Apple App Reviews

Filed under: iPhone I just tried out PhotoNest , a cool new way to view just the images posted to your Twitter stream. It picks up just the photos, and presents them in a slide format, captioned with the tweet they were posted with. You can quickly flick through and see what your friends are up to (based on the photos they post). Given that Twitter doesn’t have a genuine photo-posting mechanism, this seems like a grand idea to me. I’ve done something similar to collect and expand just the links posted to my stream, but this app does a great job of pulling photos posted with multiple services and presenting them in an easy-to-navigate format. The only trouble I ran into with PhotoNest was a login issue: when I mistyped my password on the first try, it gave me an error and took me back to the login screen. After that, though, a correct password just kept landing me back at that screen without any message. However, quitting the app and starting it again logged me in automatically without a hitch, so I assume it’s a small bug that will be squashed in the next update.

Filed under: App Store I’ve been playing with a beta of Game Doctor’s Zombie Smash! for three weeks now and I can honestly say it’s the most fun I’ve ever had on my iPhone. ZombieSmash! is a “Survival Comedy” game featuring undead-themed castle defense and entertaining, physics-based gameplay. The game casts players as Joey, a lone survivor pit against a herd of writhing, unrelenting zombies. To defeat the undead masses players must use their fingers to flick and smash the zombies until they’re un-undead. The game features six “species” of zombies, each with their own skills and abilities. Picking up and smashing zombies together, or flicking them into the air only to see their bodies crumple on the ground is fantastically entertaining thanks to the rag doll “SplatterEngine” used in the game. In addition to your fingers, you can acquire over 20 special weapons from the in-game store. The weapons can be purchased using the star points that you collect when defeating a zombie. Besides the standard collection of guns, you’re able to purchase land mines, grenades, wrecking balls, liquid nitrogen containers, and even a friggin’ asteroid. In addition to the 31-night Campaign Mode, the Endless Siege and Sandbox modes lend towards the re-playability of this game when you just need to do some zombie smashing to relieve your frustrations. The game is also helped by its original soundtrack which was composed by famed game music composer Chris H?lsbeck who scored many Commodore 64 games. ZombieSmash! goes on sale today for $1.99 for iPhone and iPod touch running OS 3.0

Overview Raging Thunder 2 is an arcade racer developed by Pixelbite Games and published by Polarbit, and is the sequel to Polarbit’s first foray into the racing genre, Raging Thunder. Raging Thunder wasn’t very popular and only mediocre in terms of polish and gameplay, but it seems that Polarbit has learned much from their first experience since much has been improved from the original, including graphics, controls, and content. Features The graphics are the first thing that caught my eye when I was browsing iTunes. Crisp, clean, beautiful visuals are always a plus in any game, and they’re definitely present here. Raging Thunder 2 also features online and local cross-platform multiplayer, which is another big feature. Many people like to play against real human beings instead of artificial computer controlled opponents, and they’ll get their competitive racing fix with this game. In addition, there are five different game modes, and they provide the game with more play time and replayability. The Good Given the arcade nature of its gameplay, one would expect Raging Thunder 2 to give a great sense of speed and have purchasable items to beef up your vehicle. While the sense of speed isn’t as good as other racers on the App Store, it certainly feels good driving your car. You can also buy things from a small list of vehicles and upgrades. In addition, the AI is actually smart and aggressive, unlike racing games where they just do their own thing and ignore the fact that you’re overtaking them.

Wireless charging has been around—even for the iPhone—for years, but it wasn’t until the last 12 months that it’s been refined to be as good as standard wired charging. Case-mate’s Hug is our favorite iPhone charging pad. The Price: $100 The Verdict: Almost perfect. In our previous tests, wireless iPhone charging usually came by way of an ugly charging pad and an ugly case. In this instance, Case-mate’s charging pad is elegant and compact, but its iPhone case is really something. I’d say it’s one of the very few cases that make the iPhone look better than it does naked. (That’s high praise for me, a guy who never uses cases.) The sleeve is made of two parts—both plastic—and combine in a locking mechanism that seems secure enough to survive a drop. For something that provides wireless charging components, it doesn’t add that much more heft to the phone than you’d logically feel is necessary.

