Mobile Apple Me

Section: iPod + iTunes, iPod touch, iPhone, iPhone, iPhone SDK & Apps, Originals

This week’s list is a bit short thanks to our little U.S. holiday we call Black Friday Thanksgiving.  But I think it’s appropriate to be thankful for all these free apps we find every week. So, thanks, developers. And to make up for the shorter list, I’ve picked some of my favorite games from past lists to keep you occupied this weekend. Have a look.

• Look&Touch - This is another one of those spot-the-difference apps.  Two images are displayed, and you need to find all the tiny little things that differ between them. Just incase you get sick of that, there’s a slide puzzle too.
• eBay Deals - Sure, you could just download the eBay app and use that to find all of your auctions, but this one makes finding deals easier.  If you’re looking for a deal but want help finding cheaper items on eBay, this is your app.
• 1Password Pro - Everyone’s favorite password and personal information manager is free, but only until December 1st, 2009, so grab it now. This is the best app on the iPhone for storing sensitive information securely; things like passwords, credit card numbers, website logins etc. It’s very useful, so just go download it already and say “Thank You.”
• Bang! - Touch the cartoon bombs as they drop from the sky.  If they fall off the screen, they effectively kill you, so don’t let that happen, okay?  I’m not sure how long this one will remain free, so, as always, download it now.

So because this week’s list came so close to last week’s (as a result of Thanksgiving), I went back through some of the past lists of free apps and found some of my favorite games. Hopefully, while everyone else is passed out from turkey-coma, this extra list will keep you occupied. I hope you didn’t miss these gems the first time around, but if you did, worry not, they’re still ready for you to download, and still free, just like always. And for that, I think we’re all thankful.

• Eliminate Pro - An awesome, and surprisingly free, first person shooter.  You can practice against the computer, or log onto the internet and frag to your heart’s content.  It’s just great, really, just great.
• Real Racing GTI - One of the very best racing simulators on the App Store, and thanks to VW, this version is free.  The controls, graphics, and pretty much everything are spot on.
• Car Jack Streets LITE - A free demo of a GTA like game.  If you like driving cars and breaking laws, give this delivers just what you need after a day with the family.  Haha, just kidding, we all love our families.
• Touch Pets Dogs - If killing, stealing and breaking the law isn’t your thing, perhaps you’ll enjoy raising a virtual dog.  They are better than real dogs in many ways; they are free, so is their food, and you don’t have to clean up their virtual crap.  I jest, but this is actually kinda fun, and the graphics are fun.
• Waterslide Extreme - I’m not sure what exactly makes water sliding extreme, but this game is fun.  It’s like those extra levels of Sonic where you grab the rings while running down a tube, only different.  Fun nevertheless.
• iShootTurkey - I just couldn’t help but put this game back on the list considering Thanksgiving and all.  Think duck hunt, only with turkeys.  And Happy Thanksgiving already!

Full Story » | Written by Jake Gaecke for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Section: Software + Apps, Miscellaneous, Third-Party, Widgets, iPod + iTunes, iPod touch, iPhone, iPhone, iPhone SDK & Apps, Mac + Computers, Software

Macintosh and iPhone/iPod updates and announcements for November 27, 2009:

Macintosh

• Dare to be Creative Ltd. has announced the release of Sponge 1.3, an update to its system clean and optimization tool for Mac OS X. Sponge combines three techniques to reclaim disk space into a single tool: removing applications, sweeping disk hogs and finding duplicates. The new version offers better performance, smoother usability and greater stability. Users can let Sponge track down large files and find duplicates in the background for them while they continue with other tasks.

iPhone/iPod

• Carl is coming.
• Idea Factory has released Octo Touch, a puzzle game with hyper-cute anime characters. The object of the game is to clear octopuses from your board. There are numbered cooking grids on the playing field, and if the player puts similarly colored octopuses equalling the number of cooking grids, the octopuses are removed. If the player’s field fills up for three seconds, the player loses game.
• TimeStream has announced the innovative new Rubber to the Road Notescast for the iPod Classic, iPod Video and iPod nano. Available as a free download from the Notescast web site, now Portland cyclists can explore 44 new bike rides in the Portland area using their iPod as their guide. Developed by TimeStream Software and presented by River City Bicycles, the new “Rubber to the Road” Notescast is based upon the popular “Rubber to the Road” bicycle ride guide.
• ThinkSmall has introduced Flirtatious, an entertaining mobile programme allowing men and women to flirt more visually, humorously and fashionably. Flirting is supposed to be fun. It is all about giving signals wittily and properly. Flirtatious lets men and women give out different funny animated cues to those they “love at first sight” at the bar, coffee shop, office, school, or any place the mood strikes them.
• Kitty Code, LLC has announced Traveler’s Quest 1.0, their highly anticipated game for iPhone devices. A casual treasure hunting adventure game, Traveler’s Quest is played while you’re on the go. Dig up treasures in your neighborhood, bury treasures around town and the world while gaining gold for treasures buried and sold. Compete with players around the world and become a treasure hunting legend; take your place on the in-game leaderboards.

