iPhone Article Zone

Tiki Totems

Tiki Totems is a simplistic touch game that features an idol set atop a mountain of complex blocks. Each stone has a unique shape and color that defines how the stone will react when touched. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to remove stones one by one, until only the idol and a few blocks remain. Each level has a unique set of requirements to complete the level, including number of blocks required to remove, and the number of blocks that can remain at the end of the puzzle. Touch a gray block, it disappears. Two purple blocks touch each other, they disappear. You get the idea.

Should you fail your test of the gods, hellfire and brimstone come spewing out of the volcano, signifying the wrath of the gods, whenever your idol hits the ground level of the screen. The game is played with the iDevice in the vertical upright position, complimenting the gravity physics quite well.

There are 5 “packs” of tiki fun, each pack offering 16 unique levels of stone destroying goodness. If your puzzler thirst isn’t quite quenched by the initial game’s offerings, a $0.99 expansion provides two additional packs, featuring an all new “exploding” block. What could be better then tiki gods and exploding blocks?

The simplistic nature of Tiki Totems lends itself well to gaming on the go. Unlike many of the wide screen games, little has to be done to start the app up and give it a go. The levels are quick and relatively painless, which at some points make the game seem too easy. This is balanced well with a few specific levels that will keep you stumped attempt after attempt.

If I had one complaint at all it would be the lack of finesse that the tiki idol can fall with, and the player still achieve a level complete. It has the potential of making the game seem unpolished. This is really how many of the physics based games operate however, and this multiple paths to victory occurrence is as much a triumph of the game, as it may be a perceived weakness.

Support for the game is fairly consistent, with several updates being released to fix various bugs. OpenFeint support allows the player to compete with their friends through both Facebook and Twitter accounts. Let’s face it, everyone loves trophies, and there are plenty to be had in this game.

As far as puzzlers go, Tiki Totems is a great way to waste sometime in the check-out line, in the passenger seat of a vehicle, or while relaxing during a lunch break. The graphics are of superior quality, and the game play is straight forward. If you act fast, you can try out Tiki Totems free of charge for a limited time.

OpenTable

Location based “find the best food” apps are a dime a dozen these days. There are a few that I use on what seems to be a daily basis, but OpenTable really stands out in the crowd when it comes to fine dining. What makes OpenTable compelling isn’t the fact that it has the largest index of restaurants or the most professional reviews, it’s that once you find the restaurant that you want to eat at, you can make a reservation with the app free of charge.

Admittedly, the service is someone limited in comparison to something like Yelp that has every restaurant under the sun. OpenTable just includes restaurants that partner with the website, which is surprisingly a huge number of places all around the world. In the Phoenix/Scottsdale area alone (my part of the world), there are a ton of fine dining experiences waiting to be had on OpenTable.

Much like Yelp, OpenTable begins your journey by finding your location and then asking for some guidance to narrow your search. Once you’ve selected how many places you want to see, and what day you want to go, you hit “Find a Table” and all the places in your area pop up with available seats that you can reserve. From there you can narrow down your search by how much you want to spend and the desired cuisine in case you are picky that night. Within each restaurants page, there are Yelp-like user reviews, a nice description/opinion piece written by an obvious professional writer, location information, and of course the times that you can reserve. Reserving the table is as easy as clicking a time, and then hitting confirm. The app uses your login information that you provide on their website to send to the restaurant.

I tested this out the other night at a new Mexican place down the road and it worked out great. We just walked up, told them our name, and we were seated right away. We reserved a time pretty early in the evening, before a reservation was really necessary, but we did it for a reason, and it wasn’t just for review purposes. Every time you use OpenTable to make a reservation, you earn OpenTable points, which eventually turn into free money to spend at OpenTable restaurants. While I certainly don’t eat at nice places every night, there were enough two dollar sign places in the app that I’ll probably earn some of that free money before I know it. I’ll admittedly feel a bit off going to half full places with a reservation, but for free food I’ll do anything.

