I’ve always been an avid fan of Tycoon games, some of my favorites are Rollercoaster Tycoon, Zoo Tycoon and Lemonade Tycoon. Being a fan of these types of games, imagine my delight when I discovered a game on the iOS App Store called Streetfood Tycoon. I was even more delighted when I found out that the game was about Filipino streetfood and was developed by an indie Filipino game development company called Kuyi Mobile.

In Streetfood Tycoon, you play the role of a vendor selling french fries, corndogs, local Filipino streetfoods – kwek kwek (quail eggs in orange batter) and fishballs to walk-in customers while at the same time, restocking your ingredients and cleaning your stall. Coins earned can be used to upgrade ingredients, facilities, location and unlock new characters – Lady Gogo, Pee Noy, Moony Puhkyaw and Helen Degenerous.

Like Lemonade Tycoon, you can choose different locations to do business. In Streetfood Tycoon your choices are Village, Suburbs, Downtown and Bazaar. If you can’t wait to get enough coins to purchase upgrades and other stuff, you can use the in-app purchase options to get more coins.

Screenshots:

Here’s a short demo video of Streetfood Tycoon:

When I first installed Streetfood Tycoon it was still on version 1.0.1 and at that time the game didn’t have a pause button. There was no way to stop/pause the game so you had to finish it on-going game before you can take a break. I was gonna write a review on the App Store to make a suggestion to the developers but that same day, I saw that an update was just released – version 1.0.2 and one of the things that it included was a pause button. The developers must’ve read my mind. I think having new items, new unlockable characters or streetfood on the menu would make the game even more fun. If the game devs decide to do that there’s a lot of stuff to choose from – balut, banana que, isaw, chicharong bulaklak, kikiam, adidas, etc.

Anyways, it’s been more than two weeks now since I started playing Streetfood Tycoon and I’ve already maxed out all the possible upgrades but I still find myself playing it whenever I have spare time. Being away from home, this game brings a sense of nostalgia. Streetfood Tycoon is a must-have for Filipinos who own an iOS device. If you’re not Filipino, you can still enjoy playing the game because it’s simple and easy to learn yet fun and entertaining at the same time. Streetfood Tycoon is FREE and available only for iOS devices (compatible with the iPhone, iPod touch, iPad and requires iOS 4.3 or later).

Download Streetfood Tycoon from the App Store

Anyone tried the Streetfood Tycoon game on any iOS device? How do you like the game? What other features or options would you like to see in future updates? Please share your thoughts.

I knew I had to do something about it so I decided that the best thing I could do to get back on track was to publish a Weekend Roundup. I’m glad that I was able to finally overcome it and I hope that I could keep this up and continue to post updates in the coming days.

Hope you guys like reading this edition of the Weekend Roundup. Enjoy!

Blogging

• 5 Essential Tools Every Blogger Should Use
• Is it Time to Make Blogging Your Career?
• 5 Ways To Increase Blog Comments
• If I Were the Blogging Police…

WordPress

• 7 Benefits of Blogging with WordPress
• Year of the Meetup
• Creating a Shared Content Box Across All of Your WordPress Blogs
• WordPress Security Threats – Jan/2012

SEO

• The 10 Golden Rules to Attracting Authority Links
• 4 Social SEO Mistakes to Avoid
• Why Not Use Alexa for Competitor Analysis?
• 7 Blog Writing Tips With An SEO Focus

Social Media

• 9 Ways to Integrate Email and Social Media Marketing
• Getting The Most Out of Great Content in Social Media
• Google Begins Country-Specific Blog Censorship
• 5 Ways Writers Can Break Out of the Tired Old Social Media Box

Technology

• Surveillance Cameras Used To Study Customer Behavior
• Computer Program Reconstructs Heard Words From Brain Scans
• Do You Like Online Privacy? You May Be a Terrorist
• Microsoft Releases Kinect For Windows

Gadgets

• Spark – KDE Tablet
• Mad Catz Cyborg MMO 7 Mouse
• Boxx Eco-friendly Electric Bike
• Hot Wheels RC iNitro Speeders

Pinoy Blogs

• Using WiFi hotspots without permission: Cybercrime Prevention Act violation?
• How to update your LG Optimus Black to Gingerbread
• Android Users in the Philippines Increased by 300%, iPhone Users by 62% in 2011, According to Smart Communications! Smartphone Users to Rise Sharply in 2012!
• Jollibee On-Line Delivery via Facebook

If you have any questions, comments, suggestions or would want to share your article or any interesting story that you found in the Internet and have it featured in the next Weekend Roundup, feel free to leave a comment or send me a message via the contact page.

