While the jury is still out on the iPad’s impact as an e-reader on the publishing industry, there’s one area where it’s already being touted as a certain game-changer. The videogames industry has welcomed Apple’s self-described ‘magical’ new tablet with open arms.

The iPhone proved to be a terrific gaming device, but its small screen size meant that the range of games that were well suited to it was limited. The iPad, with its faster processor, larger screen and improved accelerometer opens up possibilities for a far wider range of genres.

Sure enough, some genres will work better than others. Former GameSpot editor and celebrity gaming journalist Jeff Gertzmann has already said on Twitter that the iPad sucks for playing action games. Action games need quick, responsive controls—especially in terms of simultaneous directional and instantaneous input, not the kind of control scheme that touch screens are ideal for. Additionally, mucking about with your fingers directly on the screen tends to obscure the action itself, which interferes with the split-second decision making that is so integral to action games.

However, genres such as strategy, roleplaying, adventure and puzzle games stand to benefit greatly from the reduced abstraction levels afforded by direct touch-screen input. A cursory glance at the iPad games library reveals a number of heavy-duty strategy franchises already (The Sims, Civilization Revolution, Command and Conquer, Plants vs Zombies). It’s a great fit—since most such involve constantly clicking on different parts of the screen as the primary user interaction. This works beautifully on the iPad—intuitive, smooth and accessible. Ditto for adventure and puzzle games. In fact, the iPad might just revolutionise standard board games as well. Place it flat on your table and voila!—an instant scrabble, chess, monopoly or parcheesi board.

Driving games are also enjoying great success on the iPad.  Need for Speed : Shift, Real Racing HD and Asphalt 5 have all had stints on the top seller lists.
Games are already the most downloaded apps on the iPad, and over a third of all iPad exclusive applications released are games. Publishers are hoping that the iPad will follow a success path  similar to the one enjoyed by Nintendo’s Wii —where millions of newbie gamers discover the joy of gaming thanks to an innovative and intuitive control mechanism. Add a range of affordable games available through a proven digital distribution model (the App Store), and we could be looking at the next blockbuster gaming console.

(The writer is a video games industry consultant)

The historic Anglo-French enmity is being battled on another field: language. The French are attempting to eliminate any and all English words that have managed to seep into their language. So, instead of referring to rumours as le buzz, French speakers should ideally say ramdam; le tuning, as in tuning up a car, will correctly be called bolidage; a chat has morphed into éblabla. The words are a part of a list released by a French government agency entrusted with the task of weeding out Anglicisms that have swamped the French language. Suggestions were based on a competition organised by students, and considered by a panel of members of the Académie Française, a French politician and a rap musician. The final list will be added to the French dictionary. As a signal that the French are serious about battling the British invasion, the exercise is now an annual event.

One of the famous scenes in Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now is when a drone of helicopters swoops down on a suspected Viet-Cong occupied village blasting out Richard Wagner’s Ride of the Valkyries. It’s a scene that literally speaks volumes about the psyched-out state of American soldiers. In Afghanistan, US forces appeared to have had Coppola in mind. But they have junked western classical for heavy metal. US forces in Marjah, Afghanistan, have hit upon the mindblowing idea of banging out tunes by bands like Metallica, Thin Lizzy and Offspring in the direction of suspected insurgent strongholds to scope out guerillas. Deploying a converted military vehicle attached with powerful speakers, which can make their presence felt up to two miles away, the troops play songs like Offspring’s Pretty Fly For A White Guy. The forces’ justification is simple: the Taliban hate music. And the plight of the locals doesn’t count.

This is one trip not many people would sign up for. David De Rothschild, an adventure ecologist, and his crew, are sailing on an isle of debris to draw attention to the state of our oceans and the impact of plastic. On a boat made of recycled material, the Plastiki Expedition is jibbing and tacking across the Pacific Ocean from North America to Australia. There are no scenic stopovers; right now they’re navigating the North Pacific Garbage Patch. Also the Eastern Garbage Patch, an area six times that of the United Kingdom.  Will the Plastiki change our views about early man as 1947’s Kontiki Expedition did?

Are all luxury fashion labels equal? Obviously, no. So New York based Luxury Institute has actually figured out which names are bigger than others in the American market with the Luxury Brands Status Index 2010. The Index ranks brands to figure out the ‘Best of the Best’ as adjudged by more than 1,200 customers. The survey found Roberto Cavalli, Hermes and Balenciaga as top women’s fashion labels, while Christian Louboutin, Manolo Blahnik and Zac Posen were the shoe brands of choice for the well-heeled. The American man prefers clothes with a label from Ermenegildo Zegna, Brioni or John Varvatos.

An Indian photographer of the Associated Press (AP) has been chosen as a runner-up for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography. Rafiq Maqbool was part of the five-man AP team chosen for ‘unforgettable images that take viewers to the frontlines of America’s war in Afghanistan’. Maqbool has covered the Afghanistan war since 2003. This photo, taken on 1 June 2009, is of US Pfc Anthony Vandegrift, of Mililani, Hawaii, of Bravo Company 287, 3rd Brigade, 10th Mountain Division, being treated at Bagram Air Base, after he was wounded by a roadside bomb.

Maqbool first met Vandegrift a few weeks before, when he was embedded with his unit. “I’d taken a photo of him playing the guitar, which made it to the front page of newspapers in Hawaii,” he says.  Later, Maqbool was at Bagram base with a medical evacuation helicopter unit. He was taking photos of wounded soldiers when one turned to him and said, “Hey man, how are you? Good to see you.” It was Vandegrift.