There are several games on both of my iOS devices at any given time from just about every genre. But there are only a few games I go back to on an almost daily basis and that's because they are fun, addictive, and a great way to keep in touch with friends and family.

These "casual" games are turn-based and require you to connect with a friend to start playing -- there is no single-player option with this collection. They have also been around for a while, but that's kind of the point: these are the games I continue to play because it only requires a couple of minutes to take my turn and send it to a friend. While it is sometimes a pain to go in and complete my turns (especially when life gets busy), the overall experience of competing with your friends and family is a good one and acts as a way to stay connected, even in our busy everyday lives.

This week's collection of apps is all about connecting with friends with casual games. The first plays like an old table-top classic, with modern extras that keep the game fun. The second is a color-matching game where you lay down groups of three tiles for points. The third is a dice game where you'll take turns with a friend to get specific dice rolls.

The Inspiration power-up shows you words on the board. If both people can use it it's not cheating, right?

(Credit: Screenshot ... [Read more]

Wild Blood for iOS makes awfully good use of the Unreal Engine.

When it comes to jaw-droppingly beautiful role-playing games steeped in medieval hack-and-slash action, Infinity Blade II is pretty much the gold standard.

Gameloft's Wild Blood may not set a new standard, but it definitely deserves a place in the same pantheon of groundbreaking iOS games.

Here be dragons.

The story goes like this: in King Arthur's Camelot, things have gone cray-cray. Sir Lancelot got busy with Queen Guinevere, who's now being held captive by Arthur's sister, sorceress Morgana Le Fey. To rescue the imprisoned queen, Lancelot will have to fight his way past hordes of Hellgate demons -- you know, the ones set loose by mad-with-jealousy Arthur.

Gameloft keeps the gameplay fairly simple, with tap-driven attacking, evading, and power-upping. You use a left-handed virtual j... [Read more]

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Depending on which version of Android you're running, there might be a Bugdroid or gender-neutral silhouette that appears for each contact that is missing a custom photo. While seeing these instead of a contact's photo isn't too big of a deal, it's always nice to see the faces of your family and friends that are calling you. This is especially useful if you're at a location where the volume of your device needs to be turned off and you can see who is calling with just a quick glance.

While this method is a bit slow for adjusting the photo of each contact in your address book, it's definitely worth the time for just a handful of people. However, there's no limit on the photos you can set, so if you do want to customize them all, go nuts!

Here's how to get started:

Step 1: Open the Facebook app on your Android. If you don't have Facebook on your device for some reason, grab yourself a copy for fr... [Read more]

Apache, the most commonly used software to house Web sites, will ignore Microsoft's decision to disable ad-tracking technology by default in Internet Explorer 10.

Microsoft set IE10 and Windows 8 so that, by default, Web sites that observe the Do Not Track (DNT) standard won't track people's behavior. The move was made to "better protect user privacy," the company said.

But protecting user privacy turns out to be a thorny matter in practice -- at least when a standard has to be palatable to advertisers as well as browser makers and people surfing the Web.

Mozilla, which as maker of the Firefox browser was the first to support DNT, objects to Microsoft's DNT position, arguing that DNT shouldn't be active or inactive until a person actively sets it one way or the other. And the Digital Advertising Alliance said it would only honor DNT if it's not switched on by default -- in other words, advertisers will ignore DNT altogether regardless of how a browser is set up.

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