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Before Tweetie 2, there was, of course, the first version of Tweetie. Even in its first implementation, Tweetie was already my weapon of choice in meeting my all-important Twitter needs. Its ease of use was remarkable and its visual scheme was nothing short of brilliant. So, when the developers behind Tweetie announced that they would be releasing a major update to my favorite Twitter client, I held my breath in hot anticipation. And when the day came, it turned out that the update worked out to an overhau...Read More

The price of Fingerzilla has been briefly reduced to zero and has shot to the top of the App Store most-downloaded list for free apps as a result.  Who wouldn't want destroy a city with their finger?  It's like taking Pocket God to the next level. The game play is ridiculously simple.  You tap your finger on the screen to destroy anything and everything.  The more you destroy, the more points you earn.  The violence is very cartoonish and even the trees seem to spontaneously...Read More

I like it when an iPhone app developer takes an idea for a game that is rather simple but then goes on to execute it in such a manner as though to tell of the developer's dedication to his or her craft, that however simple the game is in his or her mind, the developer is sure to find ways to make the idea novel. And one way of making this possible is with the visual design, as exemplified by a pick-up-and-play game called Nanodrops. Nanodrops is a game about, well, nanodrops, which are little drops of an...Read More

There are many reasons a developer would lower the cost of a game to zero.   One might be to advertise something.  One might be to promote an ideal, such as environmentalism.  Eco Punk does the latter using guns and bombs on cars. The central character is an eco-terrorist bunny-like creature on a skateboard.  His mission is to pick up all the trash and garbage at an intersection while riding a skateboard and not get hit by any cars.  Over time, the bunny gets offensive capabiliti...Read More

Once the iPad is released and the hype dies down, we'll likely get the next generation of iPhone in June or July to keep us excited.  In the interest of my own amusement, here are some ideas / predictions regarding the iPad and the activities surrounding it until the next version is released (our guess? within the first 12 months of the inital release).

1.  It will be jail broken within the first 3 days of its release.  There are some really good hackers out there, and I wouldn't be surprised if, in the short term, iPads would be available to work on T-Mobile too.  In the slightly longer term, apps that only work in jail broken iPhones, will also work on the iPad.

2.  It will become the must-have device for people in education and the arts, along with legal, medical, and just about every other industry that has mobile professionals.  I know, obvious right?  But I'm beting this happens in the first 12 months of its release.  Would you want to carry around textbooks with that musty smell?  Or all of your meeting notes and research on a heavy laptop instead of a sub $500 elegant device that gets unlimited Internet access for $30 / month?

3.  It will only slow down the inevitable destruction of the publishing industry rather than save it.  Despite the success of music sales within iTunes for the iPod, the industry still sells in terms of dollars only a fraction of what it used to.  With so much free content available online, I don't see how anybody trying to sell a form of text for money will actually survive.

4.  The next iteration of the iPad will have a front-facing camera.  The second generation needs a catch to pull in those that purchased the first generation.  That will likely be it.  Of course, that isn't going to stop us from getting our 1st gen iPads when they are released!

What do you think is going to happen?  Think it will be a game changer?

Leave it to MTV and VH1 to provide us folks that lived through the 80's with one of the most memorable trivia games ever produced for the App Store.  There are a myriad of 80's facts or trivia games out there, but I doubt many use the MTV pop-ups and dialogue that are so familiar to those that grew up in the decade. Yes, there are ads, but you can't beat the initial price.  Yes, you only get one round of questions that are the same no matter how many times you play.  Additional q...Read More

Apple announces that the iPad will be available in the US on April 3rd and that pre-ordering online and in-store will begin on March 12th.  In addition, 3G versions of the iPad will be available in late April, but either one will be able to be ordered on March 12th.

International availability for Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain, Switzerland, and the UK will also happen in late April.

The iBook store will be ready for the April 3rd launch.

Seems like some of the rumors that said the iPad might not make it until April were correct.

Read Apples Official Press Release.

Apps like Office2 prove that Microsoft really has to get on the ball in terms of providing their Microsoft Office suite for the iPhone and iPod touch.  There are already several third-party application that provide edit functionality for DOC and XLS files and I've seen least two of them make the top 50 sales.  Office2 hasn't made it there yet, but it should. It is difficult to edit Word documents on the iPod touch due to the small screen and awkward touch-keyboard.  This app makes it simpl...Read More

The game is played from a birds-eye view of your assassin.  The idea is to collect contracts and kill people while elluding the authorities.  Touching certain corners of your screen moves the character around.  Your assigned other players online, and then pick up targets to determine which player you need to kill.  Then you wander around town until you find those players and simply tap them to assassinate. Surprisingly, it requires quick a large amount of skill needed to walk...Read More

There is a certain level of quality one would expect from anything that has Martha Stewart's brand name on it.  The question one would immediate ask is: is a recipe magazine for the iPhone and iPod touch worth the $.99 investment and space on your iPhone?  By my reckoning, the answer is no.  Particularly when you consider that the Epicurious app is offered for free in the App Store and it offers more recipes. To begin, the application should not require a data or WiFi connection to get con...Read More

I am a big fan of the Rayman series.  The last time I played Rayman 2, I made it all the way to the end of the game in 32 hours, so you can imagine my excitement when I heard this was coming to the iPhone. Rayman 2 for the iPhone is a very good port, and is similar to the original in many ways, Rayman even does his 'I'm bored waiting for you to move' sequence if you leave him alone for too long. The gameplay is smooth and the animations are crisp and clean.  The colors are vivid, bright and e...Read More

