Sometimes the bare essentials are all it takes to make a great video game. In this collection, our hero is the stickman.

Everyone knows that in today's hottest games (for any platform), high-quality graphics are at a premium. Whether it's a first-person shooter, an MMORPG, or even a console golf game, realism and fancy graphics seem to be key to getting people to buy the product. But if you've played games for a while, you know that graphics aren't everything.

A whole slew of games in the iTunes App Store have enjoyed a ton of success by completely ignoring fancy graphics and instead focusing on the gameplay aspect. Some developers have even distilled graphic concepts down to the most basic level--stick figures--to prove that it's not about antialiasing and bloom, and more about having fun using clever game mechanics.

This week's iOS app collection is all about stickman games. The first is an excellent golf game time-waster with a simple look, but great gameplay. The second lets you perform flips and tricks without needing all the fancy 3D found in today's console skate games. The third is the most basic of all, but somehow makes 2D black-and-white cliff diving a blast.

Though the graphics are simple, the game is anything but.

[Read more]

Keyboard shortcuts make browsing Netflix and rating movies quick and easy.

Instead of clicking on menus and navigating to the areas of your interest, why not press one key? That's the functionality that a userscript written by Dustin Luck adds to your browser. The script states it will definitely work in Firefox, but also seems to work Chrome, Opera, and Safari without much of a hitch. Here's how to get it for yourself:

Step 1: Open your Web browser of choice. The notes for the script suggest that you use Firefox, but feel free to try others.

(Credit: Screenshot by Nicole Cozma)

Step 2: Head to Dustin Luck's Netflix Keyboard Shortcuts script page. 

(Credit: Screenshot by Nicole Cozma)

Step 3: Click on the Install button in the top right-han... [Read more]

With data plan pricing on the rise and unlimited plans being throttled (seriously, why bother calling it "unlimited"?!), it's increasingly important to control your data usage.

As we gradually move toward a cloud-based mobile experience with services such as iCloud, Amazon Cloud, and Google Music, going over your data limits will be easy. Naturally, service providers like AT&T and Verizon don't mind--they'll gladly hit you with a $10 to $30 overage charge whenever you exceed your allotted bytes.

Connecting to Wi-Fi as often as possible is key to minimizing cellular data usage, but there are a few other best practices to follow. Once you have those on lock, monitoring your usage in real time will help you avoid any overage fees. Here's how:

Take control of data usage

First, cut back on data-hogging apps

• Minimize use of streaming services. Apps like Pandora, Netflix, and Spotify will quickly eat up your data allowance. Even a low-bandwidth app like Pandora will kill as much as 30MB per hour--that's a lot of data, especially when you're on an introductory 200... [Read more]

The free, universal Epicurious iOS app looks great on the iPad, though syncing with your Web account or the iPhone app requires an in-app purchase.

If you've searched for a recipe online, odds are you've ended up on Epicurious.com. This huge online recipe database culls recipes from a wide array of sources, including Bon Appetit and Gourmet magazines and numerous cookbooks. The iPad app grants you access to over 30,000 recipes and presents them in a sleek, easily navigated layout. The app also includes an enhanced search functionality to help you sort through the sometimes overwhelming number of recipes, and it includes a shopping list feature to aid trips to the store.

The iPad works in either landscape or portrait modes, but it works best in landscape, where the layout includes two columns. From the home screen, you can browse through featured recipes, search using filters or simply the search bar, and view your favorites.

As you search or browse, recipes show up on the large, right panel. Five tabs run down the right side, letting you view search results by relevance, rating, alphabetical, newest, or those that have photos. When searching, you can add multiple search terms either by entering a keyword in... [Read more]

Generate and customize your word cloud with dozens of settings and combinations.

Wordle is a simple Web app that's useful for creating eye-popping "word clouds" just by inputting text.

A picture is worth a thousand words, but with Wordle, a thousand words is worth a word cloud. (Try saying that out loud a thousand times.)

Wordle lets you create custom word clouds like the ones found on blogs and other Internet content sites. A word cloud is a popular visualization of words typically associated with Internet keywords and text data. They are most commonly used to highlight popular or trending terms based on frequency of use and prominence.

In order to create a word cloud on Wordle, simply go to the homepage and click on the Create tab. Wordle will directly guide you to the creation process, with no barriers to entry like sign-ups or Facebook log-ins. Simply provide the text by either typing in words or copying and pasting words from an outside source such as a news article, an essay, or even an RSS feed. Once you're finished, hit the Submit button and voila! You just got yourself a fancy word cloud! Wordle will automatically generate a text cloud and emphasize the most prominent words. However, you're free to customize your clouds: tweak the font, layouts, or choose from a... [Read more]

Google Earth 6.2 smooths over visually distracting patchworks, left, for a more realistic view of the planet.

Google has released Google Earth 6.2 to smooth over earlier versions' unsightly patchwork caused by stitching together widely varying satellite photographs.

The result is a more realistic and less distracting (though still optimistically cloudless) view of the planet.

Google Earth offers a terrific interactive view of the planet, complete with 3D buildings in some parts of the world. But I have to say, though, that I was more excited this week by a different digital view of Earth: NASA's Blue Marble shot posted on Flickr. It's a very high-resolution shot taken by NASA's Suomi NPP satellite designed to gather data for short-term weather forecasts and long-term climage-change study.

Meanwhile, back on Google Earth, other changes include the inevitable Google+ integration, in this case so people can post snapshots of various places to their Google social-network accounts, according to a blog post about the software.

And Google Earth 6.2 search gets Google Maps' autocompletion and now shows mo... [Read more]

Evernote Food lets iDevice users take photos and notes of meals not to be forgotten.

My wife and I entertain a lot. We have two young kids, and having friends to our place for dinner is less expensive than paying a babysitter and dining out. Plus, we like to cook. We typically have the same cast of characters over for dinner, and my wife recently expressed a desire to start a food journal, so we could remember what dishes we cooked for whom, in an effort to avoid duplication.

You should also know that our household is somewhat unorganized. Or very unorganized, depending on your perspective. So, that food journal we started was misplaced after the first entry. Enter, Evernote Food for the iPhone. (I lose my phone all the time, but I can call it to aid my search efforts. I can't call the pad of paper with our one meal entry.)

First, a disclaimer. I'm not an Evernote user, but after using Evernote Food, I may try using the note-taking app more. I like Evernote Food because it does one thing and does it well. It lets you take photos and notes of your meals.

To make an entry, tap the plus-sign button in the upper-right corner. You'll be greeted with a short form with fields for Title, Place, Tags, and Meal Notes. Below are two buttons to either add ... [Read more]