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App Review: Rolando 2 — Roll On the Second Coming

Written on July 09, 2009 by Olly Farshi and No one has commented

Rolando 2 is the sequel to Rolando, a game which proved that the iPhone can compete with Sony’s PSP and Nintendo’s DS in the handheld console wars.
Just over a year after opening, the App Store is coming into its own. Indeed, there’s the dodgy dirge of novelty joke apps, but at the other end of [...]

Fluent News: Great For Reading, Less So for Sharing

Written on July 08, 2009 by Tom Reestman and No one has commented

I’ve been playing with Fluent News on the iPhone for the last day, and consider it a fine first effort as a news reading app. However, when it comes to sharing the news stories you’re most interested in, it falls short.
Reading
On my iPhone’s first Home page, I have readers for the New York Times, The [...]

Push Gmail For iPhone (Almost) Here

Written on July 07, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 20 people have commented

One of the only reasons I’ve stuck it out with my MobileMe account, despite numerous quirks, annoyances and outright failures, is push email. For the iPhone to be useful to me as a business device, I need it to keep me up to date on my email in real time (or as close to it [...]

App Developer Diary Part 2: Pitching My Concept

Written on July 03, 2009 by Olly Farshi and No one has commented

In this week’s enlightening installment of the App Developer Diary, I pitch my game concept to the coders, preach the gospel of the Game Bible and muse upon the possibility of the project imploding.
Straight after submitting last week’s App Developer Diary, I packed up my MacBook Pro and headed down to Nolla, a local bar [...]

App Review: oMaps — Offline Mapping for iPhone

Written on July 01, 2009 by Olly Farshi and 10 people have commented

Due to hefty 3G roaming rates, Apple’s Maps app just won’t cut it when you’re out of the country. The oMap app lets you download maps for offline viewing — dodging a shocking bill post-vacation.
The iPhone is an almost perfect companion for travels to distant lands. With a bit of foresight and time set aside [...]

Remember The Milk Becomes First To-Do App With Push Notifications

Written on June 29, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 21 people have commented

Slowly but surely, push notification apps are trickling into the App Store, as you can see from this handy little list by AppAdvice.com. Some of them are less than impressive, since they offer strange niche functions that I could never picture myself actually using. Beejive IM came out last week, though, which has become by [...]

App Developer Diary Part 1: Game On

Written on June 26, 2009 by Olly Farshi and 10 people have commented

This is the first installment of one journalist’s diary designing a game. It is a genuine, behind-the-scenes look at what it’s like to develop an app, from conception to release, for Apple’s iPhone.
This isn’t your regular developer diary. There’ll be no talk of code and classes, no discussion of the intricacy of integers or vileness [...]

App Review: Presenter Pro — Learn to Sell It Like Steve Jobs

Written on June 24, 2009 by Olly Farshi and 3 people have commented

Presenter Pro is a learning resource for professionals and interns alike, coaching you in the ways of effective presenting.
There are three heroes of presenting for me: Merlin Mann, with his deliciously witty and yet precise style; Lawrence Lessig, who takes a high-speed, word-by-word approach; and of course, Steve Jobs, who is alternately expressive, passionate and [...]

Weekly App Store Picks: June 20, 2009

Written on June 20, 2009 by Olly Farshi and 1 person has commented

A hand-picked selection of the latest releases for iPhone? Plus, a handy summary of Apple news from the past seven days? We’ve got it all, you lucky person, you.
Despite the deluge of announcements at last week’s WWDC, we’ve had no time to rest this week, either. Indeed, the news hasn’t stopped rolling in, so before [...]

First Example of In-App Purchasing Does Not Bode Well

Written on June 18, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 32 people have commented

Everyone is so focused on finding apps that support push notification that they probably haven’t looked too hard for apps that take advantage of other iPhone OS 3.0-specific features. For example, Gokivo is the first app to officially make use of in-app purchases.
Unfortunately, it also appears to be the first to use the new feature [...]

