backyard opens up where it is more of a free ride while accumulating points.
Personally, I am a fan of the stick figure genre. Stickman BMX is a game with a really cool 
Part of the BMX lifestyle is building ramps. MegaRamp Skate & BMX FREE has some of the sickest ramps in existence. The game has 10 real ramps from real locations in Woodward West, Woodward Camp, Times Square, LA, Santa Rosa
Glide through the levels in BMX Boy using the simple controls to accelerate and jump. While the rider is traveling along the side scrolling half, different obstacles get in his way. Hurdling these obstacles while doing tricks earns points. To finish the level simply reached the end. Along the way there are trophies to accumulate as well. This is one of the simpler games in the list but still a lot of fun to play.
NoLED is the first application like this I ever used. The way NoLED works is to add an icon to the screen like a screen saver when a message is received. The default icons are nothing more than a colored pixel-like square on the screen. It moves around the screen. If there is more than one notification needed, more squares are added to the screen. The notification squares can be changed to icons for popular Android applications.
BubbleBuzz is similar in the way it works. When a message is received, a notification icon will be displayed on the screen. The difference with BubbleBuzz is the icons are a bit more fun. The different application icons are floating around the screen in individual bubbles. To open the app, tap on the bubble to pop it and the app opens. BubbleBuzz also lets you automatically disable itself when the battery drops below a certain level.
iLED has pretty much the same features as the other two apps in this list. One noticeable difference here is the background image can be changed. Instead of having just a plain black or colored background, add an image of something of interest. Make sure the background is not too busy or the icons will be hard to see. iLED works with a lot of the popular preinstalled Android apps like Gmail and SMS/MMS message apps.
The game is all about the ricochet. The shooter is placed in a location where it is possible to kill all of the monsters with the allotted number of bullets. When the monsters are taken out with a single bullet (or the minimum number possible) 3 stars are awarded. Goals also part of the game. Some of the goals are pretty easy like killing 10 normal monsters while other goals will take a while to achieve. Shooting the monsters in the head vs. the body will earn more points.
The lightening bolts also can slow down the mummies. Did I mention the mummies yet? Nope. Mummies are chasing the people. If they catch one of them, they are a goner. The mummies need to be drowned to stop them. Luckily the people can hold their breath a little longer than the mummies can so is a mummy is tussling with a person, run the water over them and the person has a better chance at making it out alive.
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