Number Grid Puzzles

It was brought up a while back in a Community Call to Arms that *math* is handy for encryption (and let's face it, everything) so let us go over things you just have to know. "In its simplest meaning in mathematics and logic, an operation is an action or procedure which produc ...more

Thanks to the advent of smartphones and mobile apps, Scrabble has spread like wildfire across the globe, whether it be Scrabble or one of its many popular word game spinoffs, such as Words with Friends, WordWise and Kalimat. There have been over one million Scrabble sets sold ...more

The holiday season is here, and if you didn't already pick up a SCRABBLE set during Black Friday or Cyber Monday, then you still have time to buy the perfect gift for your lexical-minded friend. There's sure to be deals out there over the next couple of weeks, you just need to ...more

Leather Goddesses of Phobos Leather Goddesses of Phobos was one of the most suggestive text adventure games ever developed. The sarcasm-rich sci-fi parody allowed gamers to choose their genders and interact with other characters within the game. The game is known for its diff ...more

Games have been getting shorter in length over the last decade. RPGs like The Elder Scrolls series are still tremendously long, but most single-player game experiences have gotten shorter as production values, costs, and manpower requirements to create them have gone up. It se ...more

In a recent episode of The Big Bang Theory, character Sheldon Cooper designed a highly complicated three-person game of chess, with an odd-shaped nonagon board and two new pieces—serpent and old woman. Seemingly pioneering, in truth, three-player chess has been around since th ...more

I am the sort of man whom game companies fall all over themselves to seduce. I'm sweaty, pale, awkward, and spend too much money on video games. There are many of us, especially among XBox 360 owners. We are the most stereotypically "gamer" group of console owners. The XBox 36 ...more

If you're interested in nabbing superhero memory strength, the secret behind training your brain is not necessarily what you might expect. Your standard G-rated brain strengthening exercises range from crossword puzzles to Sudoku to calculating fairly simple math problems to i ...more

The big day may be over, but the weekend is still full of Thanksgiving spirit. And so is this week's puzzle. But let's keep it short this time, because we should all be taking this time to play a real game of Scrabble with friends and family. I was thinking of making a puzzle ...more

30 January 2011 Zynga’s new Groundhog Mission in FrontierVille allows two groundhogs to show up on your homestead at once. They’re very hard to kill; it takes at least 20 clicks to clobber each one. The Mission requires that you buy a trap for 1900 coins and then beg for scr ...more

The concept of Scrabble and Words with Friends is the same—play words, score points, win. But the games require different strategy in terms of letter placement, premium squares, tile point values and word choices. Here's the main differences between the two games. Scrabble ha ...more

It's another Monday, which means once again, it's time to highlight some of the recent community submissions posted to the Math Craft corkboard. Additionally, I thought we'd take a look at the Mobius Strip. Rachel Mansur of Giveaway Tuesdays posted twice to the corkboard. The ...more

Instagram is one of the hottest mobile apps to date, yet they have no way to upload photos straight from your computer. You can log into the Instagram web app to like and comment on photos in your feed, but that's about it. Fortunately, there are third-party apps that let you ...more

The Tokyo Game Show (TGS) is the biggest video game expo in the most game crazy country on Earth. It is kind of a big deal. As such, their "indie" game showcase/contest Sense of Wonder Night (SOWN) is a major opportunity for developers of all shapes and sizes to showcase their ...more

Both on and off the set, the Gaffer or Chief Lighting Technician is one of the most important positions around. Though the average movie goer most likely has no idea the job even exists, they probably don't know what 99% of the other crew is/does either.   From the time a DP ...more

Nearly every game takes strategy to win, but when it comes to games like Scrabble and Words with Friends, you've also got to have a lexically inclined mind full of wonderful and weird words. Most start out by learning all of the two-letter words in the Scrabble dictionary, the ...more

