iLounge Articles

Anomaly Warzone Earth HD

| $3.99 | Chillingo Ltd

iPad Gems: Anomaly Warzone Earth HD, Glowfish HD + NyxQuest HD - iLounge Articles

Editor-in-Chief, iLounge Published: Tuesday, August 16, 2011 Category: iPod, iPhone, and iPad Gems: Apps, Games + More Welcome to a special iPad-only edition of our Gems gaming column! Today, we’re looking at three recent, eye-popping releases that wouldn’t have been out of place on dedicated game consoles—in fact, one of the games was previously released for Nintendo’s Wii, and another is also available for personal computers. Unfortunately, all three of these otherwise impressive games get knocked down a little from what would otherwise be higher ratings because of their needless separation into iPad and iPhone/iPod touch releases, which is complicated further by two developers’ decision to offer separate full and trial versions. Each of these games is worthy of checking out if their genres interest you, but Anomaly Warzone Earth HD and Glowfish HD are a little stronger than NyxQuest HD. Read on for all the details. Anomaly Warzone Earth HD Anomaly Warzone Earth HD ($4, version 1.0.1) has been described by developer 11 Bit Studios and publisher Chillingo as a “tower offense” game for fairly obvious reasons: it modifies the traditional tower defense genre by letting you choose a path for moving, attacking units to automatically follow through a collection of obstacles within urban battleground settings, then challenges you to keep the units alive as they’re shelled by mostly fixed defenses. By choosing the correct path—modifiable after you’re in motion—you can gather money for upgrades and additional units, deploy a collection of special limited-use items, and collect more of those items by blowing up targets. On the rare occasion that there’s not enough intensity for you in one of the three difficulty levels, a fast forward button lets you speed time up so that the action commences more quickly. Apart from Chillingo’s decision to release Anomaly as separate iPad and Read More

ABC Wildlife!

| $0.99 | Peapod Labs LLC

iPhone + iPad Gems: Epic Citadel, Let’s Create! Pottery HD, No, Human, Social, Twitter + More - iLounge Articles

Editor-in-Chief, iLounge Published: Friday, September 3, 2010 Category: iPod, iPhone, and iPad Gems: Apps, Games + More Welcome to a special rapid-fire edition of iPad + iPhone Gems. We’re clearing the decks of queued-up applications in the lead up to next week’s release of new iPods, so most of the 10 apps below are all getting only quick writeups designed to let you know whether to invest your cash and time, or move along. Without further ado, let’s dive right into this grab bag of titles. Our top picks are ABC Wildlife!, Let’s Create! Pottery HD, No, Human, and Twitter version 3.1 for iPad. Read on for all the details. ABC Wildlife! ($2, version 2.2) from Peapod Labs is an iPhone and iPod touch version of the animal and alphabet learning tool we reviewed earlier and more fully this week for the iPad. Selling for $1 less, it uses the same pre-screened photos and videos from Flickr and YouTube, with ever-so-slight formatting changes for the smaller devices’ screens, along with the same music and easy-to-tap user interface. As with the iPad edition, this is an excellent application, limited solely by the need for a persistent Internet connection to access the content. Though we don’t see the need for separate iPhone and iPad versions of this app, and continue to think that the developer should just merge them together, we’d recommend either version very highly for kids, particularly ones who are ready to learn the alphabet. It’s one of the best animal apps we’ve seen because the visual content is so striking, and tied together with such a nice interface. iLounge Rating: A-. Assault Squadron ($3, version 1.2.2) from Chillingo/The Binary Mill is a combination overhead and side-scrolling shooter that relies upon the “bullet hell” system we’ve previously discussed—a flood of projectiles Read More

iPhone 4 Case Program

| FREE | Apple Inc.

Small Apps + Updates: iPhone 4 Case Program, N.O.V.A., Plunderland, Space Harrier II + Tron - iLounge Articles

