New Thing #310: Starting From Scratch

For the past year-plus - I'm not even sure how long this extends back to - my friend Kevin and I have had the best 'Draw Something' streak in the world. We were at 287 straight drawings guessed.

I'm pretty sure it was from the very beginning of the game - we just started playing and never got any of our drawings wrong.

Until Saturday.

And you're looking at the problem.

I'm not going to tell you what that drawing is yet. See if you can guess it. I bet you can't.

It's Kevin's drawing. I'm not telling you because I blame him. It's not a great drawing of what it's supposed to be, that's for sure.

But I've had a few of those myself during our streak and he's been able to figure out what I had drawn. So there's no excuse on my part.

I don't know if you play the game at all, but for me at least, sometimes it's hard to get psyched up for your turn. It feels more like a burden when you get the notification that you're up. And you slap something together and hope that the streak continues. I know I've done that on more than one occasion.

But that's what I like about the game too. Because even the most abstract drawing, with just one key characteristic, can give itself away to your playing partner. It's a great sociological experiment, really.

OK. Back to the drawing at hand.

It looks evil. So automatically I went with something devil-like. And I could not for the life of me figure it out. My mind was on evil, and then I worked in the S.S. and I was trying to think of anything that would work. I came up with nothing.

Turns out it was supposed to be Elmo.

A couple of important pieces were missing from this Elmo - first of all, his eyes were in the wrong place. And there was no nose. Even a "Hi, Hi!" would have helped. (The green and yellow "S.S." is a better clue than I realized…but it wasn't enough. Kevin says he regrets not putting "Tickle Me" in there. That certainly would have helped.)

I've drawn Elmo for many a Draw Something game. I have to say that I could have done better. I have done better. I know I've drawn Elmo in games with my wife…maybe even in one of the 287 previous drawings for Kevin. I put an image of how I might have drawn Elmo below. I know it's not perfect, but it captures what separates Elmo from a devil image.

But, in fairness…I have three children. I've seen a lot of Elmo. Kevin hasn't.

New Thing #296: Updating My iPhone Operating System

I finally did it. For a month or so (maybe less, I don't know) my iPhone has had that little update reminder that there was an operating system upgrade available.

I just didn't think I could do it - it needed 2.9 GB of memory to do the upgrade, and I had something like 400 MB free.

But Monday night I had some time on my hands, so I took a stab at clearing some memory and doing the upgrade.

Allow me to take you through the process.

Monday, 8:30pm - I sit down to watch Monday Night Football. I have the Vikings +3.5 in my football pool. If they cover, and the total points in the game ends up at 45 or under, I'll win some money. I had planned on going to bed early, but this is very exciting for me.

Monday, 9:30pm - My wife gets back from tutoring. I thought she was coming back at 9pm, so I waited for her for pie. (Pies on the Common!) 9:30's a little late for pie, but in a close, three-point game, I'm in for the long haul with football tonight. So apple pie at 9:30 it is. We also watch How I Met Your Mother at halftime. There were a couple of laughs Monday, but it has not been a strong final season so far for that show.

Monday, 10:15pm - I move up to the bedroom for the second half. "Let's see if I can't clear some of the memory off my phone," I think to myself. I analyze the amount of memory taken up by certain apps. Good-bye Shazam, which I never use. Good-bye AOL Radio and Pandora, also unused. Good-bye Beat the Streak app. (Don't worry - I'll download you again in April.) Good bye, NHL GameCenter. Maybe I'll download you again if the Rangers decide to show up this hockey season.

Monday, 10:20pm - I swear to you, I've tried this before and it's never worked. I knew the key to clearing iPhone memory was to get rid of some of the music on my phone. Then I swiped and the 'delete' button appeared. That's never happened before. I rationalized that I had all of this music on my computer and could always add it later again. I got rid of The Beatles catalog. (I like The Beatles, but I rarely listen to them on the iPhone.) Other albums I've never listened to or that I skip when they come up on random were gone. Now we were cooking. I went over to the videos app and realized there was a lot of memory dedicated to videos. I watched the video for Matchbox Twenty's She's So Mean (I didn't realize I had it - it's a good video...and a great song), and then deleted all of the videos. I watched the available memory increase, all the way up to 2.9 GB.

