Author Archive for Kevin

MeterRead™ (Go Green, Save Green!)

When zerogate asked me to review MeterRead™ I was kinda like… uhhh do I have to? Recording the numbers on my electric meter didn’t sound fun or exciting, but I gave in to my curiosity and tried it out.
I was right, it wasn’t fun and it was far from exciting. I did, however, get a [...]

Free RSS Reader

Last week I reviewed the overpriced Byline, an RSS reader that requires a Google Reader account. I like things simple so I decided to give Simon Oualid’s app a try. It seemed to work great at first, but after adding a couple of Yahoo! Sports feeds, the thing just froze up. Or at least that’s the way [...]

The best iPhone games

The Boston Herald listed their top iPhone games as follows:

1) Texas Hold ’Em- Apple Inc- ($4.99) - Great graphics with near live-looking cutaways. Easy to play, if you know poker. The WiFi gaming is a breeze and sets this game apart from the others. Don’t miss the Apple memorabilia tucked into the background. Great price.

2) Moto Racer - Freeverse – ($9.99) — A compelling racer that delivers speed and the added attraction of an occasional fisticuffs. Even on the easy level, this game is challenging.

3) Enigmo - Pangea Software – ($9.99) - Playing on the water theme, this game captivated my children for several hours as they tried to catch drips, followed by lasers and plasma, to their final destinations by using whatever movable gadgets and gizmos happened to be on the screen. This game won an Apple Design Award as the best iPhone game.

4) Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D -Vivendi Mobile Games – ($9.99) - Fun, quirky, very addictive. Using weapons against your opponents is what driving should be all about. What, someone cut me off on Massachusetts Ave? Where’s that ’switch places’ button.

5) Scrabble – Electronic Arts – ($9.99) - I’ll admit this ranking may be swayed by the fact that I’m a Scrabble fan. This version makes me a better player with scores coming in the 300s, even without using the ’Best Word’ cheat. Somehow other reviewers missed the fact that when you shake your device, the tiles rearrange themselves on your easel.

6) Monkey Ball - Sega –($9.99) - Given the buildup this game received, the little monkey rolling inside a pet hamster-type plastic ball delivers challenging fun. I say this even though I have yet to get past level 7

7) MotionX Poker – Fullpower Technologies Inc – ($4.99) - Not as sophisticated as Texas Hold ‘Em and certain to give non-poker players a skewed view on the likelihood of getting three straight flushes in a row, this game nonetheless is a great play. Also check out the free MotionX dice – great for when you lose the real dice that go with your board games..

Aurora Feint – Danielle Casley and Jason Citron – It’s free, but also it is not finished. This mixture of a puzzler, see number 9, and the best elements of role-playing games. Mining in the puzzle zones will earn you gems to buy all sorts of goodies. Can’t wait to see the finished version (and it’s price.)

9) Solar Quest –Neon Surge – ($2.99) - This scrolling arcade-style futuristic piloting game moves up a few notches because of its great price. Static background graphics are superb.

10) Aqua Forest- Hudson Entertainment –($7.99) -What is this game? Please, someone let me in on why sloshing water, creating areas of containment, cutting cords, and doing dozens of others tricks is so much fun. Is there a point to it? Does there have to be one? Is there anything else like this? Is it bad writing to throw in four consecutive questions?

This article was posted on Herald back in August, however there have been several noteable new games for the iPhone that have come on the scene since then.

My favorite tie waister is Fieldrunners:

Fieldrunners for the iPhone is similar to Command and Conquer on the desktop.  See my full review here.

Another game that has made it’s way to my iPhone is the free game, Trace.  Trace is a puzzle game in which you try to move a stick figure through the puzzle by drawing lines on the screen for him to walk on.  Some of the levels are a bit challenging and you race against the clock to finish the given level as quickly as possible.  The only down side to this game is that it is difficult to accuratly place the lines at your intended location on the touch screen of the iPhone.  This can either add to your time or cause some collateral damage to your stick man inventory as you attempt to navigate with a misplaced line.

As I find more games that have found at least a temporary home on my iPhone I will let you know.

