App Store

EDGE: Interactive Puzzle Game

Guest Author ∙ Updated January 23, 2016

Well I have been wanting for a game like this for a while. MobiGame has released their award-winning app EDGE [iTunes Link] for the iPhone and iPod Touch. I was one of the people that though this would not end up well on the iPhone when they saw the trailer.

But boy was I wrong! This game feels natural to the iDevices and you will get used to the controls almost immediately. Be warned; although the game offers a optional accelerometer control; this is not recommended. Touch controls work perfectly and are precise. The game features 26 levels. The game has a moving environment (as seen in the video) which makes the game experience richer. This is a puzzle game; but not the usual kind of game where you just guide the block to the goal. This game has a variety of game plays in which you must ride on moving blocks; hang on to them (called edge time) and more. And if that is not enough; this picture of you riding a robot made of blocks should win you over:

The dev told me that the next update (version 1.1) is coming, it will add :

- new levels - virtual keypad (optional) - accelerometer calibration - new tunes - global ranking

This app is currently $5.99 [iTunes Link] and definetly worth it. Highly recommended.

iPhone App Store Downloads Chart

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 23, 2016

As you may have heard, the App Store got over 500,000,000 (yes, that's 500 millions!) downloads since it was launched last year.

Gizmodo has a pretty funny, yet true, chart breaking down the applications that have been downloaded in the App Store.

My iPhone talks to my Xbox 360

Cody Lee ∙ Updated February 5, 2016

Well sort of. Between searching for new wallpapers on a daily basis, the alarm clock, Cydia, App Store, remotely controlling my computer, music, movies, and not to mention writing this article, you'd think I'd eventually run out of new uses for my iPhone, right? Wrong! With Flash and Sling mobile on the horizon for the #1 best selling phone of 2008, the iPhone platform is very hot right now and the list of cool and useful apps is hard to keep up with. Well, maybe I can help. At least I know I can help all of you Netflix users out there, even more so, you Xbox 360 users of that crowd.

Netflix is the largest online movie rental site, and you can rent either DVDs that are mailed out to you or stream them live on your PC, Xbox 360, or other Netflix compatible box. The library of titles you can stream instantly is smaller than that of DVDs you can have mailed to you but still very much worth the $8.95 monthly fee. You can only watch 1 at a time, but you can have up to 6 titles queued up and ready to go on your machine. Watch each one as long as you want, with no late fees, you just can not move on to the next movie until you have returned the previous.

Now, I told you that story, to tell you this one. I recently decided to give Netflix a try and knew I had seen iPhone applications in the App Store for the online rental service. There are actually a few of them that fit the description.

I knew I needed an app that would search movies available for my 'instant queue' or instant streaming, because for the most part I want to watch the movie right away. As I mentioned before, there are only a certain amount of movies available for instant streaming. Not all Netflix apps did that or made it easy to do. Instant Queue Add for Netflix [iTunes Link] did only that, but still didn't do it that well. This app only deals with movies available for instant streaming, but the interface is horrible. I could either choose from a list of popular choices, or do a search by name for a movie I wanted to watch. For the longest time I was thinking Netflix's library for instant streaming movies was ridiculously small, until I stumbled across a "see more like this" button, that unearthed a lot of movies that couldn't be viewed from the original 'popular' list.

Other options are Queuetastic [iTunes Link] by Timothy Schmitz and iPhlix [iTunes Link] by Brent Jensen. Both provide smoother interfaces with instant streaming video search options. iPhlix is a little more expensive at $2.99, rather than $0.99 like the others I tried out, but still worth it to me as I search for movies to rent on my iPhone at a red light on my way home from work. I choose 6 movies of 6 different genres and they are on my Xbox 360 when I get home. Out of those 6, my girlfriend looks at front and back case covers, reads synopsis and reviews, and decides on a movie, that is immediately available to watch on our big screen with complete playback controls. Playback is seamless a majority of the time. I did though, experience internet lag at one point, and a screen popped up that said "Your internet has slowed down, adjusting playback quality so you will not experience any more interruptions." Took 10 seconds, and I didn't encounter it again.

I have yet to try out Apple's rental service, or any other for that matter, but after watching 8 movies in 3 days, the Netflix service has already paid for itself. It does play in full screen across my 65" DLP, and the quality is quite good (for non HD). If you are a movie buff with an iPhone and the ability to stream video to a TV or computer in your house, the free trial from Netflix and one of the above mentioned iPhone apps will not disappoint. We plan on cancelling our 20$ cable movie package (were planning on anyways to save money), and hopefully this can take the place of those annoying trips to the video store at 11 o'clock at night.