Open Table is the epitome of a must have iPhone app. It won’t take over your need for an app like Yelp, but if you are looking for nice food, there is almost certainly a place or 50 for you on OpenTable, and if you eat out enough you’ll start getting free food money with no strings attached. The app is convenient, has perks to use it, and is honestly a great way to find some good food in town… and it’s free!

Rehearsal – The App For Learning Your Lines

Are you in performing arts? All those scripts for all those different individual scenes can get messy and hard to keep organized, right? Today, we got a tip off from from one such developer Rip Tide Games, who over the last few months have been working with a bunch of big Hollywood names, including Heroes actor and long-standing techie David H Lawrence XVII, on developing an application to solve the problem of managing and rehearsing scripts for theatrical and film production.

Released yesterday, Rehearsal allows users to import industry standard script files, in both Microsoft Word and .PDF formats, and then treat them just as they would on their PC or Mac. Once you have a script open you can manipulate it, highlight it and completely block out lines which aren’t in your current part. As well as this, the app offers options to add comments, photos and audio clips to your script, meaning you can get your scene just right. Once you think you’ve got the hang of it, the app allows you to record the part, and allow you to play it back to yourself, while the script scrolls automatically for you.

The app is free upfront with your first three scripts coming free in order for you to get a feel of how the app works. After this, the app then offers three subscription-based options. We’re told that individual scripts purchased within the app will normally be priced at $1.99, alongside a monthly subscription of $19.99. If you’d like to opt for the annual subscription this will set you back $199.99.

Watch the video below to see Rehearsal in action:

While the market for this app may seem niche, Rehearsal once again clearly proves that these devices are finding ever-more specialised uses in the professional sectors. To celebrate the launch of Rehearsal though, they’ve discounted all prices by 50%. So, scripts are just $0.99 each, and monthly and annual subscriptions are $9.99 and $99.99 respectively. An app worth a look? Definitely!

Rehearsal

Category: Productivity
Released: 2010-02-25
Price: FREE

Ultimate Hangman

I’ll admit it: the first reason I downloaded Ultimate Hangman was because it was free. I wasn’t expecting much more than a few minutes’ entertainment, never mind quality, and initially, the game didn’t disappoint. It was free, mildly fun, and simple…but still rough around the edges. In the past few weeks, however, Ultimate Hangman has evolved into a robust recreation of the classic word game and an easy recommendation for any hangman fan. Now if only it saved my high scores…

The game itself is the classic we’ve all played before: you try to guess a secret word based only on its length without guessing wrong so many times that the doodle-figure dies. To make things more interesting, there are 25 word groups to chose from, ranging from mundane categories like “verbs” and “adjectives” to specialized topics such as “Kings & Pirates,” “Sports,” and five sets of SAT words. (There’s also a “random” category if you just want to play.) The variety of words is actually pretty good, and the myriad categories provide something for everyone. For example, “Vocabulary Words 5″ sometimes presented words that I’d seldom heard before, while “Vocabulary Words 1″ is suitable for the very young.

But back to the core functionality of the app. Recent updates have brought us auto-save, a confirmation screen that prevents you from accidentally ending the game, and (best of all!) a two-player mode. Playing against the game’s built-in library might be fun, but the ability to play against a friend is what really makes a hangman game. The system works perfectly, allowing you to type your own word before handing it to the other player. It doesn’t spellcheck you, so while you risk a misspelling, at least you’re not limited by the app’s dictionary.

There are three graphical “themes” for you to chose from: Doodle Hangman, Christmas Snowman, and Flower Power. Let’s just say that you should stick with Doodle Hangman—the animated doodle-guy slowly appears on the gallows, spluttering and muttering silently as you bring him closer to his doom. The other themes aren’t nearly as entertaining, and the graphics feel cheaper. As for audio, you’re (thankfully) given the option of turning off music and sound effects separately. You might want to mute both, because I wasn’t impressed with either. But then again, we aren’t playing Hangman for the shiny wrapping paper, are we?