Editor-in-Chief, iLounge Published: Friday, July 23, 2010 Category: iPod, iPhone, and iPad Gems: Apps, Games + More Welcome to this week’s Small Apps + Updates roundup, which takes quick looks at recent budget app releases and noteworthy tweaks to past apps. This edition focuses largely on a collection of small but interesting recent games, as well as showing off Apple’s iPhone 4 Case Program application—the rare app that enables users to get something for free just by running it. Though all of the apps in here are worth seeing, Plunderland and the updated version of N.O.V.A. are the two real standouts. Read on for the details. iPhone 4 Case Program (Free) was released today by Apple as a tool to help iPhone 4 customers order the free Apple or third-party cases promised at last week’s Antennagate event in Cupertino. Unlike the vast majority of apps in the store, iPhone 4 Case Program will only install on iPhone 4 hardware, which the app checks for serial number and iTunes Store account information that’s used to process a single case order per iPhone 4 device. As of the first day of the application’s availability, Apple offered seven cases in a total of eight colors through the Program, ranging in MSRP from $20 to $30, each with 3-5 week shipping dates; different cases may be available in the future. It also uses your iTunes Store account to automatically populate address information unless you make changes. Simple, straightforward, and easy to use, the app’s only failing is that the included photos are tiny—like the ones in the standard Apple Store application—and not especially useful for picking the right option for one’s needs. iLounge rating: N/R. For those who haven’t heard of N.O.V.A. - Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance ($5, version 1.2.1), here’s a snapshot of our Read More

Archetype

| $2.99 | Villain

Small Apps + Updates: Archetype, Crystal Defenders, Fring, Samurai: WOTW, Tapbots + WeatherStation - iLounge Articles

Editor-in-Chief, iLounge Published: Monday, July 12, 2010 Category: iPod, iPhone, and iPad Gems: Apps, Games + More Welcome to the latest edition of Small Apps + Updates, our column designed for quick looks at recent app releases and updates. This week’s Small Apps looks at nine titles ranging from games to communications and reference tools. Our top pick of the bunch is the latest version of Fring. Read on for all the details. Normally, we’d consider including Villain LLC’s new first-person shooter Archetype ($3, version 1.0.5) in an iPhone Gems roundup, but after playing it for a bit, we didn’t think there was enough in the gameplay department to warrant even a two-paragraph review… yet. What Villain has come up with is the basis for a really solid shooter, including a silky-smooth 3-D engine with iPhone 4-ready, high-resolution graphics—unfortunately downscaled on the iPad, prior iPhones, and iPod touches—and a streamlined set of dual-joystick controls that work to let you run around mazes in 10-person, two-team deathmatches, fragging as many of your team’s opponents as possible over several minutes. Matchmaking’s simple, the game’s responsive enough, and it’s obvious pretty quickly what you’re supposed to do, but Archetype’s weapons, levels, and characters are all highly generic and similar, leading to samey matches in environments that look nice but too often feel like mazes of boring halls. On the audio side, there’s no music during matches, and in-game sound effects are limited largely to gunfire and explosion effects. Respawning right next to opponents, the absence of armor upgrades, and the tiny but necessary radar could all use tweaks, too. For now, Archetype isn’t worthy of the hype it’s receiving, but with upgrades, it could easily become something truly great. iLounge rating: B-. Having already covered it twice before, we spotlight Square’s Crystal Defenders for Read More

Apple Store

| FREE | Apple Inc.

iPhone + iPad Gems: Apple Store, Find My iPhone, MobileMe Gallery + MobileMe iDisk - iLounge Articles

Editor-in-Chief, iLounge Published: Wednesday, July 7, 2010 Category: iPod, iPhone, and iPad Gems: Apps, Games + More Welcome to a special Apple application-focused edition of iPhone + iPad Gems! Over the last two weeks, Apple has released both new and updated apps for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad users, expanding both its growing collection of shopping tools and the capabilities of its web-based MobileMe subscription service. The four applications we look at today all depend on an active Internet connection, and include Apple Store, Find My iPhone, MobileMe Gallery and MobileMe iDisk, tools to locate Apple products and access media from wherever you may be located in the world. Our top pick is the new version of MobileMe iDisk, which has seen significant improvements for iPad and iOS 4 users in particular, but all of the applications merited at least our general recommendation. Read on for all the details. Apple Store At some point, everyone—including Apple—will start asking just how many standalone but related apps people want to keep on their devices, but for now, the assumption seems to be “a lot.” Consequently, Apple’s release of Apple Store (Free, version 1.0.1) is the fourth separate Apple-owned store application for iPhones, iPod touches, and iPads, following the previously-debuted iTunes, App Store, and iBookstore, the latter located within iBooks. Apple Store is a pocket-sized version of Apple’s store.apple.com web site, which is focused on selling Apple hardware, accessories, and Mac software, as well as providing information on the company’s retail locations throughout the United States and world. In application form, Apple Store offers a “Featured” list of products Apple is promoting, a “Products” tab with sections devoted to sorted iPhone, iPad, Mac, and iPod product listings, and a “Stores” section with both a locator and reservation system for nearby sales and service. Notably, Read More

Eliminate:GunRange

| $0.99 | ngmoco, Inc.

