Aspyr Media and Kaplan decided to turn studying for the S.A.T fun and interesting. Instead of sitting in front of a stack of study aids, high school students can get futureU for the iPhone or the iPad and study when ever they have a spare moment.

Nobody really enjoys studying and studying for such an important test is even less fun and more stressful. FutureU combines studying through a video game. Students will not even know they are studying because they will be too engaged in the game. FutureU is a game, but it doubles as S.A.T prep material. Everybody learns in different ways, so if you dread studying from books and would like a more interactive approach, check out futureU.

FutureU will be available on Oct 21 in the Apple App Store.

G5 Entertainment announced they will be bringing the Treasure Seekers franchise to the iPhone and the iPad. The series was originally developed for the PC, but has been adapted to bring iPhone and iPad owners the joy of hidden object/puzzle games. G5 plans to bring three games to the Apple devices.

The first game will be Treasure Seekers: Visions of Gold. The game has already been submitted to Apple and should be available on Oct. 28th. The game takes players on an adventure for a hidden treasure. The main characters are Nelly and her brother Tommy. Nelly’s grandmother was a pirate and she wants to find the hidden treasure that she is convinced exists. Nelly awakes one morning to find she has been left alone with her brother and the door has been locked shut. She is not sure if it was an accident or not, but she needs figure out how to get out of the room. Getting out of the room is the first puzzle to be solved in a game full of hidden objects and puzzles.

If you are a hidden object game fan, check out Treasure Seekers: Visions of Gold on Oct 28th when it is available for the iPad and iPhone.

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Namco has announced the release of their first Facebook game, Hamster Pirates. The game challenges players to build the ultimate ocean regime. Players have to construct their boats and buildings from scratch.

The player has to build certain buildings to be able to construct other items. The Craftsman allows players to build other buildings on their island. If there is no Craftsman there are no buildings. The Craftsman can not be constructed in the water, so the player has to find a place that is not in the water to build their Craftsman. After the Craftsman is built, players can move onto other buildings, such as Lumber Mills. Lumber Mills give players a constant supply of wood for other buildings. Players can only build one building at a time. Players will have to determine the best buildings to build at a given time.

If you like simulation games on Facebook, check out Hamster Pirates.

BIT. TRIP Beat is a pong type game for the iPhone/iPad. The game challenges players to hit an object with a paddle as the object is streaming towards them. As the beat hits the paddle, music is created. The more balls the player can stop from getting by the more points they will earn.

The beat that is flying towards the player represents the beats of the music. Each beat that is deflected will create a song. The player tilts the iPhone/iPad to align the paddle with the beat to deflect the beat and create a song. The paddle easily moves, so the device does not need to be tilted that much. It is easy to tilt the device too much and have the paddle go all the way to the top or bottom of the screen, which causes the player to miss the beat. It took a bit of play time to get use to the control mechanism.

If enough beats are not deflected, the player is in danger of losing. The screen will go gray and the player needs to start deflecting more beats or they will lose the game. If the player manages to deflect the next beats, the screen will return to normal and the game will continue.

The graphics in the game are basic, but the game is about building music. The beat is represented by a square on the screen and as the game gets more difficult, there are more and more squares on the screen.

Over all, the game is entertaining, but challenging. The controls are sensitive and it can be hard to get the paddle to deflect the beat. BIT.TRIP Beat is unique and combines pong and music simulation games into one. It may sound like a strange idea for a game, but it works. If you are into arcade style games, check out BIT.TRIP Beat in the Apple App store.

Microsoft angered developer Rovio by including an icon for Angry Birds in their promotion for Windows 7 Mobile during a conference.

This resulted in an angry tweet from Rovio when some asked the developer about a Win7 version:

We have NOT committed to doing a Windows Phone 7 version. Microsoft put the Angry Birds icon on their site without our permission.

This doesn’t rule out the possibility of Angry Birds on the mobile platform – in another tweet from Rovio, they stated:

[It has] nothing to do with if we do or don’t [release the game on Windows Phone 7], it’s just that we decide that ourselves.

Microsoft apologized at TechFlash:

It appears information was mistakenly posted to Microsoft’s website, and has been removed.

The situation is likely that Microsoft and Rovio are negotiating a contract to bring Angry Birds to Windows 7 Mobile, but someone at Microsoft, probably in marketing, prematurely included the game in the presentation before an agreement had been reached between the two companies.

Would Angry Birds make you more likely to pick up a Windows 7 Mobile? Let us know.