Monday, 10:30pm - I set the alarm on my phone for 5:15am.

Monday, sometime between 10:30 and 11pm - I began to update the software.

Monday, 11:11pm - The Giants pull away from the Vikings in the most terrible Monday Night Football game ever. I will not win any money. I go to bed, with my phone plugged in and updating.

Then, in a panic, I realize that I don't know if my alarm will go off after the update. I check the phone, it looks like it's still set.

Monday, 11:45pm - I wake up from my half-sleep panicked. I check the phone. Still looks like the alarm is set, but the update is not complete.

Tuesday, 4am - I wake up from my full-sleep in a panic. I check the phone. The alarm is still set. The update is done.

Tuesday, 5:15am - I wake up to my alarm. Throughout the day I find New Things all over the phone. I heard the new system drains the battery, but mine didn't. Which is good, since I can't figure out how to close any apps. I have to adjust to the new look of the texts and the new look of e-mail. And there are new graphics I need to work with.

But - here's the best thing - after the upgrade, I still have 2.9 GB of memory on my phone.

Someone's about to go on a new app-downloading spree.

Or at least I'll put some music back on my phone.

New Thing #251: Football On My Phone

I apologize in advance for all of the football talk over the next week-plus. It's a very exciting time of year for me.

Especially this year.

See, I'm the fan of an out-of-market team.

Years ago that meant I was destined to Sunday afternoons on my computer watching the prehistoric version of ESPN GameCast to try to figure out how the Jets were doing as the Patriots games aired on the local stations.

Over the years, though, my options have progressed such that I've alternately owned the Sunday Ticket on DirecTV or been able to seek out a place that does - watching the Jets either at home or a bar or restaurant anywhere within 25 miles of Boston.

This year, I should be able to watch the Jets from my home...or anywhere I happen to have my phone.

I'll have the Sunday Ticket again, but this time it's on my phone - and the story of how I got it is a good one.

I guess I should tell you first that the Jets are on TV in this area the first two weeks of the season. I had calculated this a while ago when I realized that they were going to be a FOX game and the Patriots on CBS...I long ago developed an ability to roughly gauge the chances of watching the Jets at home on local TV based on their schedule and that of the Patriots'.

But after that, by the time the networks recognize that the Jets are terrible, if I want to watch whether Geno Smith will progress into an NFL quarterback, I will need this Sunday Ticket more than ever to watch the Jets. (Or, more likely, to more closely follow my fantasy players.)

So let me tell you how all of this unraveled:

When I went to Florida the conversation with my friend Kevin turned to his Apple TV, and how I could use that to watch Mets games on my TV rather than my phone or computer. Then he told me that he heard about a deal where I could even watch the Jets.

Apparently, if you pre-ordered a special edition of the new Madden football game through Amazon, you could get a code to download the Sunday Ticket to your phone for the entire season.

There had to be a catch, I thought. Kevin thought so too. But we both separately looked up what had been written about the promotion, and it seemed legit. A couple of weeks later, I took the plunge and made the purchase. I bought Madden, which I will never play, and there was my login code. I downloaded the Sunday Ticket app, I entered the info, and there it was - football on my phone. (Including the Red Zone Channel and the opportunity to keep track of your fantasy players using the app!) (Also, it seems to be working OK right now...but there will be no higher anxiety on Sunday than about 12:45-1pm waiting to see if the video kicks in on time. Kevin is feeling the pressure too - he feels like I paid for it because of him, and if it doesn't work it's on him.)

I'm sure next year if this is a success (and I'm sure it will be) the price will be exorbitant or some part of this process will become more complicated.

But we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

Because for the 2013 football season, at least, I'll have all the games wherever I want to watch them.