It's Monday, and once again it's time to highlight some of the community submissions posted to the Math Craft corkboard. In addition, I thought we'd take a look at having fun with the geometrical properties of polygons and circles by using one of the best circles I know, the p ...more

Last week's challenge brought up a good question (thanks Lisa) regarding the functionality of the Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, 4th Edition, both online and in print form. The word TACTICAL was the answer to the first puzzle in that challenge, but when you search for t ...more

Let's face it, not every logophile is addicted to Scrabble. Without the use of a timer, Scrabble can be a pretty slow game. Even in clubs and tournaments where the standard time limit is 25 minutes per person for a two-player game. Now, take away time restrictions and add two ...more

Move over Rubik's Cube, there's a new puzzle in town. The Petaminx. The beautifully designed and custom built Petaminx has almost 1,000 moving parts. Peta- actually means 1,000,000,000,000,000, although that number could refer to the endless number of solutions. Based on And ...more

Like Marvel's Avengers, Facebook's Camera AR platform now has a number of new AR superpowers at its disposal, so it is fitting that Earth's Mightiest Heroes have the distinction of displaying them. Available now in via Facebook on iOS and Android, the Avengers: Infinity War A ...more

On May 25th, 1977 a small movie with a $13,000,000 budget came out. At the time, the executives involved had no faith that this film would make any money. To the surprise of many in the industry, not only did that film set records, it led to a number of other movies, video gam ...more

Today's smartphones and tablets offer a great way for children to learn through interactive sight, sound, and touch, but they can also provide hours of genuine fun. If you have a spare tablet laying around—or at least a nice, durable case—the only thing you need to get your ch ...more

While photography usually gets all the love, our phones have gotten really good at capturing video. Think about it — when was the last time you needed a camcorder for a vacation? With mobile cameras getting better each year, we're now at a point where smartphones can be used f ...more

Welcome back, my hacker novitiates! Now, and more so in the future, wars will be fought hacker v. hacker. The number of soldiers, guns, tanks, and ships will be less important in your success in warfare than the number of well-trained hackers you have. Every nation and every ...more

Before we begin learning about another vulnerability, we are going to explore printf in a bit more detail. This will be quick little tutorial. The Missing Link One conversion specifier I have not told you about is %n. %n is a special little one because it does not do the sam ...more

Some websites require you to perform a verification task so they know you're human and not a bot. It helps websites curb spam, abuse, unauthorized access, and cyberattacks but also adds an obstacle for anyone trying to visit their content. If you find it more of a nuisance tha ...more

The music you listen to is often a reflection of your personality, which is why people tend to use the artwork from their favorite albums as device wallpapers. But one lonely album cover may not look right on your iPhone's lock screen, and it's not indicative of your broader m ...more

Cases and stickers are always great, but they aren't the only way to customize an iPhone. The software on your device is full of customization options, from a better-looking home screen and cooler lock screen wallpapers to app icon changes and a system-wide dark mode. There's ...more

If you've seen our guide on the 18 coolest features in iOS 7, you know that there's a lot to like about Apple's new mobile OS, but there's also a laundry list of grievances to go with it. One that bugs me is the lack of Home screen customization, something that has always driv ...more

Sweden's Hans Andersson, has a new way of solving both the Rubik's Cube and Sudoku puzzles... ROBOTS. That's right, memorizing lengthy algorithms or racking your brain with numbers is no longer required to solve these perplexing puzzles. The Tilted Twister and Sudoku Solver a ...more

The volume buttons on the side of your iPhone can do more than just adjust the volume levels for media, ringers, alerts, Siri, and other sounds and voices. You can use them to perform different actions in certain apps and even create custom actions using the Shortcuts app. It' ...more

With over 10,000 possible combinations, a four-digit passcode may seem secure, but it's fairly easy for someone to crack your code—no matter how clever you think it is. Luckily, there are many other options for securing your iPhone's lock screen—especially if your running iOS ...more

