Imagine your spaceship lands in a park-like area on a distant planet.  You are on a mining expedition and the federation is paying top dollar for certain minerals.  The race is on.  Each crew member takes out their Tricorder and heads out on foot to claim their reward.  Now add Scrabble.

Welcome to Seek ‘n Spell for the iPhone 3G from Retronyms. Seek ‘n Spell is a new mobile game that utilizes the GPS capabilities in the iPhone 3G to place virtual letter tiles on a playing field (any park or open area).  These tiles are then “collected” by arriving to the location with your iPhone (running Seek ‘n Spell) in hand.  Players gain points by gathering tiles before other players and earn double points if the tile can be used with others in spelling words.  As in Scrabble, longer words will get your more points thus adding a strategic element to which tiles are sought after.

“With Seek ‘n Spell, players gather in a park or other large outdoor space with a clear view of the sky and activate the app. Seek ‘n Spell detects all the players present and scatters letter tiles across the playing field. Players then race one another around the field to capture up to 10 letter tiles at a time, which they use to create words. Coveted gold tiles will appear randomly on the field, earning players a doubled score when used in words. Points are earned based on the length of the words players spell, and the player with the most points when time runs out wins.” Seek ‘n Spell Finds its Way Onto iPhone 3G, verticalwire.com

“The GPS capabilities of the iPhone 3G offer new gaming opportunities, and we’re taking full advantage of them with Seek ‘n Spell,” said Dan Walton, co-founder of Retronyms. “We are using the GPS as an innovative game controller, where your actual location on Earth drives the gameplay. We’re releasing Seek ‘n Spell on Earth Day to celebrate our planet and encourage iPhone users to get outside and play.”

Seek ‘n Spell is available now from Retronyms on the iTunes Applications Store for $2.99.

Seek ’n Spell gameplay video from Retronyms on Vimeo.

About Retronyms
Founded by Dan Walton, John-Paul Walton and Zach Saul, The Retronyms have a strong track record of successful iPhone application development, including titles such as Recorder and FourTrack. The first Retronyms iPhone game, Seek ‘n Spell, is now available in the App Store. For more information, please visit http://www.retronyms.com.

Get ready for HD on a whole new level. A collection of renegade engineers and entrepreneurs have been working on a system to capture video at resolutions that were previously unheard of. Released in 2007, the RED ONE was the first camera produced by Red Digital Cinema Camera Company. The camera uses a 12 megapixel CMOS sensor that captures 4K 16:9 (4096×2304). The highest resolution that most consumers are currently familiar with is 1080HD which is only (1920×1080) by comparison. This was only a warm up for the Red team.

Now Red is paused to make a giant leap in ultra resolution image capture technology. When they are released over the next year and into 2010, the SCARLET and EPIC camera systems will provide the foundation for ground breaking new ways to use video and images. EPIC is the “flagship of the Red family” Sporting a top resolution of 28K (28000×9334 pixels), EPIC’s images can be combined to film true stereoscopic (3D) IMAX movies capable of being experienced in even more immersive ways than are available today. It is estimated the EPIC core system will start around $55,000.

For those without such bleeding edge needs, there is SCARLET. “Even starting at the bottom of RED’s line is higher resolution than broadcast HDTV. A 3K resolution (3072×1620 pixels) Scarlet module with a 2/3-inch Mysterium-X sensor with up to a 120 fps shooting rate equipped with a mini-RED/C-mount is expected to be available for $2,500 by next fall. With fixed 8X lens to make a basic working camera, the price is expected to be under $3,750.” RED’s Modular Camera Breaks New Ground by Frank Beacham, tvtechnology.com

Sample Red Video courtesy red.com:

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There are at least eight audio recorders available for the iPhone so the search for the best-of-breed is on.  Having tried almost all of them and read the reviews, my recommendation is Recorder by Retronyms. Record memos, discussions, interviews, and ideas on your iPhone. Use it as a voice recorder or a sound recorder. Record for seconds or hours. Extremely simple one button interface produces quality audio files.

Version 3.0 features the transfer of recordings over Wifi (great for large files) and improved Emailing of files.  The Wifi feature is especially refined in it’s simplicity.  Tap Wifi Synch and you are taken to a screen that provides you with an IP address to access the recordings on your phone.  Enter this IP into any web browser and voila, you have access to all your recordings in an easy to use web interface (images below). One button simplicity, excellent audio quality and convenient access makes Recorder by Retronyms the current best-of-breed voice recorder for the iPhone.

The New York Times calls Recorder ““single-button simplicity” and an App Store Reviewer states “This is, by far, the BEST dollar I have ever spent! I am in radio and now will be able to record short actualities or feature snippets, the e-mail them for editing and broadcast. They have managed to get surprisingly good quality from a little phone mic. It’s easy to record, preview, rename, and E-MAIL the .aiff file. This is the kind of apps I imagined getting from the App Store. Professionally made and reasonably priced!”

Retronyms, Inc.’s Recorder is available for purchase and download now from the iTunes App Store for $0.99, supports AIFF and requires an iPhone with version 2.0 operating system.

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