iPhone apps - page 45

If you’re a kid who grew up in the 80’s or 90’s, you might remember days spent carefully building slot-car tracks that would eventually overrun the entire floor; now all that fun can be had on the iPhone with HTR High Tech Racer — without the annoyance of hunting for slot cars sent unceremoniously hurtling off a sharp corner.

Build tracks, customize tires, chassis and motors, then race the creations. The game claims “realistic physics” and an “intuitive track editor.” And if the lure of racing slot cars on an iPhone isn’t enough, the app’s developer, Graffiti Entertainmant, says they’re also giving away an iPad to the top racer on the app’s race leader board.

HTR High Tech Racing is $2 on the iPhone, $5 for the iPad’s HD version.

Last week, the Fring iPhone application supported Skype video conferencing over 3G. This week, it doesn’t, ending a four year relationship between Fring and Skype. What the heck happened?

According to Fring, their recent update to the iPhone app resulted in such a huge volume of video calls that they needed to temporarily “reduce support” for Skype, after which point, Skype demanded Fring not restore connectivity.

But that’s not what Skype is saying. According to the VoIP company: “There is no truth to Fring’s claims that Skype blocked them, it was their decision and choice to withdraw Skype functionality.” They then go on to say that Fring “misus[ed] the Skype software in ways which it was not designed for and which does not scale to meet consumer demand.”

It’s really hard to parse this bickering. Was Skype just upset that Fring beat them to the 3G video-conferencing punch, using their own API? Or was Fring’s decision to pull Skype support violate their licensing agreement somehow?

Either way, the only clear winner here is Apple’s FaceTime. The cross-platform video chat providers just can’t seem to get their act together.

Animated Knots by Grog is a great app that teaches you to tie all kinds of handy knots. This is the first app we’ve reviewed to earn five Black Turtlenecks using our rating system!

Money makes the world go ’round, right? If that’s the case, then there’s no more essential app than PayPal; and here in the U.S., it’s really the closest thing we have to a virtual wallet — a concept other cultures (like Japan) have enjoyed for years.

The first draft of this post was composed jointly by an excitement-inspired cerebral aneurysm and my own paroxysmal face smashed repeatedly against the keyboard.

The second draft will be more succinct: PopCap games have just sent out an email featuring the Plants vs. Zombies rotting hand logo clutching a sign that says “Save the Date: August 2, 2010.”

The obvious assumption? Plants vs. Zombies 2. After all, the original has sold like gangbusters on every platform it’s been released for. A sequel is just money in the bank for Pop Cap.

Twisting my fingers to the point of splintering here. I’ve warded off over 50 waves of Super Garguantua Zombies with my endless survival gloom shroom setup in the first game. I’m ready for some new zombies on my lawn.

ARSoccer from Laan Labs is the first soccer game in the App Store to use augmented reality, along with your iPhone’s camera, to juggle a virtual ball with your feet.

There are two game modes; Free Play, which pretty much explains itself, allowing you to practice at will and perfect your skills; and Arcade Mode in which you try to keep the ball from dropping to the floor and get as many “hits” as you can for your highest score.

The best way to see how this game works is to check out the video here.

It’s a fantastic concept and it’s a great way to get involved in a game. I wouldn’t advise you play at the bus stop, however – you may get some funny looks.

At just $0.99, ARSoccer is a bargain! Get it in the App Store here.

Wow I heard rumors this was going to happen, but I thought we would end up with a web app. Instead we’ve got a new free iPhone 4 app (iTunes Link) that kind of resembles the famous Chatroulette website. Sorry, but it doesn’t work on other iPhones since it uses the new front facing camera to set you up with a random chat between users.

I’ve spent the last few days glued to my iPhone watching the grand drama of the Tour de France (or “Tour-DAY-France” if you’re an ex-racer from Oakland named Bob) unfold in Europe via Versus’ Official Tour de France Live app.

Regular visitors to this blog will probably have noticed that we mention Dropbox a lot. I mean, we won’t shut up about it. Why? Because it’s so ridiculously useful.

The way it works is simple: It’s a portal for files from your iPhone to your Dropbox account, a free service that gives you your own 2GB cloud to store files and media, and if you want to, lets you share those files and media.

Popular multi-IM and voice-chat service Fring has just been updated to bring 2-way video calling on iPhone 4 over 3G (Apple’s FaceTime is Wi-Fi only), as well as voice and text chat.

We’ve tested it out; while it has a few minor issues, Fring has freed videochat from Wi-Fi. If you like to videochat on your new iPhone 4, it’s a must-have app.