Though not as flashy as other mobile gaming genres like first-person shooters, puzzle games continue to glue players to their phones. Puzzlers are perfect companions while out and about or on a commute, and they're also a great way to stimulate your brain and hand-eye coordina ...more

In the Android community, Samsung's slow updates have long been the accepted norm. With the Note 8's recent Android Oreo update, Samsung completed annual version updates to their 2017 flagship lineup. Now is a great time to look back on how Samsung has fared with updates over ...more

Apple has finally given us a decent file manager in iOS 11. The new "Files" app replaces the not-very-old iCloud Drive app that appeared in iOS 9, but you can still access your iCloud Drive files in the new Files app, as well as files from third-party cloud services. A nice im ...more

If you've ever wanted to track down the source of a Wi-Fi transmission, doing so can be relatively easy with the right equipment. Using a directional Wi-Fi antenna and Wireshark, we can create a display filter to target any device in range to plot the signal strength on a gra ...more

Every Galaxy S20 sold in the US — even the S20+ and S20 Ultra — simply can't be rooted. With the bootloader permanently locked, you miss out on the world of rooting and the customization it opens up, but modifications are still possible. Thanks to some Samsung-developed apps ...more

Over the years, mobile gaming has become a phenomenon, rivaling in magnitude with its console and PC-based counterparts. We even have mobile versions of Fortnite and PUBG now, games that require lots of processing power to run. But when you just want a quick game to play in th ...more

The community of bacteria that lives in our gut has a lot to tell us. It can give clues to what we eat, the environment we live in, and diseases and disorders we may have. Now, scientists have linked these bacterial species to how we feel. A new research study found an associa ...more

Your iPhone's home screen is a tricky thing. You can sort your collection of apps in any order you'd like, but where you place those apps is a totally different story. App and folder placement follows a strict grid on iOS from left to right, top to bottom. No exceptions, and t ...more

Will the predicted apocalyptic date—December 21st, 2012—really be the end of the world? In this ongoing five-part series, we examine what would happen if zombies, nuclear weapons, cyber wars, earthquakes, or aliens actually destroyed our planet—and how you might survive. End ...more

Apple's latest big software update includes an entirely new Apple app, a controversial change in the TV app, better Siri control, an improved Shortcuts app, interesting Safari upgrades, Apple Music Sing, and more. Keep reading to see what iOS 16.2 has to offer your iPhone. Th ...more

Apple released iOS 17.4 on March 5 with over 30 new features, but now it's iOS 17.5's turn for the spotlight. The update, currently in beta, gives us a few interesting updates and changes for iPhone, including a new word game, and there's even a sneak peek at what could be com ...more

Android 11 has plenty of new features as you'd expect, including a fancy new embedded media player. Rather than a constant notification, your audio controls now get pushed up into the Quick Settings panel when playing music. However, to make way for this new media player funct ...more

On the surface, Instagram is pretty intuitive, so you might think that you already know everything there is to know about using it on your iPhone or Android phone. But this photo and video-sharing app is constantly adding new features, some of which don't make the press releas ...more

There's a growing sentiment around the web that when it comes to Android, stock is best. Many people prefer the clean look of Google's vision for Android, but manufacturers like LG will add features and themes on top of this base to differentiate themselves from the pack. But ...more

When you have an infection, a doctor prescribes antibiotics to make the bacteria that causes it disappear. Sounds like a good idea, but the disappearance of microorganisms that have inhabited humans for millennia could be driving rising numbers of serious illness and debilitat ...more

With No Time to Die, the 25th installment in the James Bond saga, arriving in April and Black Widow, the first solo film for the Marvel Cinematic Universe's own secret agent, following a month later, what better way to get in the espionage mood than some augmented reality spy ...more

The growing stock of augmented reality apps filling up the Magic Leap store seems to be picking up pace in recent months. On Tuesday, the latest addition to the Magic Leap World store came in the form of Dinosaur Kit, an app that offers an immersive education path for those b ...more