iPhone + iPad Gems: Eliminate: GunRange, Rubik’s Cube + Slayer Pinball Rocks HD - iLounge Articles

Editor-in-Chief, iLounge Published: Tuesday, July 6, 2010 Category: iPod, iPhone, and iPad Gems: Apps, Games + More Welcome to this week’s gaming edition of iPhone + iPad Gems! Due to the launch of the iPhone 4, lots of apps have been piling up here for coverage, and we’ve had to pick and choose the ones that were most interesting—not necessarily the best—to highlight in this column. As such, we spotlight two titles that make use of the iPhone 4’s new gyroscope hardware and screen, as well as a third game that makes a great impression on any of Apple’s touchscreen devices. Our top pick of the week is Slayer Pinball Rocks HD from Sony Music Entertainment. Read on for all the details. Eliminate: GunRange It’s hard to really like or seriously dislike Ngmoco’s Eliminate: GunRange ($1, version 1.0.1), a presently iPhone 4-exclusive title that blends the “win credits to unlock things” sensibility of the company’s earlier first-person shooter Eliminate with high-resolution artwork that wasn’t possible on pocket devices before iPhone 4. Eliminate: GunRange is a collection of 144 repetitive shooting gallery exercises tied together by credits that let you unlock 12 total guns. You can test each gun in 12 different “challenges,” each opened one at a time, accruing more credits if you successfully take out all of the targets in each challenge, or fewer if you miss one or several. Fall below a certain threshold and you’ll need to repeat the challenge until you do well enough to move on; shoot accurately and you’ll earn your choice of new guns quickly. Apart from the unlocking system, there’s little here in common with the futuristic deathmatch-title Eliminate. Ngmoco blessedly excludes the in-app energy purchase system that made Eliminate so iffy, but also drops all of the artificial intelligence that made the Read More

Jaadu VNC

| $24.99 | Jugaari

iPhone + iPad Gems: Financial Times, iTeleport, Mars Globe/HD, Osfoora HD + Reeder for iPad - iLounge Articles

Editor-in-Chief, iLounge Published: Monday, June 14, 2010 Category: iPod, iPhone, and iPad Gems: Apps, Games + More Welcome to this week’s first edition of iPhone + iPad Gems. Today, we’re looking at an interesting and relatively well-rated collection of iPad applications that are all either based upon earlier iPhone apps or arriving in forms that are both iPad- and iPhone-compatible. They range in purpose from news readers and remote computer access software to Twitter and educational tools. The top-rated apps this week are iTeleport, Osfoora HD, and Reeder for iPad. Read on for all the details. iTeleport for iPhone/iPad Though the backstory is a little confusing, the appeal of iTeleport: Jaadu VNC for iPhone/iPad ($25) from iTeleport LLC is as clear as day: this program turns your iPad into a mirror of your Mac’s or PC’s screen, enabling you to control your computer—assuming that it’s turned on, in Screen Sharing mode, and running the company’s free iTeleport Connect software—over a Wi-Fi or 3G connection. Yes, that’s correct: you can access your computer from your iPad, and interact with the screen over a wireless connection. Once the computer-side app is running and you’ve used a Google Gmail account to log in, there’s little more to do than load iTeleport on the iPad, click on your computer’s name, and then watch as the iPad’s screen fills up with whatever’s on the computer’s screen. There’s virtually no configuration or thinking to be done; it just works. The initial screen-drawing process takes only a few seconds over 3G, and minor updates run only a second or so behind realtime, with bigger updates—video playback—slowing things down more. Over Wi-Fi, updates are nearly instantaneous. Cut, copy, and paste are supported, too, with a remote copy feature that enables you to grab content from your desktop machine and Read More

Drawing Pad

| $1.99 | Darren Murtha Design

iPhone + iPad Gems: Drawing Pad, Poke Me!/Poke Me! HD, Grokion, Guitar Hero + Meteor Blitz HD - iLounge Articles