Once I had this great idea of creating a computer program that would put customizable word balloons on photographs for enjoyment.  Sadly, I'm slow on the uptake as well as lazy and several apps of this concept have already been developed for the iPhone.  Manga Balloon Maker is one of them. The app is pretty simple and easy to use.  You select a balloon from an array of types (including an actual balloon.  How cute).  While the title emphasizes manga, the balloons could be fr...Read More

Philip James Bailey once said that "Simplicity is nature's first step, and the last of art."  I have no idea what that means, but it does sound like it sums up the greatness that is "Canabalt," assuming that the saying means that the best art is created by the simplest means. Give me a break. I'm not a literature professor. I review iPhone apps for a living. The most knowledge I'm required to have over the English language is if I can find the "q" key on the keyb...Read More

Granted, What's On iPhone has already reviewed the free version of this game.  However, once the price of the paid version dropped to a staggeringly low $.99 (down from $4.99 to $2.99 to $1.99), we figured "what the Hell" and double-dipped the review. The first thing I noticed about the full version of this game is that there wasn't the cute intro with Brian and Stewie noting that the people downloading the free version were cheap-o's.  What a shame.  Fortunately, there are...Read More

With all the publicity about how the iPad is going to revolutionize various industries, everybody seems to forget about the industry that is currently practically supporting the iPod Touch (the current mini-version of the iPad minus the iWork and 3G capabilities): the gaming industry.  A hefty chunk of the top-selling apps in the App Store are games.

Could the iPad also be a competitor to portable gaming systems like the PSP or the Nintendo DS?  It does have a bigger screen with a better resolution, but it's larger size is a bit of a hindrance when it comes to carrying the thing around.  I don't see kids taking their iPads out of their backpack to play another round of Warcraft.

On the other hand, if lots of games changed their interfaces to make use of the larger screen (ie. head to head, board games, etc), then the iPad might bring something special to gaming, the ability for people to 'share' the gaming experience while in the same room.  I think a lot of that has been lost since most video games currently are really solo acts.  The iPad's larger screen definitely makes sharing the experience much more likely.

With some tweaking, all the current games in the App Store can run on the iPad.  But does having a larger form factor make the game any better than its smaller cousin the iTouch / iPhone?  I don't think so.  Do you?

And then there is the price.  For $200 (iTouch, PSP, DS) you might be able to afford having a gaming system in your pocket.  For $500?  That price is a little high if you plan on using the iPad for just games.

I think the iPad will finally let the non-game apps take their place in the top spots.  I imagine that most people buying the iPad will do so for the other genres of apps outside of games.  Productivity, Educational, Medical, eBooks, and all those other non-gaming categories will most likely be the biggest hits for iPad users.

Perhaps now, a few more non-games will make the top 100 list.  What do you think?

I'm a self-styled trivia fiend. I love knowing about the little, interesting things on a wide variety of topics and I feed on bits and bytes of information, however useless they may be, from a long list of sources. I'm also crazy about words. It gives me great pleasure to learn new words, their meanings, their etymologies, their uses. It's no wonder then that I love games that combine these two inclinations of mine. Add another staple in my list of favorite things--the iPhone--and you have a winning recipe...Read More

One of the big announcements we've heard is the first look at Windows Phone 7. It is supposedly the next major "iPhone killer" (what with Google and Palm pretty much backing away from the title).  

Of all the companies that have released a smartphone, Microsoft holds the best chance of reaching anything close to the sales of the iPhone. Keep in mind that while AT&T is a "premier partner" (whatever that means) for Window 7 phones, it is not the exclusive carrier of their smartphone. That status will however likely provide AT&T with some sort of specialized software or maybe a special mobile plan?

However, to compete with the iPhone, Microsoft should not target the iPhone.  Instead, the company should target the Blackberry.

For years, the business appeal of Blackberry was its ability to interface with various types of mail servers (including Microsoft Exchange) and deliver e-mails in a reliable and simply way to the user. If Microsoft developed a special type of Microsoft Outlook for Mobile (along with Word, Excel and Powerpoint) and market those toward businesses, it could be  a player in the business market.  After all, Microsoft concentrates on the business market with their desktops, doesn't it only make sense they would do the same thing with their portable OS? 

The iPhone has too much of a buzz appeal for Microsoft to tackle the consumer market. Also, Microsoft seems a shadow of its former self without a figure like Bill Gates in the picture. Apple remains dominant by having a powerful central voice in Steve Jobs.

There is the question of the sheer number of apps available on iTunes. By having an open system with more applications available, Microsoft won the operating system wars. If Microsoft wants to win this one, it should release a toned-down, free version of Visual Studio for mobile developers as well as a central marketplace to overcome Apple's advantage in that department.

By targeting businesses, Microsoft could build a base with which to compete with the iPhone. If it goes directly against the iPhone, then Microsoft will be lying alongside Google and Palm as just another second tier mobile solution.

Are you righteously pissed about the billion dollar bailouts? Do you wish you could do something about it without actually being charged with a felony? Do you really like Fox News?  Then pick up a copy of Gamelot's latest satirical side-scrolling tower defense of madness that is "Bailout Wars," a creative, manic little number ripped straight from the headlines. You play an anonymous civil defenseman trying to protect the nation's ever-dwindling financial resources from an oncom...Read More