It's basically all I've wanted in my entire football life.

And if the Jets miraculously turn out to be good this year, well then that's just all the better.

And I'll admit - the first time I saw the Manning brothers' "Football On Your Phone" commercial I didn't like it as much as some other people did. But now that I have football on my phone...well, my tune has changed. I think it's a kinship thing. Here that is, if you haven't seen it:

New Thing #243: My First Vine

I've heard people say that since Instagram came out with its video feature, Vine was going to become obsolete. (This happened, incidentally, immediately after I decided to download Vine and give it a shot.)

Seems to me Vine has hung in there OK...but even if it hasn't (I guess I don't quite have my finger on that pulse) I still think it has great potential.

I like the idea of telling a story through 6 seconds of looping video.

And I guess I was just waiting for that perfect storytelling opportunity for my first Vine.

Instead...

I took a sideways videos of some turkeys walking outside my classroom window where you can barely see the turkeys.

There were three other opportunities I missed for a good Vine:

1) Remember when I saw that baby bunny? I recorded it scratching its ear (SO CUTE!) and sitting for about 3 or 4 more seconds. That was the first time I tried to save a Vine and I accidentally deleted it.

2) When I saw Matt Harvey pitch in July at Citi Field, my wife and I were seated right behind the bullpen. I was going to record him warming up - it was going to be awesome. I tested out how to do the Vine and everything. Then it started raining and we went to our seats - far away from the bullpens - to sit out the rain delay. No other Vine opportunity presented itself that night.

3) When I was at the Rays game, I was ready with the still camera for the game-winning hit in the bottom of the 9th inning and snapped a picture. But had I been thinking that would have been the best baseball Vine ever. Hit. Celebration. Crowd Noise. Loop.

Instead, I have an archive of sideways turkeys.

But that's OK. I'll be adding to that archive for sure.

It'll get better.

Provided I remember which way to hold the camera.

New Thing #240: 4 Thrones

Remember when I told you about 'Circadia'? One of the things I liked about it was that it seemed to do something different than all of the other games coming out as apps - at least the ones I was seeing.

Well, the maker of 'Circadia' has a new game out, called '4 Thrones'.

And this is another game that breaks the mold.

Full disclosure - the maker of '4 Thrones' likes my blog. And he sent me a code to download the new game.

I like to think I'm a man of my own free will and would still have enjoyed the game if this guy hated me to my core, but I tell you this information so that it doesn't seem like I'm hiding anything from you.

'4 Thrones' is a version of solitaire. There are three versions of the game - one is a single game mode, another is called 'Endless', where you see how far you can go before you bust out (for lack of a better term), and then there's 'Kings'. Oh, I'll be telling you more about 'Kings'.

Let me see if I can summarize the game: you have four cards showing, with the rest of the deck not showing. When you draw a card, it has to be higher than one of the showing cards. The face cards get tricky to top (perhaps obviously), but there are exceptions: you can put any lower card from any suit on top of a Jack, hearts and diamonds on top of a Queen, and spades on top of a King. (Kings are a tough card to deal with in this game.) Aces serve both as high cards that can beat a King, but they also serve as low cards you can build on top of. You can pass, but only three times. Once you run out of passes, that's what I mean by 'bust out'.

So that covers the first two game modes. Then there's 'Kings', which is different, because you accumulate points. But you can only accumulate points if a King is showing. This is difficult, because Kings are the card you don't really want. But now you want them, so you can get points. If you make it through one deck of cards your 3 passes get renewed and you keep going onto a new deck.

Saturday I was getting a haircut and there was a long wait - this game was perfect for that. (I never liked playing 'Angry Birds' or those types of games in waiting rooms. I felt like it drew too much attention. This type of game is perfect for a haircut wait.)