App Review: Bookworm for iPhone

Written on June 12, 2009 by Mark Crump and 1 person has commented

One of the great things about gaming on the iPhone is the mindless entertainment it provides on my long commute. When that mindless entertainment actually forces me to use my brain, it’s a bonus.
At its core, Bookworm is a simple game. You have a grid of randomly-placed letters from which you form words that at [...]

ZipCar: Car Sharing/Renting With Your iPhone

Written on June 09, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 2 people have commented

Perhaps one of the most amazing partnership announcements made during WWDC’s keynote yesterday is ZipCar’s exciting story of iPhone app design. But it could easily fall through the cracks, for a couple of reasons: One, hardware announcements took center stage, and two, people who don’t live in major urban centers might not be aware of [...]

Look Out Stanza, Scroll Motion Bringing 1M+ Books, Magazines to iPhone

Written on June 08, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 10 people have commented

Print media isn’t dead, it’s just slowly becoming digital media. Which I guess would mean that it’s dying. Regardless, it’s good news for those of us who actually like using our iPhones as e-readers. And it’s good news for Scroll Motion, a company responsible for bringing lots of best-sellers to the iPhone platform via its [...]

The Sims 3 for iPhone: Bring the Franchise to Your Pocket

Written on June 02, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 43 people have commented

It arrived shortly after midnight on Tuesday, the same day as the release of the desktop version, and I was all over it. “Pumped” would probably be the best way to describe me at 12:45 a.m. on Tuesday morning as my iPhone was syncing with my Mac mini and the Sims 3 ($9.99, iTunes link) [...]

All My Mail Searches Multiple Web Mail Accounts at Once

Written on May 29, 2009 by Lisa Hoover and 3 people have commented

There’s a lot to love about the iPhone, but its ability to manage email is, well, lacking — especially when it comes to search. All My Mail is a new app from Attassa that lets you search across your web-based email accounts, including attachments and contact lists, to quickly find what you need.
The standard version [...]

App Review: Quick Voice Pro — Voice to Text Email for iPhone

Written on May 28, 2009 by Olly Farshi and 17 people have commented

By converting your voice messages into text e-mails, Quick Voice Pro could be a time-saving boon for busy iPhone owners.
Empowered by our emails, tweets, IM conversations, and blogs, we’ve become modern-day information conduits. We collect knowledge, then discharge it into the ether, spurting out a constant fountain of fact, fiction and entertainment.
Quick Voice Pro is [...]

App Review: Face Fun – iPhone Face-Recognition Multiplied By Fun

Written on May 20, 2009 by Olly Farshi and 1 person has commented

If we were to liken the iPhone to a Greek hero — all muscle-bound and chiseled man-face — it would surely be Achilles, the guy with the wonky heel.
The iPhone is our modern-day electronic hero, savior of our interconnected lives. Yet it is a hero with one tiny flaw, a weakness that even its fondest [...]

Yahoo Going All-In With iPhone App, Abandons Other Platforms (For Now)

Written on May 20, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 5 people have commented

I admit I was surprisingly impressed with Yahoo for iPhone when it first came out, and an update within the last week brought even more improvements, but I’m not sure the app is so spectacular that Yahoo should pour all its effort into it at the expense of other platforms. But that’s what it’s thinking, [...]

Apple Begins Stress Testing Push Notification Servers

Written on May 19, 2009 by Darrell Etherington and 6 people have commented

Yesterday, people registered as paid iPhone developers received an email alerting them to the availability of a new version of the Associated Press News app via a temporary, exclusive code. The purpose of the app is to test high-volume live push notification and its effect on Apple’s servers before the function goes out live to [...]

All Things Digital’s New App Puts Tech News On Your iPhone

Written on May 18, 2009 by Lisa Hoover and 1 person has commented

If you’re a fan of the popular technology news and commentary web site All Things Digital (and you should be), then you’ll be glad to know there’s a new app available from the App Store today that optimizes the site for your iPhone. Use it to access the site’s daily columns, blog posts, or videos [...]