Many bugs have been fixed since Ultimate Hangman’s release, and I’ve yet to encounter a problem with the current version. However, there is one huge, obviously excluded feature: high scores. The game is practically begging for some form of online or local leaderboards; it scores you for each game, but doesn’t keep track! Beating your best win streak is always thrilling; why can’t I do that here?

Let’s not look a gift horse in the mouth, though. While it’s true that Ultimate Hangman isn’t a revolutionary or “deep” experience, it’s a solid reincarnation of the ancient word game and I can recommend it without hesitation. It’s almost a shame that apps like this are free. If you’re a hangman fan, be sure to grab it!

Touch Mouse

When I think of what really makes the iPhone an exciting device, I think of ways that the iPhone can take over other devices. To me, with so many developers working on so many apps, there is really no reason that my iPhone shouldn’t be able to perform any task I can imagine.

Touch Mouse, by Logitech isn’t exactly the most original app, but it does what it sets out to do quite well. The app acts as a mobile input device, effectively letting you control your entire computer with your iDevice. I’ve seen a few complaints on iTunes about incompatibility, but the app worked flawlessly with my MacBook Pro running the latest version of Snow Leopard.

What sets apps apart in the input device app category is the ease of the setup, ease of use, and its ability to stay connected without too much lag. The setup, possibly what is the most important thing to me with such an app, is about as simple as it gets. All you have to do is download the iTouch Server file on the Logitech website, make sure your computer and your iDevice are on the same wireless network, and then wallah! It’s really about as simple and seamless as it gets.

Using the app is about as simple as the setup process. Basically, the screen turns into a large touch screen that works in either vertical or landscape mode. At the top of the screen you get a left, center, and right mouse click, and the pad works with multitouch up to two buttons. It unfortunately doesn’t do expose due to the lack of four finger support, but in my opinion Apple ruined expose anyway with the Snow Leopard update. The app also has a pop up keyboard which works quite well. The keyboard is just like the iPhone text message keyboard, so if you are comfortable with it, then you will be fine.

If I were to pick on anything here, it would be the occasional lag that I get while using it. I will say that the lag in no way prohibitive of use, but it’s not flawless. My WiFi connection is quite solid with 20 down and around 2 up, but there is a small lag occasionally when moving the mouse around. I don’t want to make a big deal about this, because the lag is very small… so don’t let this stop you from using TouchMouse.

Overall, I’d say that Logitech’s Touch Mouse makes for quite a good touch interface on your favorite iDevice. I know that there are many other apps that do the same thing, but this one works very well and has a setup that is about as easy as it gets. If you are on the road and need a portable presentation device or if you have your computer hooked up to your TV and need a convenient wireless setup, this may be your best bet. At the price of free, I’d definitely recommend giving it a shot.

Dropbox

If you aren’t using Dropbox, you might want to look into it. Part back-up service, part multi-computer sync, it’s saved my life more than once. The premise is simple: on each Dropbox-enabled computer, you have a special folder (a “Dropbox”) that’s linked to your online account. When you add, delete, or otherwise modify files within that folder, on any machine, the online service takes note. Then, all of your Dropboxes are updated to reflect the changes. This includes your online one, which is accessed through Dropbox.com—thus giving you access to all of your files, so long as you have an internet connection. You can get a free account with 2 GB of storage, or pay for additional space.

The Dropbox iPhone app is an extension of that service. While you can’t edit text files, you can view them…and the other files supported, which includes everything from PowerPoints to PDFs to pictures. You can see everything in your Dropbox, as well as download files for offline viewing by marking them as a favorite—and then sync those files to match the updated ones in your Dropbox later. You can also upload pictures and videos from your iPhone to your Dropbox. The ease of transferring such files is remarkable; it took about two seconds (literally!) for a screenshot uploaded from my iPod to show up in my laptop’s Dropbox. The syncing is all automatic.

Having Dropbox on your iPhone opens a whole new suite of possibilities, too. Imagine: snap some vacation photos with your iPhone, then upload them to Dropbox and have them waiting on your home PC or share them with your Dropbox-using friend. When working on group projects, you can always have the latest revision. Dropbox for iPhone is sleek, efficient, and incredibly fast; everything simply works.