After the game's creator, Kurt Bieg, had contacted me it occurred to me that I had a chance to get some insight into the creation of these types of games, so I sent him some questions and he answered them. He wrote something similar to what I said above about the type of game '4 Thrones' is. Here's that, and consider it a sneak preview of New Thing #241:

"A lot of people play solitaire as a sort of mental ritual. While they're waiting at the dentist's office, before they go to bed, during lunch, etc. It's like this small thing people incorporate into their lives because it feels good, it's a shower for your brain and it organizes the clutter. So that was something I wanted to make sure was at the forefront. That meant making sure the game was simple, but rewarded thoughtful play. And that it retained that same classic solitaire feel of making simple decisions based on a little bit of luck and a little bit of strategy to get through the deck."

More on game design and inspiration coming tomorrow. If you don't understand my explanation of '4 Thrones' above, here's the bottom line: download it. It's fun.

New Thing #208: Cyto

After a long hiatus, I tried out another Starbucks 'Pick of the Week' last week. And I'll be honest - I'm not sure how many more of these games I'm going to try out.

There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of originality here.

The latest - a game called 'Cyto' - is not all that different from 'Fibble', the first game I wrote about thanks to Starbucks back in January.

But you have to hand it to their marketing team, because they effectively made me think I was going to be playing an entirely different game from what 'Cyto' actually is.

See where it says "Test your memory...memorably"?

I thought I was going to get a brain teaser/memory game. I don't know what such a game would entail (maybe something along the lines of being shown images and then tested on the images later on), but I was looking forward to something that would challenge my brain and make me think a bit.

But it turns out - at least as far as I got with it - this character 'Cyto' has lost his memory and your job is to help him get it back.

You do this by trying to enter portals, in the same slingshot mode that 'Fibble' used that was a play on what 'Angry Birds' did in the first place.

It makes me think there's a limit on what new game modes can be done on the iPhone - it seems like you start with the slingshot thing and see what happens from there. (I don't play it all that much anymore, but at least 'Circadia' is still unique in its style of game.) And I think the 'from there' is the most unique part of these games - it's all about what story is trying to be told rather than the activity in which the user engages.

Which is fine. In the long run I don't need any more distractions on my phone. And if I learned nothing else with my recent foray into getting rid of apps to keep me from overloading my phone's memory, it's that trying New Things (like these apps) doesn't mean I need to keep them forever.

I've already deleted 'Cyto.'

New Thing #201: Clearing Memory On The iPhone

This has happened more and more frequently. My phone has given me a message similar to the one you see at the left.

Sometimes it's exactly the message you see at left - when an app update comes along there's not enough available storage to download the update.

More often, though - especially lately - it's when I try to take a picture.

The phone won't even open up the phone shutter because it doesn't have enough memory to store a new photo.

And that's led me to clear some memory on my phone on a pretty regular basis for the first time.

Turns out, I have a lot of unnecessary stuff on my iPhone.

I have games that I tried out that I haven't touched in months. I have apps like the WTF app you see in the top left corner of the above picture that I paid for, used to catch up on old episodes, and are now worthless to me. I have apps that I downloaded because I thought I had to have them (like the Dunkin' Donuts app - I love Dunkin' Donuts! I need the app!)...but I never used them. So I've been deleting them all.

This is partly a byproduct, too, of trying some new music this year - that's added some songs and albums to the phone that take up space - and also the podcasts I listen to. If I go a couple of days without listening to some shows, especially the longer ones, I end up with hours of content on there before I end up listening to them and deleting them.

This is all kind of a big step for me. I'm not a huge fan of undoing something I did. And I like routine - and when I delete an app, it affects the layout of all the other apps. So if I'm used to finding an app in a certain spot on my phone (like, all the way on the right on the third row of the second page of my apps), and suddenly it's no longer in that spot...well, that's a hard adjustment for me.

But I'm making that adjustment. And part of the reason I need to clear some of the memory is so I can add new apps that I'll use more often.

Until I have to delete them.

New Thing #134: Circadia

I downloaded a new app (thanks, Starbucks 'Pick of the Week'!) last week. It's a game called "Circadia".