Wireless charging has been around—even for the iPhone—for years, but it wasn’t until the last 12 months that it’s been refined to be as good as standard wired charging. Case-mate’s Hug is our favorite iPhone charging pad. The Price: $100 The Verdict: Almost perfect. In our previous tests, wireless iPhone charging usually came by way of an ugly charging pad and an ugly case. In this instance, Case-mate’s charging pad is elegant and compact, but its iPhone case is really something. I’d say it’s one of the very few cases that make the iPhone look better than it does naked. (That’s high praise for me, a guy who never uses cases.) The sleeve is made of two parts—both plastic—and combine in a locking mechanism that seems secure enough to survive a drop. For something that provides wireless charging components, it doesn’t add that much more heft to the phone than you’d logically feel is necessary. It’s not as elegant a solution as replacing the back panel on a Palm Pre and being basically transparent, but it works, and it protects at the same time.

Filed under: Software After a four year absence , the next version of Quicken for the Mac is here. It’s called Quicken Essentials for Mac and is a ground up Cocoa rewrite. I’ve been using the program for a few weeks now. Is it worth the wait? Well that depends what you need in your financial software. When I interviewed Aaron Patzer, VP/GM of Intuit’s Personal Finance Group, he was quick to point out that it’s called Quicken Essentials for a reason: “It’s called Essentials because it’s what we consider to be essential for most users – about 80% of users. We went to people’s homes and watched them use it. The majority of them just want to know: How much do I have? How much do I owe

Filed under: Gaming , Software , Odds and ends , Apple , Developer , iPhone , App Store , Music Keita Takahashi is a strange guy. He’s most known for delivering the brilliant Katamari Damacy to us on the Playstation 2, a game in which you rolled around a ball that stuck to everything in the world, growing bigger and bigger as more and more stuff collected on it. But after that early success, he’s gotten weirder , at one point saying that he didn’t want to make games at all, and then releasing Noby Noby Boy for the PS3, an “experience” in which you stretch a tubelike creature named BOY, which in turn stretches another creature named GIRL, out into the solar system with all of other players in the world. It’s the kind of thing that has to be played to be understood, and even then, you don’t understand it so much as experience it. Noby Noby Boy on the iPhone is a similar release: while it’s an app that comes from a game platform, it’s actually in the Productivity section of the App Store. Even though the goal seems to again be to stretch the BOY out as far as you can, while in turn stretching GIRL along with PS3 players (“cross-platform compatibility!” exclaims the ingame Fairy, the most charming and weird help system you’ve ever seen), it’s really just a chance for Takahashi’s brilliance to run wild on the iPhone platform. There’s more to explore, do and experience in this app than any other $1.99 app I’ve seen, and while some of it is wacky, and strange, and just plain crazy, Noby Noby Boy is a product of imagination — both his and ours.

Apple’s App Store approval process, just like every cool place’s bouncer, tends to be the source of some drama from time to time, so Apple has finally taken interest in the matter and sent out a survey to all iPhone Developer Program members concerning their satisfaction. While we probably won’t ever find out the results of this new undertaking, it’s definitely a nice move from Apple to give developers a chance to speak up. Here are some of the questions being asked: Please rate your level of satisfaction with each of the following aspects of the Application submission process (using iTunes Connect). Please rate your level of satisfaction with each of the following aspects of the application review process (using iTunes Connect). Please rate your level of satisfaction with the length of time it takes to get updates available on the App Store. What one thing could Apple do to make the iPhone Developer Program better? Apple made some important changes to the process lately. The approval time is down to a couple hours in certain situations and many new limitations have now been lifted like VoIP over 3G and filming, so I believe it shouldn’t be too negative unless developers will bring up old grievances. How do you interpret this? Signs of progress or placebo? [via TechCrunch ] Related Posts CNBC’s ‘Planet Of The Apps’ Premieres On January 7th Apple Easing Up On App Rejections

Filed under: iPhone , Road Tested A while back, we had a product announcement about the OWLE bubo (US$129.95). That bizarre name is actually a play on words: OWLE stands for “Optical Widget for Life Enhancement” (the company’s name) and bubo is the genus for American horned owls and old world eagle owls

go.tagjag.com – After Apple’s announcement today, what do you think about the ipad?