I do have a few wishes, of course; sometimes, Dropbox is too lightweight. The ability to upload multiple photos at once, create and edit text files, and add a password(s?) would all be much-appreciated functions. Being able to favorite entire folders (or create folders within the Favorites pane) would also be nice, as would pinch-to-zoom on pictures.

But at the end of the day, Dropbox is a free service that provides a ton of functionality, and I’m not going to do much complaining. The iPhone app itself isn’t really anything remarkable, but the core Dropbox features are what give it its value. As I said, if you’re not using Dropbox already…well, maybe today’s the day to start. It’s a great service for synchronizing files and backing them up, and it’s hard to argue with “free.” The Dropbox app is just icing on the cake.

PositionApp™ – Developers and Stat Lovers Rejoice!

Being an app reviewer, I often wonder what kind of impact our reviews, and the advertisements on the site, actually have on app sales. While I won’t claim to be the spark that makes an app sell, I do hope that our positive reviews and articles do indeed help out some of the smaller developers apps. Nothing against Gameloft or EA, but I almost feel a bit of civic duty to showcase an app like geoDefense Swarm every once in awhile.

Almost sensing my wonder of such matters, ustwo™, the development team most famous for trademarking every word they write, along with AdMob, created PositionApp™. PositionApp™ has one purpose and one purpose only… to track the position of apps on global App Store charts. “PositionApp™ offers instant remote access to all chart positions of the top 300 apps, and their movements in all categories and countries. For the very first time, users can access the last six months of historic app store performance through the ustwo™ data set.”

mills, co-founder of ustwo™, comments, “Successful app development is as much about marketing and PR as it is about the concept and creation. As app developers we wanted to understand our sales volume, gauge the penetration of our marketing strategies and easily follow the success of the app once it leaves the nest. We created PositionApp™ because as developers we wanted and more importantly needed this app. As well as giving you access to the top 300 positions of all charts in all countries, PositonApp’s USP is its 6 months of retrospective app positioning data.

“PositionApp™ was created for developers, marketers, journalists and reviewers, but by adding a revolutionary set of app discovery dashboards highlighting the biggest app risers in the top 100 and top 300, the app will be appreciated by just about any app user.”

Pick up PositionApp™ soon, because in two months it’ll cost you. That’s right… PositionApp™ is totally free!

PositionApp™

Category: Utilities
Released: 2010-02-11
Price: FREE

DoubleTake

Its been a while since I’ve played a good pair matching game, both on screen and with those trippy animal cards (you know the ones, right?), so when Sneezies developer Retro Dreamer announced their latest title DoubleTake which was just that, complete with OpenFeint, I couldn’t resist taking a look.

The game plays out in four modes. These include:

Sprint. In this mode the game becomes an out and out rush to see how many points you can earn in the short space of 1 minute. Failing match no pairs within this time means its game over boyo.

Timed – Just as it suggests, this mode gives any any fresh matches the rather awesome ability to increase time .. the trick here? Whatever you do .. keep that finger moving!

Survival – What would I game be without a survival mode? In this mode each fresh match you manage to create actually increases your overall health. All you have to do is, well .. stay alive!

Basic – The games Basic mode is just as it sounds .. taking things back to basics, you simply have to match every square with another square (forming a pair) as fast as you possibly can!

Just like most pair matching games, DoubleTake sees you trying to find and match objects and squares which are identical in their look and feel. Accompanied by a rather cool per-square flipping animation and set on an ever changing boarding on psychedelic backdrop, the game is played out on a 42 square grid. Gradually (and for most of the time frantically) you tap a pair of squares at a time, turning them over. To make a successful match each square must have an identical object in the corresponding colour. Found a match? You’ll have to be quick! A match only counts as one if both tiles are still turned over facing upwards. The game ends when you manage to match all the pairs that are available on the board, successfully. Once you do you’ll hear a rather loud crescendo-type sound, with all the pieces of the board glowing, signaling game end.

