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If you happen to enjoy card games, especially online games against real opponents, then you’ll probably love this one.  Poker legend Doyle Brunson refers to this game as “the Cadillac of poker.”

Made by Vaiden Gaming, Texas Hold’em Poker is both beautiful to look at and very fun and easy to play.  I don’t mean it’s “easy mode” poker, I mean the interface is easy to understand.  You can play against the game if you’re not connected or (I recommend) play against other live players from anywhere an iOS device is connected to the Internet.

You don’t play for real money, of course, but you can purchase VIP chips to give you game bonuses in the game’s freemium model.

Before you sit at the table, you can hang out in the lobby where other players who’re online congregate.  This gives you a chance to talk, find fellow players you’d like to friend and get in-game with, etc.  It can also be linked to your Facebook profile so you can not only invite friends from there for friendly matches, but you can also send brags about game events to your profile.

After all, what good is playing well if you can’t brag about it?

Although the game sometimes slows down if your connection is not good or a lot of people are connected – I noticed it was slower to draw cards when at a table full of online players during peak hours.  Otherwise, it’s great.  Some have complained that it crashes once in a while, but I haven’t seen that myself.

Canonical, the company that markets the open source Linux distribution of Ubuntu, will be porting Ubuntu to smart phones, tablets, and more.  The company is expected to make an official announcement at the Ubuntu Developer Summit in Orlando, Florida.

The move is not entirely unexpected, since the entire impetus behind Ubuntu has been to create “Linux for humans” rather than for machines – something that Canonical’s founder, Mark Shuttleworth, has in common with Steve Jobs, whose focus was on user experience rather than machine code perfection.

So can this work?  Would Ubuntu work on smaller machines?

As it is currently, probably not.  But Apple’s OSX wouldn’t work on mobiles either, so Apple made iOS.  The biggest difference between the companies being size and the fact that Canonical doesn’t seem to have plans to build and market their own device, only something that will run on devices.

Some of the current design trends in Canonical’s proprietary Ubuntu desktop interface, Unity, are actually there in order to facilitate a smooth transition for users when moving from a Unity-enabled computer to a Unity-running smart phone or tablet.  This is intended to create a uniform user experience – something few Linux users are interested in, by most accounts, but which everyday (read: non-technical) users can appreciate.

So when can you expect to see Ubuntu Unity on a smart phone?  Probably not anytime soon – in fact, likely right around the time you see Windows 8 and Microsoft’s planned Metro interface; around 2014.

With Google acquiring Motorola Mobility and Microsoft fast moving to (maybe this time) embrace mobile, it could be a very shaken market by the time Canonical gets their foot in the ring.

Facebook has heard the complaints and appears to be moving towards appeasing those users who are worried about the privacy and security concerns of the world’s most popular social networking site.  Two recent updates were rolled out to assuage some of these concerns.

App Passwords – probably the most comprehensive of the two, this one is the quiet change that everyone is underestimating.  First, it allows you to set unique passwords for one or all of your Facebook apps, keeping them separate from your Facebook account.

This does a couple of things to your account, security-wise.  First, it allows you to keep apps separate from your social network, which means that someone who gains access to one of your apps nefariously will not be able to get into your actual FB account.

Second, and maybe more important, it allows you to shut down an app without hoping that their unsubscribe button works.  All you have to do is close out the password’s access to your account and the app no longer has access.

The part that gets missed?  This also gives you a back door into your Facebook account should you forget your password.  You can access on public systems or open networks using this alternate password.  This means that if you’re signing up for something that requires you to “log in” using your Facebook account, you can do it with an alternate password instead of your main one, which keeps your account secure.

Trusted Friends – is another addition that allows you another good way to regain access to your Facebook account should it be hacked, your password gets lost, etc.  It allows you to designate friends you trust with your account.  Then, if you can’t gain access, you can opt to have it send password change codes to your Trusted Friends.  They can then forward them to you or use them on your behalf to change your password.

Both of these are a good step forward.  They don’t quite cover everything, of course, but they show that Facebook is at least concerned about user perception.

Netflix, based in Los Gatos, California, is launching service in the United Kingdom and Ireland in early 2012.  The service will, as in the United States and Canada, offer unlimited streaming TV shows and movies, but will not be offering its DVD by mail service in the new territory.

When the service launches, instant viewing will immediately become available to subscribers in the UK region and devices to capture Netflix streams, such as set-top boxes and the like, will be available to consumers starting this Holiday season.

Netflix is currently available in the U.S., Canada, and 43 countries in Latin America.  This will be its first foray across the Atlantic.  Netflix is currently allowing UK and Irish customers to sign up for a membership list that will alert them when membership subscriptions become available to them.

Despite some heavy losses and negative PR in recent times, Netflix seems determined to bounce back before new competition from rivals appears in force.  This expansion is obviously meant to grow market share further before rivals even really begin taking share in the U.S.

This has become one of my favorite apps and I’m not really much of a musician.  It’s fun to play with, allows you to do some really cool mixes, and is simple to learn and understand.

DM1 is an advanced drum machine based on the older vintage style in-studio machines that many musicians are familiar with.  It turns your iPad into one of those machines and allows you to utilize different parts of the mixing board to create beats and changes quickly.

It’s got 29 electronic drum kits built-in and graphics that mimic the original machine, so it’s easier to learn.

Although this may not be stuio-ready, for the home recording artist and someone who needs good beats and sounds for practice or other use (or just to play with, for that matter), this is great.  It’s easy to edit and pull together sequences with a drag-and-drop finger-based interface.

Another limitation is that the app can’t import or export samples.  While for most hobbyists, this probably isn’t much of a limit, for a pro or semi-pro, it will be.  Still, it’s not meant for that market.

Overall, DM1 is a lot of fun and very well made.  Whether you play another instrument and need a backdrop or are just interested in playing with mixes and creating mixmaster fun, this Fingerlab app is for you.

Tons of fun, well worth the $5.99, and runs smoothly while being easy to learn.  A great app.

I’m an avid Apple products user and have been for years.  Steve Jobs is one of my personal heroes.  I’m not an engineer or even really all that technically minded when it comes to invention or electronics.  Break open my iPad and I can’t tell you what circuit does what or which wire powers which.

On the other hand, it turns out Jobs wasn’t like that either.  He was a visionary, a maverick, and someone who understood the importance of design and the user experience.  Jobs changed the world by insisting that electronic gadgets not only function well, but look good and be easy to use too.

While many are mourning his departure and talking about his vision and what he brought to the world, I remember Jobs as the guy who stood on stage with big, bold graphics behind him, and said “This is what we’re doing.  You don’t have to admit that you like it, but I know that, deep down, you do.”

It wasn’t arrogance that powered this attitude he projected.  It was truth.  He knew how great the stuff he was overseeing and designing was.  He knew the rest of the world would see that too.  His genius wasn’t in the boardroom or the laboratory.  It was in the understanding that if he, Steve Jobs, personally thought a product was great.. so would enough other people that it would become a best seller.

This wasn’t anything special that Jobs possessed.  His genius was in understanding that core idea and running with it.  Something most other CEOs would never dream of.  By embracing the idea that gadgets and computers were to be made for PEOPLE to use, not robots or automatons who spend the day calculating spreadsheets and compiling data, Jobs created markets for his products instead of trying to compete.

Steve Jobs thought about people when he designed products and because of that, he changed the world in a big way.  That’s why he’s my hero.