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Become a snowboarding master

iStunt Reloaded is an improved and expanded version of iStunt, a physics-based, 2D arcade snowboarding game.

iStunt Reloaded's graphics have gotten slightly more sophisticated, but its gameplay remains the same: you tilt your device left and right to rotate the angle of your snowboard (when you're in midair, this is how you perform flips), you jump with a quick swipe up, and you crouch (to pick up speed) by swiping down. Each of the game's 30 levels challenges you with a stunt-filled course (with checkpoints to save progress), from straightforward jumps and flips to much more convoluted … Read more

A tale of two iPhone puzzle games

A few weeks ago, I received e-mails from two developers within the space of about two hours. Each was pitching a new, "totally unique" puzzle game, and would I like to review them?

Now, I'm a sucker for puzzlers, especially on the iPhone, but the App Store is already teeming with them--each one claiming to be "original," "addictive," "brain-teasing," and so on. How truly unique could either of these newcomers be?

The first one, Connected, instantly reminded me of countless lay-the-pipe-before-the-water-escapes games--until I started playing it.

Connected does involve pipes, but … Read more

Poorly designed interface

ExcelPipe is supposedly designed to let users search through multiple MS Excel spreadsheets to find and replace special characters in one fell swoop. Unfortunately its vague and poorly designed user interface makes it extremely difficult to accomplish this task.

The user interface is extremely bland. It employs tabs with the hopes of keeping you on track, but we found they worked just the opposite. Rather, the interface lacked any kind of flow, making it difficult to navigate. What's more, the button commands and features were not at all intuitive, and we had no idea how to get started. A … Read more

Pixelpipe adds drag-and-drop uploading to Firefox

Pixelpipe, the multi-service file uploader and metadata management tool, has a new experimental Firefox extension out that should delight its regular users. It adds a sidebar to your browser where you can simply drag and drop digital media from your hard drive or things you find on the Web to upload directly to your Pixelpipe account.

Once you've picked all the items you want to upload, you hit a single button and it sends it off to Pixelpipe, which will instantly distribute it to all the services you have turned on by default. These can't be edited right … Read more

Pixelpipe lets you easily mass distribute media (invites)

If you liked Ping.fm you've got to check out Pixelpipe. It's a service that's been designed for lazy (yet ambitious) folks who want to send photos, videos, and audio clips to multiple services with just one upload.

Like Ping.fm and Hey!Spread all you have to do is plug in your credentials at each service and it does the work for you. There's a simple Web uploader that lets you pick as many files as you want from a memory card or your hard drive and send them on their way. Repeat users can … Read more

The 404 126: Where we're going to miss George Carlin (except Wilson)

Today we celebrate the life of George Carlin, whose controversial brand of comedy paved the way for future acts like the 404. We promise to continue pushing the envelope, sir! On today's show, we give it up to Weezer, say bye-bye to Bill Gates, spout out some serious Bakalisms, pimp the greatest Web site on the Internet, and dish out our best advice to our teenage listeners. We also make plans to build a giant pool full of gold coins. The 404: Whoo-ooh! EPISODE 126 Download today's podcast

New devices prevent people bumming cigarettes off you

It's becoming harder for smokers to coexist with nonsmokers, what with all the nonsmoking in restaurants and bars. But if Crown7's smoke-free smoking devices catch on, a utopian society where smokers can "smoke" without pissing off everyone around them may yet exist.

The battery-powered devices use cartridges filled with nicotine, tobacco flavoring, water, and delicious propylene glycol to recreate the sensation of smoking. Instead of smoke, the "smoker" exhales a purportedly odorless vapor.

The device is available in three designs: cigar ($65), cigarette ($100), and pipe ($150).

According to the Crown7 site, each cartridge … Read more

How to translate RSS feeds

I heard about a German Web 2.0 blog today: Zweinull. Reading it in translation (thank you, BabelFish), it occurred to me that I should add this site's RSS feed to my blog reader (Netvibes). But how to get the site's feed in English?

BabelFish wouldn't do it. (It gave me an entertaining error message, though: "Insane value.") I was initially encouraged when I used Google Translate, which did in fact give me a version of the blog's XML page in English. But I couldn't subscribe to it. Then I found David Rothman's advice: Use Yahoo Pipes.

It worked. It's not as easy as using a one-step translation service, but it's worth the effort for reading blogs you think you might like that are not in your language. I'll walk through a demo of translating Webware into French. Here's what you do:

Step 1: Launch Yahoo Pipes Fire up Yahoo Pipes. You might have to log in to your Yahoo account first. Select "Create a pipe" from the top navigation.

Step 2: Get the Feed item In the left-hand nav on Pipes, under the Sources menu, the first item is Fetch Feed. Drag that onto your Pipes workspace. In the Fetch Feed box, paste in the URL of the blog's RSS feed.

Step 3: Get the Translate item In the left nav again, click the right arrow for the Operators section, then find the the BabelFish item and drag it into your workspace. Select your translation from the dropdown list.

'Tis the season to Crave: Lindsey Turrentine's picks

NOTE: From now through December, every few days a different Crave expert will be posting his or her top 10 gadget picks for the holidays. See what we crave, and maybe you'll get some ideas! Here's our fifth installment.

Lindsey Turrentine is CNET's executive editor of mobile technology. Anything she craves is probably something that gives her more time with her two lovely young children (or is something that cleans up after them, or blocks out the noise they generate, or helps Lindsey forget that she has two small kids that she, of course, loves very much). … Read more