When each level ends, the game will show you how well you actually did. Here you’ll be able to see the time in which you completed the level, and whether this counts as a new record or not and how many moves it took you to complete that certain level. You’ll also have the option to see how well those stats compare against others around the world by going online and checking the OpenFeint leader boards If you’re not yet familiar with OpenFeint, OpenFeint is social system by Aurora Feint which allows players to record ho well they are doing compared to others in a number of apps which support the service.

Overall, while I found DoubleTake to be well-designed, I didn’t find anything new or that I hadn’t seen before, that I could really latch onto giving this the high replay value I would’ve expected. That said, for killing a few minutes it’s definitely worth picking up. It’s worth noting that the app does also support ads via AdMob, although these are pretty noninvasive from my personal experience, and hey the app is free, so I can’t complain!

MyTown

Location based social apps are all very 21st century. Trying to explain the point of an app like this to someone like my dad is a pointless endeavor. Even trying to explain the app to myself gives me a nervous tic. The genre was recently made popular by the app Foursquare, which lets you “check in” at different locations with your iPhone. This repetitive endeavor ultimately leads to you being declared the “mayor” of locations that you visit the most, while also letting you earn various badges telling you how awesome you are for going places. Does this perpetuate our generations feeling of needing constant approval for our actions? Sure does… but at least it makes a game out of it. It’s like learning typing with Typing of the Dead instead of at school.

Booyah takes Foursquare’s mayoral ownership out of the picture and just lets you go ahead and buy the places you go to. Like Monopoly, once you buy a property you collect rent on them. The more popular the place that you go to is, the more rent you can earn on it. For example, I was in Vegas this weekend and bought up some of the nicer hotels on the strip. Currently, my MGM Grand can earn $81,900 at a time while my CVS Pharmacy in Scottsdale only earns me $64,260 at a time. Along with popularity, rent total is based on the level of the structure you have standing there. My MGM is only level 3 right now, but with some upgrades it will not only look better, but will also earn me more. Rent accumulates on each property automatically until it gets to the max total ($81,900 for MGM). Once you reach the max, you have to manually go into the game to collect your rent.

In the meantime, just like in Foursquare, you have to check into places around you in order to buy them and to get points to gain levels. Each level you gain gives you the ability to perform a new action, such as buying another piece of property or giving you a new building to upgrade to. This point total also represents how worthy you are as a person. Each property has its own top 10 list, showing the most worthy of the individuals that own the property. My MGM Grand, although owned by me, is also owned by over 100 other people, most of which have more total points than me.

In the Las Vegas Airport, I explained this all to my dad, and he looked at me with a blank stare. “But dad, you buy up property and make a bunch of money to buy up other property and upgrade your buildings.” “Yes Chris, but why?”

I don’t even have the slightest clue.

In the 70’s, a theory began that stated that if you did something for 21 days in a row, it would become a habit. Given the manic nature of iPhone users, I’d say that this number should be around 4 days. In this case, Booyah has created an app that is just entertaining enough, right off the bat, to make me come back. Now, after a long weekend of exposure, I have to keep going. Do I get any joy out of it? Not really… but it would sure be a shame to waste all the progress I’ve made.

As for recommending this app, I have a few reservations. You will certainly be entertained for a period of time. The graphics are all bright and cheery, and it becomes really fun trying to build up your city. In the end though, there is absolutely no point to MyTown. There is no conclusion to a storyline and no moment where you would say, man, that was a challenge. In fact, the point system itself is somewhat bunk because the game lets you check into as many things as you want, as fast as you want. If you really really wanted to level up quickly, just say pick two places near you and check into them in quick succession. Hell, pick 10 places and alternate… there is no limit to checkins. I’m absolutely certain that some of the higher scores that I’ve seen were just from people doing fake check-ins.

Here’s my warning. Unless you are a genre fanatic, you will play this game and like it for a few days, maybe even a few weeks, but eventually you’ll start to feel like a bum and wonder why you spend so much time collecting rent in your fake town.