I'm not an employee of nor was I paid by Netflix in any way. Always skeptical of the 1-3 wait periods for DVD delivery, I never thought twice about the service, but when my girlfriend told me about their instant streaming video, my ears perked up. Being able to browse and choose movies from virtually anywhere on my iPhone is also largely convenient, as it surely beats walking aimlessly around a BlockBuster. Even sitting on my couch in our movie room, it proved itself worthy. Additions and changes show up almost instantly, from my iPhone to my Queue screen on my Xbox 360.

It's funny because tonight when asked by little Brianna, who is just 8 years old and in search of answers, "How does the movie you pick on your phone, end up on our TV?" I had no idea how to respond. It was such a simple question, yet I did not know what to say. How do I play music off my iPhone through the car speakers? How do I play creepy sounds in the basement from upstairs to scare your brother? How do I pay bills, order Chinese food, and race high performance sports cars, all from my phone?

The truth is, I just can, because I own an iPhone. Because Apple re-invented the mobile phone. I know that because I saw the flurry of touch screen phones hit the market, shortly after the iPhone was announced. I know that because the iPhone made the Stylus an unattractive and unnecessary accessory of the past. I know that because Verizon, Blackberry, Google, and Amazon have all announced plans for mobile platform application stores, very similar to the App Store. I know that because, even at a base price of $199.99, the iPhone took over the #1 best selling cell phone of 2008, beating out the Motorola Razor that carriers were practically giving away. I know all of this, and my best answer for her was, "My iPhone talks to my 360." That's the best way I could explain it.

With tons of apps being released daily, it really is hard to keep up with the good stuff. If you are like me, and are fairly picky about what ends up on your spring board, check in a few times a week, and I will let you in on those rare apps that might make life a little bit easier, and are worth more than the "Check out what my phone can do" titles, that loose their appeal after a few well timed demonstrations.

P.S: Sebastien was right, the "Oh shit!" "What?!" "I forgot to shave!" gag while whipping out the iPhone with virtual electric razor on it is classic.

Is Apple Becoming NOT completely Stupid About The App Store Policy?

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated January 23, 2016

The title of this post is a rhetorical question. The answer being quite obvious as Apple has started to approve 3rd party web browsing applications.

Within the last day, the App Store has seen the additions of at least 4 web browsers, priced from free to $2. Each browser has it's own little feature:

- Edge Browser (Free) - No navigation bars. - Incognito ($1.99) - Browse without leaving web history. - WebMate:Tabbed Browser ($0.99) - Queue up all the links you click on, then view them one by one when you're ready. - Shaking Web ($1.99) - A sophisticated algorithm to compensate for small hand shaking to allow for easier reading.

According to MacRumors:

This could open the door for mobile versions of prominent web browsers such as Opera and Firefox, though there remain other SDK restrictions that could prevent full-featured versions of those browsers from appearing. Still, Apple appears to be loosening some early restrictions they had applied to the App Store approval process.

Animoto Is My New Favorite iPhone App

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated March 18, 2019

Maybe some of you already know Animoto, this website that let's you upload images, music, and creates cool slideshows in a matter of minutes. Don't misunderstand me, Animoto is not one of these cheap slideshow thing like Rock You or Slide. Using their patent-pending Artificial Intelligence developed to think like an actual editor & director, the resulting video has the emotional impact of a movie trailer and the visual energy of a music video.

Animoto [iTunes Link] is now available in the AppStore, letting you create animated slideshows directly from your iPhone, and believe me, this app delivers!

You can start creating a new slideshow right after launching the app as no registration is required. Select 8 to 16 photos from your library, arrange them at your liking, select a song from Animoto's library and tap "create". It takes about 15 second to upload each image to Animoto's servers. Once all the images are uploaded, Animoto will start creating the slideshow, which takes a few minutes. At this point, you can quit the app, make yourself a sandwich and come back a few minutes later.

The newly created video slideshow will be available for viewing. You can then edit it or share it with someone, which is the whole point of this app. It will send an email to whoever you want to share the slideshow with, with a link to your video on Animoto's website. From there, you can do a bunch of things such as embedding it, uploading it to YouTube, etc...

I love this application but I do have a few feature requests... First, I would like to be able to login to my Animoto account so the videos are saved in my account. Right now, Animoto doesn't allow you to login from your iPhone so you won't be able to save these videos to your existing Animoto's account if you already have one. My guess is that this will come in the next update.

My second request is that it should be able to let you upload a song from your iPhone. The website let's you do it. You can just choose a song you have on your computer and upload it so you can use it in your slideshow. Now I believe that Apple won't let anyone access the music library on the iPhone. Besides, uploading music directly from your iPhone would take forever.

At any rates, Animoto is clearly my favorite app of the week! I was already sold on the website, so it wasn't too hard to make me an adept of the iPhone app... You can download Animoto from the AppStore for free here.