I'm not going to lie - these games don't last too long on my phone anymore.

I deleted 'Fibble' last week - I hadn't played it in months, and my daughters long ago stopped asking about it.

But 'Circadia' has some potential to stay a little longer.

I'll tell you why.

It's not plot-driven, as 'Fibble' was intended to be. (Though what that plot was I don't know if I ever figured out.)

It's more of a skill game.

There are a couple of levels of skill involved - using sight, sound, and, I guess, memory.

Here's what happens: There's a white circle somewhere on the screen. Then there are other circles (early in the game there are two - as you progress more come into play), and they emit these rings. The rings grow at different rates, and your goal is to get them to cross the white circle at the exact same time.

The rate at which the colored circles emit the rings is based on their tone - the deeper the color tone, the slower the rings come. (There's a corresponding audio tone as well.) So you have to work on the timing so that the rings approach the white circle at the same time.

Once you hit the white circle with all the rings at the same time, you advance to the next level. I imagine they keep adding colored circles, and there was even a level I played that had a moving white circle. But I've only advanced about 30 levels.

It's fun, and - good for me - not all that addictive. I can play it for just a few minutes to pass some time and put it aside pretty quickly.

Those are all elements that add up to a game that I don't expect to be deleting anytime soon.

New Thing #81: A Crack In The iPhone

Some New Things you look forward to. Some you go out of your way to make happen.

Some happen unexpectedly.

This one falls squarely into that last category...and I'm not happy about it.

The funny thing about it, though, is that I'm not as upset about it as I thought I'd be.

My iPhone screen finally cracked.

I say "finally" because this was inevitable. It is a minor miracle that it hadn't happened before now. I drop my phone a lot.

I've dropped it on concrete. I've dropped it on tiles. I've dropped it on rugs. I've dropped it on steps. I've spilled orange juice on it. (That's not necessarily in the same ballpark...but it's probably worth mentioning.)

I've also dropped it on my face. (I can't tell you how many times this has happened. It's ridiculous. But 9 times out of 10 if I'm lying on my back and looking at my phone, directly above my face, it'll slip out of my hand and knock me in the face. It hurts more than you'd think. And if it was just once I wouldn't mention it...but because it happens so often it probably has worn down the screen.)

The final straw seems to have been the other day when I tossed it onto the mattress, and it bounced off and fell to the bedroom floor. I think on the way down it nicked the bed frame or a storage bin under the bed, and there you have it - a crack. (This is also not the first time this has happened - and the irony of the softest surface I've yet to mention - a mattress - being the cause of the crack has not escaped me.)

Note the crack in the picture above - it's the white mark right to the top left of the camera symbol. In case you're wondering, I used my wife's phone so that I could take a picture of my phone. Meta.

A couple of things about why this crack, which under normal circumstances would probably drive me crazy, hasn't yet:

1) I think the reason I'm not bothered by the crack is because it looks more like a scratch than a crack - I can kind of pretend it's not there. I'm secretly hoping that if I peel off the screen cover it will reveal that it's just a scratch on the cover and not the phone itself.

2) My brother and my wife have both shattered their phones. I've witnessed the damage in both cases. (Interestingly, I believe my wife's happened on the bed frame too.) Hers looked like a gunshot through a car window - that kind of shatter. My brother's was a crack all the way down the screen, from top to bottom. It's possible that by comparison, I'm just happy my phone is still usable so the crack doesn't bother me at all.

3) By all rights, as I've hinted at, this phone should be destroyed. I try to be careful with it, I really do. I just sometimes don't carry things correctly. My mom always used to tell me I carried things "like eggs". In other words, I spilled and dropped things a lot because I didn't carry them securely - I treated them all like they were eggs about to crack. I never grew out of that, I guess. (Again, irony - In trying to carry something gently I'm more likely to treat it carelessly. I am aware of the ridiculousness here.)

So I guess the fact that my phone isn't destroyed and after all this it just has a little crack...I can live with that.