“Your revolution is over, Mr. Lebowski. Condolences. The bums lost. My advice is to do what your parents did; get a job, sir. The bums will always lose. Do you hear me, Lebowski? The bums will always lose!”

Chomp

There’s no doubting that the App Store is a big place. In fact, it’s so big that many now struggle to find exactly what they’re looking for, and with the iTunes App Store search only able to pick up keywords, finding a certain app from a certain developer can be a challenge. Chomp aims to fix that by narrowing the search down to applications it thinks you may like, based on applications you’ve reviewed.

Similar to Apple’s own Genius, Chomp takes searching for applications to buy back to basics, providing a wide and varied outlook on the general opinions of App Store customers. Once you’ve created an account which is both free and quickly achieved, the app is split up into 4 main sections. These include: Live app reviews, recommendations, add people and bookmarked apps.

Live app reviews is really the aspect which makes Chomp stand out. Sure, there are other social apps which display apps based on user aspects, take Apple’s iTunes Genius service for example, which was introduced a few months back now. This takes applications you’ve bought from the App Store, scans them, and results a slurry of apps it thinks you’ll like based off what apps you currently have and tend to use. Live app reviews in Chomp are just as they sound. Using clever jiggery-pokery, Chomp allows you to see a live stream of user iTunes App Store reviews, specific to each individual application. These are then filterable via three categories: Everyone, Following (the people you’re currently following on Chomp,) and You (reviews you yourself have submitted). For each live review shown, the person’s iTunes username, along with the app category and time the review was published to the store is displayed.

Tapping any one of these reviews brings you to a more detailed panel, showing the love to hate ratio of the reviews submitted by the users, and ability to find out more about the application, share, bookmark and of course buy or review the app yourself. From here you can also drill down further to reveal the user behind that certain app review, and follow them if you feel the urge.

The next section in Chomp is of course, Recommendations. Here, the app will delve into the reviews you’ve submitted to the store, and based off the mood of the review will determine what apps you like, dislike or down right hate with a vengeance. From here, Chomp will then display the 11 most popular apps if thinks you might like to checkout, shown in this ‘Weather.app’ esque card fashion. This section is also filterable in two ways: Price and Category. In Price you can narrow the results down from All to Paid and Free, and in Category you have the option to see All Recommendations or view them by Category. Don’t like a recommendation? .. Hit the cross button on the top right of each card. Doing so will tell Chomp you’re not interested with the app stating “We won’t recommend you this app again” and offering to fetch the next app available. Now, while I found this system worked for the most part it was a little clunky. Mainly I think due to some of the recommendations not seeming to match what I’d previously reviewed. Ever get that feeling an app is blatantly guessing? .. Yeah. I’d like to see a future update rectify this, if possible.

Adding people to your ‘Chomp’ network is pretty painless. From the main menu tap ‘Add People’. Here you can add people via Facebook, App Celebrities (a selection of influential people in the iPhone space .. albeit in Chomp’s own opinion), Top Reviewers this Week (top users in Chomp’s network), via Search or Recent Followers. Need to get a friend to join Chomp? You can also shoot an e-mail invite or invite via Facebook, straight from within app. The last section is of course Bookmarked Apps. This section of the app displays all the apps you’ve bookmarked on your travels. Got no bookmarks? Tap the ‘Find apps you’ll love button’ to we whisked off into apposphere.

Summing up, while Chomp provides a real-time outlook on user feedback to a number of applications on the store, I found during use that the app was a little user intuitive. While the app does boost a similar UI to that of the official Facebook app, certain elements and sections of Chomp felt slightly clunky. For example searching for some well know App Store titles didn’t seem to return the results expected, and alongside this, some of the apps button placements didn’t seem to feel right for the type of function expected. With all that said though, Chomp is a welcomed addition to any app-addicts life, and definitely a unique idea, providing a true insight into what customers really think of apps on the iTunes App Store.