How about you, what wastes your time on the iPhone???

iKoto

I’m not Japanese, and I have no musical talent whatsoever… but iKoto is a pretty kickass iPhone instrument.
Says Wikipedia, the ‘koto’ is the national instrument of Japan and was invented like 1,600 years ago. It’s really freakin’ old. iKoto puts a virtual koto on your iPhone that you can play pretty much any way you [...]

Ambiance

I’ve never owned a “sound machine” and now that I have an iPhone I doubt I ever will. Back in August I reviewed aSleep which is a really nice sound machine app, and Ambience is right up there in the same league.
Ambiance and aSleep have pretty different interfaces but they do essentially the same thing: [...]

Byline

Byline is an RSS reader built specifically for syncing your iPhone with your Google Reader account. If you’re a loyal Google Reader user then you’ll probably love Byline because it pulls everything onto your iPhone so that you can access your content even when there’s no network connection available, like on an underground subway train. [...]

iPhone 2.2 to allow podcast downloads

German blog Schimanke.com publishes new screenshots from the iPhone 2.2 firmware that reveal that Apple has activated iTunes and App Store features that will make their debut in the next iPhone update. Prior to this past week, these new features had not been fully enabled.

The new iTunes Store screenshots confirm that Apple will be delivering over-the-air downloads for both video and audio podcasts. According to Schimanke, podcast downloads will be limited to episodes less than 10MB in size when using the cellular network.

The screenshots also show off the new App Store category view with icons embedded. Additional 2.2 features previously revealed include the addition of Google Street View and Japanese Emoji icons.

Meanwhile, there has been no evidence of background “push” notifications which were originally promised in September. Unconfirmed whispers suggest that the Apple has delayed the push notification service due to major issues with the initial implementation.

Apple seeded Beta 2 of the 2.2 iPhone firmware to developers in late October but has given no indication when we can expect a public release.

KickScreen Movie Trailers

KickScreen Movie Trailers is the very definition of a hybrid app. It looks and acts like Now Playing in the way it displays movie info and plays trailers, but it doesn’t display movie showtimes.
It’s a little like Movies in how it gives info on current movies, upcoming movies, and DVDs in one place, but it doesn’t [...]

Dashbuster Free - Netflix Blockbuster Manager

Dashbuster Free is the “lite” version of Seventy Nine Lines’ online rental queue manager. It works with both Netflix and Blockbuster Online, and since I only use Blockbuster that’s the only part of this app I’ll be able to talk about here.
Dashbuster Free is great if all you need to do is change the order of [...]

Lux Touch

I’m totally hooked on Lux Touch! Today alone I’ve probably spent about 3 hours playing it, and even though I keep winning it’s hard to put down.
If you’ve never played the boardgame Risk, it’s all about world domination. You start with a random allocation of countries that are usually spread out all over the place, [...]

Amidio, Inc has released Noise.io

Amidio, Inc has released Noise.io - the first full-featured sound synthesizer for the iPhone and iPod Touch. One of the most anticipated handheld music applications, Noise.io is capable of creating all kinds of melodic sequences, basses, leads, keys, bells, percussive sounds and sound effects.

Designed by an experienced electronic musician, Noise.io makes it possible to create 303-like acid basslines or any other melodies using the buit-in sequencer, or jamming live in sync with the rhythm using the TapBPM feature. Extensive sound control possibilities are implemented - fingersliding, multitouch, accelerometer, velocity-sensitive dual keyboard and a modulation matrix.

9 factory preset banks are included: Azure Leads, Warping Basslines, Infinite Keys, Distant Bells, Touch the Bass, Strange Places, Klang Percussive, FX Pack 1, totalling in 81 presets.

Noise.io utilizes an original synth technology called ESFM and features 3 generators, 2 filters, 3 LFO, 3 sequencers, 6 effects, unlimited presets, extensive user support and much more.

Users are able to instantly share their banks with the community utilizing the on-line preset repository at the website http://noise.io.

Noise.io is available on the App Store for $9.99 (introductory price).

New Feature: Discussion Forums

I normally write a new review at this time but instead I spent a few hours putting up my new Discussion Forums. bbPress isn’t the greatest forum software available, but I’m just too stupid to customize a different forum package to match my site’s “look”. I am not good at messing with code.
Go on, write [...]

