I am addicted to yet another game. This time it’s Scrabb.ly. It’s a massively multi-player crossword game where you can lose lives by swapping tiles and build words until you become the king. Okay, so you won’t really become king. You will have bragging rights when you win, though!

Build onto any board tile to begin and continue building words from your own tiles. Each time you swap a tile you lose a life. The game ends once you run out of lives. Rack up as many points as you can, and don’t tell Hasbro about what you’re doing. (Yes, that’s actually in the game’s posted rules!)

I played this game for several hours with members of my community the other night. It’s addictive and educational, so why haven’t you tried it yet?

Are You A Word Game Fanatic?

Scrabble was first introduced back in 1938. I am appalled by the recent announcement that the game will be changing the rules when the newest edition is released this summer. You cannot have a game for 72 years and suddenly decide to change the basic rules of play. That’s just not right, people! The game will end much faster since there are now more words you can use. It will also (in my eyes, at least) make the game too easy to play. What happened to the challenge?

I’m referring, of course, to the fact that Scrabble will now allow players to use proper nouns when coming up with their winning words. The names of people, places, companies and brands will now count. Mattel is hoping to attract younger players with this move, citing the fact that the younger generation tends to have a smaller vocabulary than adults do.

A spokeswoman for the company said the use of proper nouns would “add a new dimension” to Scrabble and “introduce an element of popular culture into the game”. The company believe that all of the new twists and turns included in this release will keep existing players happy while attracting new (and younger?!) ones to the brand.

I will let the jury stay out on this one until I play it for myself. I’m happy to see that Mattel still plans to sell a version of the game that will adhere to the old rules. Grab your dictionaries… that’s the way we roll with Scrabble in my house.

Scrabble Rules Change Will Allow Proper Nouns

Just a few short years ago, the word Geek still had negative connotations attached to it. Companies didn’t really make products designed specifically for those of us who proudly label ourselves as Geeks. Today, though, all of that has changed. It seems that nearly every company now sells products aimed at our Geeky side. You can find everything from shower accessories to jewelry – and everything in between! There are several websites dedicated to selling nothing but Geek items. If you know where to look, you can even find some amazing Geek furnishings for your home!!

Scrabble Furniture

Periodic Table

Nintendo Chair

Captain Kirk Chair

Geek Shower

Geek Door Lock

CD Chair

Book Chair

Pac-Man Shelves

Pac-Man Coffee Table

LEGO Couch

Number Keys Seat

Rubik’s Cube Tables

Calculator Chairs

Pirillows!

These are just a few of the things that I’ve come across on my travels across the web. What Geeky furniture have you seen, that I may have missed?

Some of the furniture pictures were also featured in a blog post on Geek.Ology.

Top Furniture for Geeks

This is 3amjosh’s submission for the HP Magic Giveaway. Feel free to leave comments for this article as you see fit – your feedback is certainly welcomed! If you’d like to submit your own how-to, what-is, or top-five list, you can send it to me. Views and opinions of this writer are not necessarily my own:
on geeks.pirillo and this is my entry for the HP Touchsmart Competition. It’s a How To on the “CheckWord” app for iPhone/iPod touch.

Do you play Scrabble with friends? Do you often find yourself arguing the validity of a word they are claiming is legit? Do you usually forget your handy dandy Webster’s Dictionary? If you’re like me, you have lost your pride many times when a word you believe is legit gets busted when your friends consult a dictionary to prove you wrong. Which takes away precious time for you to create megawords and rack up some points on scrabble. Well, the app store has brought us many applications but one of my favorites and most used is CheckWord.

Checkword pulls from two different lists of words. TWL is the 2006 tournament word list used in North America and other countries: Thailand and Israel. The list contains 178,691 words from AA to ZZZ. SOWPODS is the 2006 international word list used in English speaking countries that don’t use TWL. It contains 267,751 words. So for must of you, you will be using the TWL unless you want to trick your friends and get away with words that don’t really count. It does not contain proper nouns so your friends can’t get away with using Jeff or Canada.

With the features to tell you if words are good or not at the flick of a few thumb taps on your iPhone or iPod touch, this app is worth its weight in Gold. There is more to it than just a simple word search to prove your friends wrong.

Do you get stumped often with the letters on your stand and just have nowhere to go? Are you the type of person who enjoys cheating? Are you alright with deceiving your friends saying your checking words to see if they work? CheckWord has another great feature for you!

MakeWords will make you a Scrabble genius! Just click the little tab at the top of CheckWord that says MakeWord, and you will see a nice screen that lets you enter in random letters that you have to generate words from that list. Not only does it rank the words from amount of letters that can be used, it will even find words in patterns that are already laid out on the Scrabble board! Let me give you an example.

Your letters are ASETUI. Here are the results of the 61 words found:

• 3 Words with 5 letters: ETUIS, SAUTE, SUITE
• 19 Words with 4 letters: AITS, ATES, EAST, EATS, etc.
• 26 Words with 3 letters: AIS, AIT, ATE, EAT, etc.
• 13 Words with 2 letters: AE, AI, AS, AT, etc.

It even covers wildcards. If you have a wildcard, just substitute one of your seven letters with “.” and it will factor that in for some killer 5, 6, 7 or 8 word combos!

So, if you are into Scrabble this is a must have app! Take it to the next Scrabble party and either be honest and challenge your friends to play against the iPhone, or secretly sit and throw out some words that your friends will question the validity of and you can quickly show them with CheckWord that it is Legit! Have fun!

Do You Play Word Games Like Scrabble?

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If you’re a fan of words like I am, or even word games, you probably love playing Scrabble. Thanks to the App Store, you can play Scrabble on your iPhone now, as well! This is an excellent way to ward off boredom while sitting on the bus headed home from work.

It’s pretty simple. If you’ve ever played Scrabble before, you’ll be able to pick this up immediately. If you don’t see a word jump out at you from your tiles, just shake the iPhone a bit. It will rearrange your letters for you. Once you place your tiles on the board, you can choose to rearrange them or place them. You can also ask it to help you by choosing the best word. When playing the computer, it will take turns with you. The features include:

• Give your iPhone and iPod Touch a shake to shuffle tiles. Use your touch screen to zoom in and out, drag and drop tiles.
• Intuitive, simple touch controls that simulate real-life game pieces.
• Challenge friends and family with Pass n’ Play Game Mode for 2-4 players.
• Play the way you want with customizable game rules and multiple difficulty levels.
• Get a break with the “Best Word” hint system.
• Follow your progress with Game and Score Stats Tracking.

Game play is easy and fun. It’s definitely everything you’d want in an electronic Scrabble game, and well worth the $10.00 it will cost you from the App Store.

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Are You a Scrabble Fan?