Apple can’t keep up with the demand for the iPad in the United States and is currently rolling out its European debut of the product, so the last thing Apple needs is a new retail partner to sell more product, especially Wal-Mart.  Senior vice-president of entertainment at Wal-Mart told Bloomberg, “We anticipate being able to have the iPad later this year.” An announcement is expected later today that will explain Wal-Mart’s intentions to expand their electronics division, though a specific iPad announcement will probably be a few weeks, if not months, away.

Source

According to a recent survey, 54% of women polled indicated they would be more likely to have a relationship with an iPhone owner as opposed to some other brand. The same survey said the general consensus is that iPhone owners are better groomed, communicate more effectively and have a good sense of humor. Now let’s say you don’t own an iPhone but you want the edge with women. What are your options for improving your odds? Probably not an Android phone. No, your best bet, according to new research, is good old Celery, the vegetable that is only palatable with a dollop of peanut-butter.

CELERY has been labelled “vegetable Viagra” after research shows it increases the pheromone levels in men’s sweat, making them more attractive to women.

Judy Gaman, Dr Walter Gaman and Dr Mark Anderson, authors of the new book Stay Young: Ten Proven Steps to Ultimate Health, said celery contains androstenone – a naturally occurring steroid – and upping your concentration of it should increase pheromone secretion.

They said the effects of eating it are immediate, but warned men not to go overboard, men’s lifestyle website asylum.com reported today.

“We recommend that a guy work out, have a nice warm shower, chomp on a few sticks of celery, brush his teeth and then head out the door smelling good,” said Dr Gaman.

Another reason why men should be keen to eat their vegetables is that celery also increases sex drive and ups the amount of ejaculatory fluids, making climax stronger.

Source

Now that the jailbreak application is out in the wild and people are unlocking their iPad from Apple’s control, people are finding all kinds of interesting hacks that make greater use of the iPad. For instance, here is a video that illustrates how to hook up an external hard drive to an iPad. Could this mean we’ll see official, additional storage options supported by Apple in the future? I wouldn’t hold my breath. Hence, this is why jailbreaking exists.

I know people are curious as to how to jailbreak their iPad, so I will be writing up a brief, concise, no-nonsense guide in the next day or two.

Space Station Frontier HD is a top-shelf game from Origin8, one that easily justifies the iPad as a viable gaming platform. It’s obvious the designers took great care to deliver a solid package, especially when a straight port of the iPhone version could have been a simple alternative. Instead, Origin8 has overhauled the game specifically for iPad users, taking great advantage of the larger screen and increased processing power to create one of the best real-time strategy games currently available on any mobile platform, and I include the PSP and Nintendo DS in that list (where you’d pay three times as much for a lesser game).

Space Station Frontier HD doesn’t reinvent the wheel with its gameplay, but it does manage to blend different genres into a unified whole, specifically real-time strategy mixed with a heaping of tower defense. However, unlike most tower defense games, Space Station Frontier doesn’t feel repetitive as there are enough random elements that make each session play differently than the last.

You assume the role of a space station commander, tasked with amassing resources from nearby asteroids, a job description made difficult by frequent alien incursions. Mining is more involved than simply sending a ship towards an awaiting resource, as you must build the infrastructure of your facility to best maximize your output. This involves coordinating the placement of Power Nodes that must extend from your main station, nodes that offer juice to your Miner nodes that will extract resources as long as they have power and are not being attacked. In this way, Space Station Frontier is a constant balancing act between spending resources on new defenses and enhancements while protecting your station and attached infrastructures. How well you strategically place defenses and assorted nodes can mean the difference between success and failure.

Space Station Frontier HD is generous in its options, featuring a 15 mission campaign setting as well as Survival Mode, Mining Mode and Protect, each of which offers endless fun long after you’ve completed the campaign. Space Station Frontier even uses the Open Feint system, so you can match your scores with a global leaderboard to better gauge your suckage and even unlock achievements Xbox-style.

Space Station Frontier HD ramps up the game difficulty at a great pace. During the initial stages, it does an excellent job introducing you to the basic concepts, but it doesn’t take long before matters get far more intense. Suddenly, you are no longer facing swarms of little alien fighters but armadas of battleships. In these later stages you have access to a wide-variety of base-building options, including power generators, power storage, repair stations, laser turrets, inteceptor turrets, rail cannons and missile launchers.

None of this would anything if the graphics suck. Fortunately, that is not the case. Quite the opposite, in fact. Space Station Frontier HD is one of the better-looking games I’ve seen on the iPad, offering a rich palette of colors, detailed units, great explosions and unique design aesthetics. Accompanying the great graphics is a beautiful interface that is fast to respond, easy to use, and takes full advantage of the iPad, even working flawlessly in landscape or portrait mode, depending upon your preference. One thing I really love and appreciate is that you can access your iTunes music while playing the game, a simple enough feature that isn’t implemented by enough designers.

At the end of the day, Space Station Frontier HD can hold its head high, proud that it has delivered a high-level of gameplay and polish. This isn’t a game that was crapped out over a weekend of development, like so many other iPhone/iPad games and fully justifies its $4.99 price-tag. If there was one thing I’d really like to see it would have to be multiplayer, but Origin8 is already working on a multiplayer upgrade that should be coming soon, an addition that will Space Station Frontier HD one of the best games available for the Apple iPad.

Final Rating: 5/5

Space Station Frontier HD $4.99 (iTunes Link)