iJumpman is a retro-futuristic platformer by Andrew McClure. What begins as an imitation of 8bit retro platformer with game mechanics reminiscent of Joust quickly turns in one of the most engaging retro inspired games on the iPhone. Use tilt or onscreen controls to move across the level, effect gravity and objects in the world (physics), invisible walls, bombs, awesome soundtrack and effects and so much more with the task to survive to the exit. Although some levels may need balancing as you may find yourself at times quickly passing through the levels and other having to die about 20 times at least on others, the game is nevertheless so much fun it’s hard to describe. The 3D space showing next levels just adds to the desire to pass the current and move onto the next. In addition to all of this, a full level editor is including together with ability to upload and download additional levels. Controls vary from tilt control what we have found in Ronaldo where you rotate the world around you, also achievable via “finger twist” to on screen control buttons which for some levels especially those requiring you to continuously rotate the world. Regardless of how much you are against of games with on screen controls, here they are really useful at times and done in such a way not to be too obtrusive and very much in touch graphically with the environment.

Here is the list of features:
- A full level editor with integrated online level trading
- Gesture and tilt controls (plus optional button control scheme)
- Full soundtrack by The Mathletes
- Full in-game soundtrack (plus iTunes library support)

Free demo of the game for Mac, PC and Linux is available at runhello.com

This is easily the best $2.99 I have spent on a retro classic inspired game for the iPhone. A simple must if you a fan of 8bit gaming and if you are not and enjoy the likings of Ronaldo, iJumpman is a great example of retro adaptation for the iPhone platform. I could not recommend it more..

Platform: iPhone
Version: 1.0.0
Cost: $2.99
Developer: Andrew McClure

(Thanks Rocco!)

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Facebook has released a “happiness index” based on the status updates people make on their site. They have an algorithm that looks for words connected with positive and negative feelings, and categorize the status updates accordingly.

The GNH as it’s called, the Gross National Happiness index, currently only looks at status updates from US Facebook users, which makes sense since it’s a language-based study tool. (Hopefully Facebook will soon add similar indices for other countries as well.)

When you study the graphs that Facebook generates, a weekly pattern quickly becomes obvious. Unsurprisingly we’re at our happiest during public holidays and on Fridays and weekends, but a closer look at the graphs reveals what we’ve suspected for a long time:

People hate Mondays with a vengeance. (Garfield was right!)

Just look at these graphs.

Happiness level:

As you can see, the overall level of happiness bottoms out every Monday.

The low level of happiness on Mondays isn’t just caused by a lack of positivity. If we look at the negativity alone, it becomes clear that people are in a really negative mood on Mondays.

Negativity level:

People really do pick themselves up during the weekends, though, and we’re a lot happier on Fridays as well (anticipating the weekend, we presume?).

Positivity level:

We bet you can guess on which weekdays those drops in positivity take place…

This “happiness index” clearly shows Facebook’s data mining potential. Considering its huge user base and active users, there are tons upon tons of data available, and the question is how Facebook will be using it. We’d love to see more of these “indices”. As long as the data is of a general nature there shouldn’t be any privacy concerns, so we’re all for this kind of information being made available.

Additional information about the GNH index can be found over at the Facebook blog. (Check it out, it’s an interesting read.)

Data source: All graphs are from Facebook’s United States Gross National Happiness page, with those elegant arrows added by us.

Links to blogs associated with social media analysis companies. Some are more work-oriented than others, but there are some good sources in here.

On the social networkings of rap artists.