Here’s a new, strange little app; Gyro Draw lets users draw with the iPhone 4’s gyroscope, by sliding a piece of virtual paper (responding to inputs from the gyroscope) under a stationary virtual pencil. Don’t have a 4? It also works with the older iPhone’s accelerometer, only in this mode it’s the pencil that moves. Also works on the iPad.

Not sure this app’ll produce anything prettier than the etch-a-sketch masterpieces I made when I was five, but it’s free right now for a limited time, so it might be cool for a quick impress-your-gyroscopeless-friends session.

Developer Keven Smith (neither doppelganger nor relation to Silent Bob) has just released a fantastic new text editor for Dropbox users on iOS.

Called Droptext, the app allows users to open, edit and save text files directly within their Dropbox account. It supports standard text files, naturally, but also any file with a text-based mime type, such as HTML, PHP or even C programming code.

If you’re a big Dropbox user like I am, it looks like a great app. It’s available now on the App Store for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch and costs a mere $0.99.

There’s no shortage of choices available for gabbing with buddies these days, but instant messaging remains a favorite (I’ve actually worked in at least one newsroom where the primary method of communication was IM).

There’s no lack of IM iPhone apps either; but a clean interface, wealth of features, ability to connect with practically every IM service in the galaxy and availability for free makes Meebo the best of these.

With the release of iOS 4, Apple has erased many of the advantages competing platforms — most notably Android — had previously enjoyed. But while much noise has been made about the iPhone’s new multitasking trick, news that the iPhone can now use image recognition to create a more accurate augmented-reality experience has been far less trumpeted.

Maybe that’s because it’s not really an ability of the iPhone itself, but rather an API that Apple has made available to app developers with the release of iOS 4.

It works like this: The app uses a particular API to capture live video from the iPhone’s camera, then shunts the feed back to servers that use image-recognition software to figure out what the iPhone is looking at; the server then sends a graphic (or graphics) back to the iPhone that’s overlayed onto what the user is looking at (we’ve got instructions on how to easily demo the new tech later on in this post).

Super Badminton 2010 by Rolocule is the one and only 3D badminton game available in the App Store for iPhone & iPod Touch. Despite no current competition, this game still boasts “hyper-realistic physics,” HD quality graphics, a slick UI and realistic sound effects, all of which go towards keeping Super Badminton at the top of its game.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6ygPYHA4hs&feature

As far as compulsive time wasters on the App Store are concerned, Doodle God is a new favorite.

The game is a silly puzzler, in which various elements are combined to create new elements. Some of the puzzle logic is hysterically (and frustratingly) wonky: the combination of “Life” and “Rock” results in “Egg,” for example. Successfully bond two elements together and you’re given a new building block to play with, as well as a pithy, oft-times humorous philosophical quote.

I’ve really been enjoying the game, inscrutable though it sometimes may be. If you’re interested in trying it before you buy, there’s a great Flash version, or you can pick it up on the App Store for just $0.99.

Apple has issued an update to its MobileMe iDisk application today and version 1.2 brings some welcome improvements. As well as support for multitasking and fast app switching, iDisk is now a universal application and works natively on the iPad.

What’s more, iPad users can now export documents from iDisk in to iBooks or office applications like Apple’s own Pages, Numbers & Keynote offerings.

Another big improvement is the ability to listen to music from within the iDisk application – this means you can save space on your device by uploading your tracks to an iDisk folder and then listening to them from there. Obviously this will require a data connection to your iDisk, however.

The full list of improvements is as follows:

• Designed for both iPhone and iPad
• Multitasking support for iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS (iOS 4 required).
• Quickly switch to another app and back to iDisk
• Play audio from your iDisk while using another app
• When app is opened, the last file or directory viewed is displayed
• Option to open iDisk documents in compatible apps such as iBooks
• When sharing a file, an email can be sent from any configured email account
• The URL for a shared file can be copied and pasted
• Various stability improvements

iDisk is the last of Apple’s MobileMe apps to be updated for multitasking and iOS 4. All we’re waiting on now is the MobileMe Gallery app improvements and iPad support!

Download MobileMe iDisk for your device from the App Store here.

The much anticipated Archetype first-person shooter has hit the US App Store today and claims to deliver a “high quality console-style FPS experience on iPhone or iPod Touch.”

First launched in the Czech Republican App Store, Archetype, for just $2.99, offers 3 game modes; Training, Challenge and 5-on-5 Team Deathmatch over Wi-Fi, 3G and even EDGE. With 5 maps to choose from a variety of weapons, Archetype seems a must for any online FPS fan.

Features include a precise dual joystick-style control system, the ability to rank up by earning experience points, an offline tutorial mode and the opportunity to add friends and challenge them in team deathmatch.

