puzzle

Crossword Puzzle is a basic word puzzle that purports to be a twist on the classic crossword. Unfortunately, the program's weird clues and lack of options make it somewhat disappointing.

The program's interface is pleasant enough, although we immediately noticed that the program contains no options, settings, or Help file. The program displays a crossword-style puzzle, but with a twist: users can only view clues by mousing over the word in question, and doing so blacks out the rest of the puzzle. We suppose that this could add an extra challenge to the game, but we didn't … Read more

Minesweeper is one of life's simple pleasures. It's such a basic, unflashy game, easily mastered by kids, yet addictive as ever for adults. Ivanche Minesweeper is very similar to the Windows version of the game that we all know and love, but with a few enhancements that make it even more enjoyable.

The interface is almost identical to that of the Windows version. The squares don't have quite the same 3D effect in this version, but the time, number of mines left, and smiley face are all where you would expect them to be. Gameplay is exactly … Read more

It's hard to keep us out of the kitchen, for no other reason than we just really enjoy food! Today we offer up a dilectable assortment of gourmet gadgets.

Cocoon Cooker Grows Meat In Your Kitchen (thanks Bill!)

Ultrasonic dishwasher cleans your plates with waves of sound (thanks Sam!)

Ravi cools wine at the very moment it is poured

Cosentino turns minerals and woods into truly unique surfaces

LED Grabbing Tool Picks Valuables From Where Fingers Fear To Tread

Taylor Digital Measuring Cup Scale… Read more

Twisty Text is a thoughtfully designed letter-arrangement game with an inventive interface that encourages experimentation and fast-paced play. As with similar games in this genre, Twisty Text challenges you to find as many words as you can from a set number of letters (five, six, or seven) before a timer runs out. What makes Twisty Text so novel is how its interface makes such effective use of the touch screen: you can quickly drag letters back and forth to form words, and then swipe to underline every new guess. You can also press a button (or shake your device) to … Read more

Levers is a clever puzzle game with an artsy aesthetic and relaxing--almost hypnotic--sound, graphics, and gameplay. Spare by design, this balancing game makes even learning how to play part of the challenge. The object is simple: you have to keep a series of increasingly bizarre objects out of the water, by tilting your phone and dragging and dropping them onto a mobile-like set of hangers that you build out as the game progresses.

Without spoiling too many of the game's surprises, you soon discover that the objects--including a bowling ball, a pipe-smoking snowman, and a birdhouse with three very … Read more

Boxed In is a simple but still tricky arcade-puzzle game in which you help a cute cartoon robot escape from increasingly complex levels by pushing boxes around. Using the app's slow-paced, swipe-based interface, you can move the robot up, down, left, or right--but you can only push boxes, not pull them, so you'll have to plan out your moves well in advance to clear a path to each level's exit, while collecting required "gears" and using boxes to deactivate force fields along the way.

The interface can seem sluggish at first, but thankfully an undo … Read more

Geared is a straightforward, physics-based puzzle game where you strategically place interlocking gears into a free-form virtual gearbox so that every gear ends up spinning. The graph-paper-themed interface is simple: you drag gears of five different sizes (a set number on each level) up from the bottom of the screen, releasing your finger to "drop" a gear onto the next gear below it. You can move gears around, swapping them in and out, and precise placement often requires trial and error.

The game's 80 levels get increasingly more difficult, especially as shaded "no drop" zones … Read more

Word-game enthusiasts around the world may find a new addiction in WordZap Deluxe--if they can swallow the $20 fee, that is.

Part Boggle and part Scrabble, WordZap offers a set of letters from which you must create enough words to beat your computer opponent. As in Boggle, if you and the computer create the same word, the word cancels out. A timer adds another constraint. You can increase or decrease the difficulty level in several ways. WordZap assigns a handicap that adjusts to your performance but which you can also change manually. You can also change settings related to word-length, … Read more

Super Collapse Puzzle Gallery 4 is a fun and addictive puzzle game. Stay away from this one unless you have time to spare, because it's hard to stop playing once you start!

The game's premise is simple enough: each puzzle is a grid filled with different colored squares, and the object is to get rid of all of them. When a user clicks on a square with at least two squares of the same color adjacent to it, all those squares disappear, and any that were above collapse downward. Users must systematically select which groups of squares they'… Read more