Here is a slideshow that I quickly made for demo purposes. If you have created your own slideshow, share it with us in the comments!

Monopoloy for iphone? Is it better than the real thing?

Cody Lee ∙ Updated January 28, 2019

Let's see, in EA's version of the all time best selling board game, there aren't hundreds of pieces to clean up, in fact there's none. There's also no uncle Jerry pretending to pay for park place, but secretly only slipping in 200$. And forget about someone taking the car, you can be the car anytime you want. Uh yeah, monopoly for the iphone is way better.

For $7.99 you can now take the fun, family favorite with you, wherever you go. It's the updated Here & Now, World Edition, so if you haven't played one of the newer versions yet, this is the perfect way to try it.

After downloading, and launching, the app quickly loads to a beautiful, yet simple menu screen. This will stay the theme of the entire game, gorgeous graphics, simple controls. If you're not hooking up to play with your buddies on wifi, or checking high scores, your gonna hit play game and decide whether to play against the computer, or up to 3 friends in play and pass style.

From here on out it's smooth sailing. Obviously I'm not going to walk you through monopoly step by step, but this game is a twin in gameplay to it's card board counter part.

The experience is so pleasant. You shake the iphone to roll the dice, it moves your piece for you, and always asks you if you want to buy the property you land on if it's available. And if not, it automatically pays out your debts, making game times significantly slower than the board game. My only small complaint in an otherwise flawless execution would be that the roll dice/transaction/menu buttons at the bottom could be a tad bit larger so my chubby fingers don't have any problems hitting them every time.

But nonetheless tremendous stability and speed coupled with great graphics and animations make this game a for sure keeper to any fans of the genre.

You can pick up and play for a while, leave, and come back and pick up right where you left off. It's the perfect time killer.

It looks like Electronic Arts has done it again, and has made Monopoly Here & Now, World Edition a great addition to anyone's exclusive springboard collection.

Download Monopoly on iTunes

Forget Fring, Use TruPhone

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated February 22, 2017

Ok, don't forget Fring yet as it is a pretty good "all-in-one" app. But if you are using Fring solely for the Skype calls feature, then you might want to give a try at TruPhone, a VoIP app that was the first of its kind to be approved in the App Store.

So, what's so good about TruPhone? Well, I guess the best feature of this application is that it allows you to make VoIP calls from your iPhone to any phone in the world over wifi, and most importantly you can make calls even if you are not in a wifi zone. Now I have to admit this part is a bit shady. I had a look at Truohone's website and I can't figure out how this works exactly. It doesn't say anything about 3G or Edge but it does say that you can make calls even if you don't have an Internet connection. It's confusing but it still sounds great!

Fring allows you to do pretty much the same (and actually more) but the problem with Fring is that the app doesn't let you make VoIP calls over 3G or Edge, unless you implemented my Fring hack, of course... It seems that TruPhone is making this possible, without having to hack anything.

Let's have a look at what TruPhone can do for you:

Cheap international calls

The Truphone iPhone app routes iPhone calls over the Internet which can save you loads of money on international calls from your home country and on calls when you're abroad. You can look at the rates here. Calling a landline in my home country (France) is $0.06/minute but calling a cellphone there is $0.30/minute. All calls in the US are $0.06/minute.

Use Truphone Anywhere

If you're not online Truphone Anywhere can still route your call over the internet. So now you can make cheap VoIP calls even when you're not connected to a Wi-Fi network. How does that work? I'm not sure...

Free calls worldwide

Calls to other connected Truphone users are FREE, worldwide. So if you and your friends all download Truphone, you can call each other for FREE, wherever you are in the world!

Know who's online

A new feature lets you know which of your Truphone contacts is online. It's great news if you want to make FREE Wi-Fi to Wi-Fi calls on your iPhone because calls between connected users are always FREE Worldwide.

Receive calls for free

You can receive FREE Truphone calls whenever you're connected to a Wi-Fi network.

iPod Touch users for once shouldn't feel left aside. If you have a headset with a microphone you can also use this great app on your iTouch, which means that you can turn your iPod Touch into a phone!!!

Truphone is free and you may click here to download Truphone for iPhone or Truphone for iPod Touch.

One question still lingers in my mind though... Is AT&T ok with that?

iPhone Works With Toddlers Too

Guest Author ∙ Updated January 29, 2016

Adam's Game [iTunes Link] is just amazing. I love simple apps, I love apps that needs no explanation, I love apps that you can make your own, but this one simply tops it all... provided you are one year old or younger.

A voice asks you to point at one of three figures; if you do so a cheering noise congratulates you; otherwise you have a nice “Hu-ho”, not so praising, but not too negative either. Anyone old enough to buy an iPhone might find it limited — but who said children have short attention span?