Whether you create music for a living or just simply do it as a hobby, I’m sure a lot of people will be happy to know that GarageBand, a popular music creation app which was previously only available on the iPad is now available for the iPhone and iPod Touch. I haven’t tried GarageBand myself but I’ve seen several videos of people using this app to create beautiful music.

For those who aren’t familiar with GarageBand, this app turns your device – iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad into a touch musical instrument and a full-featured recording studio. Play pianos, organs, guitars, drums and basses using multi-touch gestures and make use of 9 built-in amps and 10 stompbox effects. GarageBand allows users to record/mix up to 8 tracks, save it as an audio file (AAC format) and/or sent to the desktop version of GarageBand. The app also comes with 250 professional samples to help users get started.

Screenshots:

GarageBand version 1.1 Features:

• Universal app designed for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch
• Create custom chords for Smart Instruments
• Support for 3/4 and 6/8 time signatures
• Reset song key without transposing original recordings
• Transpose songs in semitones or full octaves
• Additional quantization options for recordings including, straight, triplet and swing
• New audio export quality settings for AAC and AIFF (Uncompressed)
• Arpeggiator available in Smart Keyboard
• Adjustable velocity settings for Touch Instruments
• Numerous enhancements, including automatic fade out and improved audio import options

NOTE: GarageBand requires iOS 4.3 or later and is compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod touch (3rd gen), iPod touch (4th gen) and iPad. Users who already purchased GarageBand for the iPad can re-download and install the app on their iPhone or iPod Touch for FREE.

GarageBand is now available on iTunes for $4.99.

Anyone using GarageBand? Have you tried using GarageBand on the iPhone or iPod Touch?

Here’s the app description on iTunes:

Google+ for mobile makes sharing the right things with the right people a lot simpler. Huddle lets you send super-fast messages to the people you care about most. And no matter where you are, the stream lets you stay in the loop about what your friends are sharing and where they’re checking in.

Features:

• Circles
• Stream
• Check-ins
• Huddle

Screenshots:

I downloaded/installed and have tried all the different features and options on the new Google+ iOS app and I really like it because if has all the basic/necessary features. There are a couple things I like about the app. First, it uses the iPhone’s built-in notifcation system and everytime there’s a new notification – you get notified on the screen and it also gets displayed on the Google+ app icon. Second, posts only show the first two comments and other comments are hidden which saves me time from scrolling to view other posts.

However, it would be nice if it also had some of the features that are available to the desktop version like – Sparks, the option to Share a post and Hangouts for those who own smartphones or mobile device that have dual cameras. Hopefully the Google+ team would add those features in the next release or update of the app.

The Google+ iOS app is compatible with iPhone 3G, 3GS & iPhone 4 and requires iOS 4.0+.

Anyone installed and tried the Google+ iPhone app? How do you like it? Which one would you prefer to use – the desktop version or the iPhone app? What other features and options would you like to see added to the Google+ iPhone app? Please share your thoughts.

The Opera Mini browser (version 5) made its debut in the Apple App Store on April 2010, recording more than a million downloads in the first 24 hours. Last Monday, Opera released a long awaited update for iOS devices – Opera Mini 6. This web browser was designed and created not to compete with the default iOS web browser – Safari but to complement it and provide a different kind of browsing experience.

Opera Mini 6 Features:

• Much faster and smoother panning and zooming that lets the user get all the way into the details of every page, in one smooth motion
• Share buttons to share the love for a site to your friends on My Opera, Facebook, Twitter or vKontakte right from the Opera Mini 6 browser
• New jazzed-up skin and redesigned Opera menus

Screenshots:
iPhone

iPad

Safari doesn’t work well on crowded WiFi networks and thats where Opera is trying to win new users. Opera Mini 6 features up to 90% of data compression which allows a much faster browsing experience and uses up much less data which very useful for iPhone or iPad users who are on slow connections and/or are roaming on limited data plans.

Another cool thing about Opera Mini 6 is that it will detect the type of device used (iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPad) and it will adapt to it and automatically switch screen resolutions and user interface.

I installed Opera Mini 6 on my iPhone and tried opening some of the popular websites like CNN, YouTube, NBA, etc. and compared the results with Safari and Skyfire. Based on my tests, Opera Mini 6 loaded websites considerably faster than Safari or Skyfire. Aside from it being faster than the other browsers, I love the user interface. For now, the Opera Mini 6 will be my new favorite browser on my iPhone.

Anybody else installed Opera Mini 6 on their iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch? How do you like it? Based on your experience, is it much faster than Safari or other available web browsers for iOS devices? Please share your thoughts.