Editor-in-Chief, iLounge Published: Thursday, June 10, 2010 Category: iPod, iPhone, and iPad Gems: Apps, Games + More Welcome to this week’s edition of iPhone + iPad Gems! Today, we look at six recent releases that vary from iPad-only to iPhone, iPod, and iPad compatible, including three edutainment apps for kids and three games. With the exception of one of the titles, either the app or the developer will be familiar to readers of past Gems columns, and the genres are all ones we’ve explored at least a little in earlier releases. Our top pick of the bunch is Drawing Pad. Read on for all the details. Edutainment: Drawing Pad + Poke Me!/Poke Me! HD If there’s anything to criticize in Darren Murtha Design’s iPad art application for kids—and there’s not much, really—it’s that Drawing Pad ($2) doesn’t automatically save the last piece of art created with its tools, starting every fresh reload with a blood red marker unless you manually saved and then reload the prior drawing. Depending on the child using Drawing Pad, however, this can be a good thing: the app’s paintbrushes, pencils, crayons, markers, shape stamps, and stickers can be used to create either beautiful, colorful compositions or completely chaotic messes, the latter sometimes easier to wipe away with a press of the Home button and reload of the app than going into the erasers menu and crumpling up the page to begin anew. For younger kids, even the messes will be a ton of fun to create: a huge collection of vehicle, animal, face and flower stickers can be dropped, rotated, resized, and stamped; different types of paper and photos from your gallery can be used as backdrops, and the drawing tools come in so many colors—attractively presented as scrolling images within a drawer that can be Read More

A1 PERFECT Web Browser for iPad - EXTRAORDINARY Browser w/ REAL-Tabs, TOUCH Scroll

| $2.99 | Ingenious Creations

iPad Gems: A1 Perfect Web Browser, GoodReader, Pulse News Reader + Wired Magazine - iLounge Articles

Editor-in-Chief, iLounge Published: Friday, June 4, 2010 Category: iPod, iPhone, and iPad Gems: Apps, Games + More Apple has pitched the iPad as the future of reading—a device capable of transforming everything from web sites to newspapers and magazines into more engaging, “magical” experiences. This week’s edition of iPad Gems looks at four recent App Store releases that each provide hints as to the future of reading on this device, and are notable for that reason, though they all have significant caveats that preclude them from being end-all, be-all solutions. We diverge a bit from our usual format for this roundup, focusing on the promise, the good, and the bad of each app. Our top pick of the bunch is GoodReader, but two of the other applications also receive our general-level recommendation. Read on for all the details. A1 Perfect Web Browser The Promise: The name couldn’t be much cheesier, but A1 Perfect Web Browser for iPad ($3, version 1.0) from Ingenious Creations is a desktop computer-inspired enhancement of the Mobile Safari web browser, “the fastest and most advanced feature-packed fullscreen web browser to date.” A1 adds a collection of small but non-trivial features to Safari, including tabbed browsing, evolving the iPad browsing experience to something that’s much closer to using a Mac or PC. The Good: A1 includes full support for tabbed browsing, effectively enabling you to skip instantly between numerous web pages—and to load those pages automatically every time the application starts, if you desire—a feature that’s so big and generally well-executed that Apple’s left with little excuse for omitting it in the next release of Safari. Touching a tab brings it up immediately, without any of the forced reloading seen when switching between pages in Safari, and you can use two-finger gestures to swipe between tabs if you Read More

KNIGHT RIDER

| $4.99 | Hudson

iPhone Gems: Knight Rider, Lt. Fly, Splinter Cell Conviction + The Package - iLounge Articles

Editor-in-Chief, iLounge Published: Thursday, June 3, 2010 Category: iPod, iPhone, and iPad Gems: Apps, Games + More Welcome to this week’s gaming edition of iPhone Gems! Each of the four titles we’re looking at today is designed specifically for the iPhone and iPod touch, rather than the iPad, though they all run on the iPad in 1X or 2X emulation mode. They span several different genres ranging from driving to action and puzzles, sometimes mixing multiple genres together, and for the first time in a while, none of the games merited a B+ or higher recommendation. One was such a mess that we didn’t even want to waste the time necessary to fully review it. Our top pick of the week is the B-rated puzzle game The Package. Read on for all the details. Knight Rider David Hasselhoff’s futuristic car-themed Knight Rider was one of the marquee television shows of the 1980’s—one that we really liked—and though attempts to resuscitate the series have repeatedly fallen flat, nostalgia requires that new attempts be made every five or ten years until something sticks. Hudson’s recent Knight Rider ($5, version 1.0) for the iPhone and iPod touch is such a mediocre, miserable attempt at cashing in on the brand that we didn’t even want to waste the effort required to provide a full review—we’re going to merely describe it and leave it unrated, because we just had no desire to play through what looks and feels like a 20-year-old, poorly translated mess of a game. Knight Rider places you in control of K.I.T.T., the once-famous 1982 Pontiac Firebird with artificial intelligence and sophisticated weaponry that enabled driver Michael Knight to solve mysteries. The game provides an overhead perspective view of K.I.T.T. as it drives through 15 missions, giving you “point A to point B” Read More