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Section: iPod + iTunes, iPod touch, iPhone, iPhone, iPhone SDK & Apps, Features

Not everyone goes out shopping on Black Friday. Some people still work, or sit around at home, or find themselves stuck in traffic jams or long lines while waiting for those Black Friday deals. If you find yourself in that situation, why not take advantage of these iPhone app Black Friday deals and download a new game or utility at a great price?

Games

• New - Chillingo has announced a Black Friday sale. This Friday, you can get an amazing deal on four of its games: Super Shock Football for free, and Secrets of the Mysterious Island, Defender Chronicles and Cocoto Kit for Kids for $0.99. This deal is only available on Friday, so don’t miss it.
• To celebrate the imminent arrival of Low Grav Racer 2, Cobra Mobile is dropping the price of all its iPhone and iPod Touch Games to 59p/99c for the next week. If you haven’t already enjoyed the originality and addictiveness of a Cobra game, then now’s the time to buy and try. Cobra’s amazing games include Low Grav Racer, iBomber, Fore by Cobra, Numba, Dam Buster, Zombie Chav Hunt, Dots and Mouse About. This very special time limited offer starts26th November.
• Freeverse has dropped the prices of two of their all-time favorite iPhone and iPod Touch games, SlotZ Racer and Burning Monkey Casino, to 99¢ for the next week. SlotZ Racer is the ultimate slot car racing game for the hobby enthusiast and racing game fan alike. Players race against the computer or friends on fun and challenging courses. Burning Monkey Casino features seven classic Casino games in one stylish, exciting app. Taking advantage of the iPhone and iPod Touch’s unique capabilities, players can swipe the Money Wheel, scratch off the lottery ticket, or tilt their device to win big at Pachinko.
• Gamevil has announced a 40% off sale on Hybrid: Eternal Whisper. Hybrid features engaging gameplay on vast battlefields and stunning visual effects from delicate combat skills. An epic storyline, along with beautiful and sentimental in-depth scenarios, make for the type of game you normally only find on consoles.
• On Black Friday, TAPelicious.com is lowering the price of its best selling iPhone game Volley from $2.99 to $0.99. Don’t miss this offer, it’s only valid on this Black Friday. Volley is a fast paced multi-touch ball game where you have to slide, jump, smash and trick to win against sixteen super-skilled opponents. Beat an opponent to reach the next level. The higher the levels the harder the opponents. Accurate physics, top-notch graphics and great sounds round out the package. Volley is excellent for a quick game anywhere and anytime.
• Help exercise your finger and fight off food-coma boredom this Thanksgiving with the Squeeballs Party app for the iPhone and iPod Touch. The app will temporarily drop in price from $2.99 to $0.99 through Sunday, Nov. 29 in honor of the Thanksgiving holiday. The app features 12 small, furry creatures called Squeeballs that are manufactured on a on a secret island somewhere in the Pacific. In the game, you put the Squeeballs to the test—to the point of destruction—before they can be sold to children across the world.

Utilities/Lifestyle

• Appnoose has announced a 24 hour sale on Black Friday of its Staff Favorites Pick ITGO - Interval Trainer GO. ITGO is an App for the iPhone and iPod Touch which enables you to set up custom music playlists of fast and slow songs and podcasts and automatically switch between the two once you set the session going, leaving you to concentrate on your workout.
• Dramatic Applications today announced they are offering Pilates for Pregnancy iPhone Apps for 50% off from Tuesday November 24th through Cyber Monday, November 30th. This not only gives modified Pilates exercises for every trimester of your pregnancy but it is also a complete pregnancy planner. It includes checklists for a healthy pregnancy, notes pages with questions to help you keep track of everything going on during this exciting time as well as a pregnancy photo album.
• Muli Mobile has announced 60% off FlowerPedia, its flower gallery and encyclopedia for flower enthusiasts. FlowerPedia’s vast database of high resolution flower photos and information is sure to bring back summer memories to be thankful for. FlowerPedia is a portable flower encyclopedia, identification tool and photo gallery, featuring over 1500 high-resolution photos of flowers, organised by flower family, genus and photo rating.
• Readdle has announced a Black Friday Sale for their popular iPhone products Scanner Pro, application that transforms the device into portable scanner, ReaddleDocs, document and file management solution for the iPhone, and several others. The company is offering an extremely high discount up to 40% off the regular prices for the applications that will last until Saturday, November 28th. All applications are available on exclusively on the Apple App Store.
• WebIS Inc. has announced a major one day Black Friday sale for its Calendaring/To Do application for the iPhone, Pocket Informant, at the reduced cost of $6.99. This sale will end at midnight Friday Central Standard TIme.