Developers, Villain, have also optimized Archetype for the iPhone 4’s retina display by offering high-resolution graphics that provide fantastic looking weapons and textures, and, they claim, “headshots never looked so good!”

Get your hands on Archetype in the App Store here and let us know what you think!

So you’ve just bought a shiny new iPhone, and now you’re itching to plaster apps all over that pretty wallpaper. Well, we’ve come up with a few suggestions; in fact, we’ve come up with 23 of them.

Through the rest of this month or so, we’ll be listing apps we think no iPhone user should be without — apps that almost anyone should find useful — which will fortify your iPhone with just over an extra screen’s worth of valuable apps. And since most of these are free — with a few costing no more than three bucks — there’s really no reason not to own all of them. And this series isn’t just for noobs; we’re willing to wager there’ll be at least one app on our list that’ll surprise even the old-schoolers.

So fire up the App Store and prepare your iPhone for incoming apps as we launch the series with our first essential: the Bing app, in the running for the best Microsoft product I’ve ever used.

httpvhd://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gEAeE9kd2E

It was only a matter of time before some plucky app developer divorced the iPhone 4’s flash functionality from the Camera.app proper to create a bitchin’ Strobe app… but huskily-voiced 15 year old John H. Meyer is the first dev out of the gate with Strobe Pro, an app sure to please photographers and ravers alike.

Strobe Pro probably won’t be particularly useful when used with the iPhone 4’s built-in camera, but paired with a DSLR as a strobing flash could result in some startlingly effective shots. As for the app itself, I’m particularly impressed by Strobe Pro’s wicked slick transparent view mode.

Strobe Pro isn’t available on the App Store yet, but it should be out as soon as it gets through App Store approval.

Badminton hasn’t really caught on wildly here in the U.S. Still, if Super Badminton 2010‘s graphics are as good as its screenshots suggest, who cares about popularity. The game boasts “hyper-realistic physics” to complement the slick graphics as well as deep control options and details like being able to play on a wooden court and realistic badminton moves.

The game’ll set you back a moderately hefty $5 though, so those screenshots will have to do a considerable amount of persuading to anyone who isn’t a badminton nut.

Omino is a simple platform game recently released for the iPhone & iPod Touch which claims to ‘take you back to your childhood’ with it’s retro feel. It’s clear from the screenshots that its similarities with the old Super Mario Bros. games is uncanny, but is it as good?

The popular Spotify music application for iPhone & iPod Touch has been updated to version 0.4.7 today for the iOS 4 software. This update brings with it the eagerly awaited multitasking support which now allows you to listen to your favourite music whilst using other applications on your device.

The update also features a new “what’s new” tab that displays new releases, the top 100 tracks in your country and a social news feed that displays Facebook posts. As well as the ability to use your headset remote, the multitasking dock buttons and the lock-screen buttons to control playback.

The full list of changes as listed in the description are:

iOS 4 multitasking! Play Spotify tracks while doing other things with your phone. NOTE: Only iPhone 3Gs, iPhone 4 and iPod Touch (3rd generation) support multitasking.

Use the headset remote and lockscreen buttons to control Spotify playback

“What’s new” tab has been added showing you newly released albums, the top 100 tracks in your country, and the social feed

Share tracks and albums to your Spotify friends!

Battery consumption is improved when the app is in the foreground or paused.

You can find Spotify in the App Store here (U.K.), but please note; you need a Spotify Premium account to use the iPhone & iPod Touch application.

The iPhone 3GS users who are not willing to upgrade or are waiting for Antenna issue to be fixed cannot use Apple’s latest iMovie suite on their device because of lack of backward compatibility, at least according to Apple. Some said that it was an issue with the smaller RAM on the device but that doesn’t seem to be the case as those who have already jailbroken their device will now be able to use it.

Firefox has just announced that their not-really-a-web-browser-so-Apple-can’t-reject-us app, Firefox Home, has just been sent off to the App Store for approval

Based upon Firefox Sync technology, Firefox Home allows iPhone users to always have access to their Firefox browsing history, bookmarks and open tabs, as well as access to their “Awesome Bar,” which allows them to browse to a site with the minimum of typing fuss. Find what you want, and Firefox Home passes on any opened pages to Mobile Safari.

There shouldn’t be any hangups getting Firefox Home through the approval process, given the existence of other Safari-competitors on the App Store, like Opera Mini or the Atomic Browser. If you’re a major Firefox user and you want to take your sessions — but not your browser — on the road with you, you can set yourself up for Firefox Home here in wait for an official thumbs up.