Halloween iPhone Apps

For a roundup of all of the Halloween iPhone apps I’ve reviewed… 14 in all, most of them free… click on “halloween” under tags in the far-right column or just click here.

Nerds + Halloween = Wacky but impressive costumes

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Separate Checks

Have you ever seen that episode of Friends where it’s Monica’s birthday and they all go out for dinner, but Joey, Rachel, and Phoebe are broke as hell so they nibble on cheap appetizers, and then Ross declares that they each owe $40 because he’s splitting the bill evenly between everyone? (And then later on [...]

Halloween C@rds

I’ve reviewed a couple of other iPhone apps that allow you to send “greeting cards” but so far Hot Chili Apps is the only one that’s gotten it right. Halloween Pumpkinizer is ok but you’re limited to sending a pumpkin picture. Stylem Media’s Greetings (formerly known as Stylem Greetings) was, at the time of the [...]

Free wifi at Starbucks and other AT&T hotspots

AT&T has announced that they are now offering free Wi-Fi access to iPhone subscribers across the U.S.
AT&T knows Wi-Fi is hot, and FREE Wi-Fi is even hotter. Which is why FREE AT&T Wi-Fi access is now available for Apple iPhone at thousands of hotspots nationwide, including Starbucks*. Users can relax and access music, email and web browsing services with their favorite blend in hand from the comfort of their nearest location. For information visit www.att.com/attwifi.

AT&T provided a number of early hints that the service would be coming. AT&T has also sent out an SMS message to iPhone users announcing the plan.

Customers can locate Wi-Fi spots through AT&T’s online tool or can locate a Starbucks using this tool. In order to access AT&T Wi-Fi from your iPhone, you must follow these steps:

- Activate Wi-Fi from the settings icon on your iPhone
- Select “attwifi” from the list of available networks
- Enter your 10-digit mobile number and check the box to agree to the Acceptable Use Policy. Tap ‘continue’
- You will receive a text message from AT&T with a secure link to the AT&T Wi-Fi hotspot. You will not be charged for the text message.
- The SMS link will only be valid for 24 hours at the location it was requested. Another request must be submitted when using another hotspot location.
- Open the text message and tap on the link for 24-hour access to the AT&T Wi-Fi hotspot

Box.net offers file sharing for the iPhone

Box.net for the iPhone has released their free iPhone companion application which provides integration to their online file management service.

Box.net offers a basic Lite version of its service for free. The free service offers 1GB of online storage and 10GB of bandwidth a month. Paid plans start at $7.95 a month and offer more storage and no bandwidth limitations.

The iPhone app offers these features:

- Scroll through and view all the files and folders stored on their Box.net accounts.
- Share individual files or entire folders of files stored on their Box.net accounts with any of their iPhone contacts
- Snap pictures, upload them to Box and share them
- Monitor updates to your Box.net account, such as files or folders added by you and people that are collaborating and contributing to your Box.net account

iDayZ

iDayZ is built to do one thing: use your Contacts list to give you sortable views of birthdays and anniversaries. I know, the built-in iPhone Calendar can do more or less the same thing, but to make that happen you would have to set reminders for each individual date and that takes effort.
With that said, [...]

Idea Generator

Idea Generator is pretty funny. If you were paying attention during the dotcom boom about 8-10 years ago, you might remember The Bullshit Generator which would spit out enterprisey-sounding boardroom nonsense with the click of a button. Idea Generator plays off the same concept but applies a much different vocabulary that’s geared towards coming up [...]

Some new iPhone 2.2 features

The upcoming iPhone OS 2.2 update is expected to offer quite a few new goodies, with the latest rumor being direct podcast downloading, revealed by The Unofficial Apple Weblog The rumor indicates that users will be able to subscribe to and download podcasts from the iTunes Music Store, albeit with a currently non-functional “Get More Episodes…” button in the current build. Apple recently ejected the Podcaster application, this feature being the likely reason for the move.

Developers privy to the beta have shared screenshots indicating the new operating system version will bring with it application ratings upon removal of the software from the iPhone.

Mass transit directions are also expected, including directions to bus stops, schedules, and routing information.