Accessories

• Incipio’s Black Friday / Cyber Monday Extravaganza starts Nov. 27th 12:00am to Nov. 30th, 11:59pm. $5 off select iPhone 3G/3GS cases. $10 off MacBook Air orion case. Deals cannot be combined with any other offer. Free domestic USPS shipping. They’re also offering 30% off all Star Wars and Paul Frank products, plus free shipping. Use coupon code pfsw001.
• In England, they don’t have Black Friday, but the idea of national discount day sounds pretty good to Proporta. Whether you’re interested in kitting out your iPod or protecting your PDA, Proporta is offering an exclusive 20% discount to all customers who place orders on Black Friday. Simply enter the promotion code FRIDAY20 at the cart page to receive your discount.
• Not a deal, but a giveaway. All orders placed at speckproducts.com through November 30th will be entered to win hand-picked Holiday Prize Packages! Five winners a day will be mailed some incredible stocking stuffers, with prizes worth over $100 each. Speck will send out one each of five PrizePacks each day, including an Apple iPod nano 8GB (with a PixelSkin Case), a two Zip and SkinPro Cases, various laptop bags and packs, five hand-picked Speck iPhone 3G cases, and more. Place your order at www.speckproducts.com and be entered to win daily.
• Uniea has announced a special promotional code for their Thanksgiving/Black Friday sale. The code is “Uthanksgiving” and it is good for 50% off on any purchase in the online Uniea store. The offer is valid From November 26th through the 28th.

Full Story » | Written by Kirk Hiner for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »

Section: Apple, Software + Apps, Home and Personal, Third-Party, iPhone, iPhone, iPhone SDK & Apps, Reviews

Category: Utilities
Developer: IDC
Requirements: iPhone 3.1 software or later
Compatibility: iPhone
File Size: 4.3MB
Version: 2.0
Price: TBD (upgrade from current version will be free)
Availability: Early 2010

BarcodeScan is a utility for the iPhone that allows you to either enter a 12-13 digit UPC, EAN or ISBN code or take a picture of it in order to find out more information about the product it represents. Coming in a simple interface, the application allows users to have access to user reviews, competing prices, and other details about items while providing methods to share this information with friends.

In terms of barcode scanning applications, this is the first one I’ve used, and I’m pretty impressed with it. When launched, the app allows you to start the camera to take a picture of a barcode, enter it manually, or search your barcode history.

Some of the new features coming in the 2.0 version are:

• The ability to see product reviews (average, low, high and full text)
• The ability to scan and type UPC-E barcodes (8 digits)
• Rewritten results view to allow for collapsable sections
• Histogram functions for prices and reviews
• The ability to sort vendors by price or name

Using the camera on an iPhone 3G is all but useless with this application, unfortunately. However, I wouldn’t necessarily blame this on the application, as the image quality on the 3G is simply not good enough at all to allow their algorithm to analyze the barcode. As you can see from my screenshot below, it would be hard for even a human to analyze. The developer recommends using a device with an autofocus lens such as the iPhone 3GS, so I’m assuming it would work much better on that device.

Entering the code manually, on the other hand, works well. This method requires simply typing in the numbers and watching as the barcode slowly completes itself onscreen. Once done, you simply search for it just as the camera would, except this method obviously skips the image part. Thankfully, the developer uses the keypad keyboard, so typing barcodes in isn’t much of a hassle at all unless you find it hard to read the small numbers on packages.

It’s clear this application has a nicely sized database of barcodes. In my experience, it found most of the barcodes for which I searched. That said, the amount of information about each item certainly varied. For instance, when I searched for a Kodak EasyShare camera, it found what it was, but basically just provided a Google link for the product along with the title. In contrast, when I typed in the barcode for a book I’m reading, Coders At Work, the application was able to pull up a bunch of useful information. For a visual of this, see the comparison image below.

When the application does find a lot of information about the product, it certainly is useful. Also, I noticed the amount of time it took to look up a barcode was very reasonable and quick. For an example, we’ll stick to the Coders At Work book. For this product, BarcodeScan was able to find and create both a chart for the various prices as well as the reviews. When clicking on one of these table cells, it goes into greater depth about the category. As you can see in the image below, it even pulls down reviews about the book right there for you. This can be be extremely helpful when shopping, and I can see myself using it a lot.

Once you’ve successfully found an item, the application saves it under your history, which is accessible from the home page of the app. The history is simply a list of your searches and doesn’t seem to store any of the data locally (when you click an item, the application must look up the saved barcode again). It would be nice if a future update added a way to cache this data to prevent waiting for AT&T’s often crummy network to do its thing.

As I said, this application is put together very well, and you can tell the developer wanted to keep it simple. I found it to be very functional when it did manage to find enough data about the product to make the time spent typing the code in worth it. It will be interesting to see how it works as I test more products with it while I’m on the go. It seems as if they have a lot of products already in their database or the databases they access through the app. I would certainly recommend this one to somebody looking for a decent barcode application. That said, I would also love to see how it works with the autofocus camera on the 3GS, so if anyone has one of those, be sure to share your experiences in the comments.

Barcode Scan v2 is in the process of being rewritten, as it used APIs Apple no longer allows in the update process. In the meantime, the prices of v1.2 has been reduced to $0.99. Considering the upgrade to v2 will be free, if this looks like an app that would interest you, now would be the time to check it out.

Full Story » | Written by Josh Holat for Appletell. | Comment on this Article »