How do I know it is so great? I am a single, toddler-hater with no nephew-turned-tester at hand. I saw the app, didn't really paid attention at first, but like Joe Biden I do take the train often, and unlike him, I'm always seated next to the nastiest one-toothed ear-drump-blaster-of-a-child that starts yelling for no reason. Thank you 3G, I had the app up and running in no time. The best dollar spent in my life, I'd say. I'm not sure my headset was his size, though.

Adam's Game is fully customizable, so all of you overworked parents can let your better half share his or her iPhone with the little wonder, with your voice on it. I know this might sound like a detail, but many workaholic might end up being slightly better parents with that.

The only problem: you might want to use bactericide swipe on your phone after that. And a solid casing: gravity is still an fascinating experimental interest at that age.

For all your presentations, Pointer is what you need

Guest Author ∙ Updated February 5, 2016

As an academic, I've been using presentation software intensively and had my share of panicked presenters, unprepared seminars and lame conference keynotes. But I also had my share of clumsy moments when I needed to be both next to the main screen and to click on my laptop because my clicker wouldn't work at the last minute. No more, thanks to Pointer ($.99) or Stage Hand ($7.99).

Neither will prepare your presentation for you, or protect you against really annoying questions from the audience; it will not make that d*mn beamer work, but it will turn your iPhone into the most convenient clicker you've ever had.

Your phone is always near you. You can jump to any slide. You can see notes. It just works.

Both can walk you through both PowerPoint and Keynote presentation, using the Wifi connexion of your MacBook. Both can double as rough track-pad, even outside of a presentation. Both need you to download and install a local applet beforehand, and I recommend that you set everything up before you start. Although the software works right away, there are some tweaking to do with multiple screens parameters in your Preference panel. Both have similar options: clicking sound, typeface size, jump to a given slide, highlight color.

Beside the price, there is little difference: Stage Hand has a convenient Wifi meter and a “Slide mode” where you can slide to switch to the next slide, and —more importantly— where your iPhone screen shows the actual slides of your presentation (current slide or Keynote's Presenter Display).

Doom on your iPhone

Guest Author ∙ Updated November 12, 2018

Cube [iTunes Link] is an adaptation of Doom to the iPhone, developed by fernLigthening [iTunes Link]. The controls are amazing: accelerometer for sight, aim and direction (there are the same); tap the corners to move, shoot, pause and go to the menu). Surprisingly enough it is free (so far) but we can expect a paying version with more levels coming.

The 3D engine (a projected 2D-height map, actually) is really fluid and the motion-response is great; just check this video demo:

A few bad points: many do not like the very sensitive point-and-shoot: being able to tap on the screen to shoot on that particular direction might have been easier—but I prefer to see the screeen at all times, as fernLightening has made possible. One thing however: do not try to play it in a car or even a train: you won't be able to aim, but more importantly, you will get sick. The motion-by-toggle has just the right setting that messes with your sense of balance.

Review: OrbLive

Guest Author ∙ Updated January 23, 2016

This review of the OrbLive [iTunes link] iPhone app is at least two weeks in the making. As soon as I saw OrbLive in the App Store, I knew it had to have it. OrbLive streams pictures, video, music and documents over your cellular or Wifi network. But, the REAL gem of the app is its ability to stream LIVE television! But, I had a couple of hurdles to overcome:

I did not have a cable television connection available for my computer. I did not have an MPEG-2 encoder that was compatible.

So, first I had to get a cable connection into my bedroom where my computer is. I went to Radio Shack and spent $50 for a really good 4-way splitter (yes, we have a bunch of TVs in the house) and a really long cable. That was the easy part.

Next, I went shopping for a new TV tuner card/MPEG-2 encoder. I decided to play it safe and get hardware I knew for sure is compatible with Orb, the PC desktop software that streams media to your iPhone. There was none in stock at the local stores, so I bought the WinTV-PVR USB2 off of eBay for $46. It's an external MPEG-2 encoder that can run more than $100.

After installing everything, I have to say that live streaming television iPhone through OrbLive is AWESOME! The picture doesn't looks as good as a digital copy of a movie on your iPod, but it's quite good for streaming TV over 3G and Wi-Fi.

Here's pictures I captured of live TV on my iPhone on 3G and Wi-Fi. Can you guess which is 3G and Wi-Fi?:

For the record, the top is Wi-Fi and the bottom is 3G. I have heard on message boards that the Wi-Fi picture used to look better but I cannot confirm that. Using EDGE for live television is not good at all.

To use OrbLive on the go, just make sure that your desktop PC running Orb is on. If you have an external encoder/tuner you need to make sure that is on as well. As far as I know, Orb does not make software for the Mac.

So, the money I spent on a cable connection, MPEG-2 encoder and a $9.99 app came out to a little more than $100. Was it worth it? I'd have to say that it's a resounding YES! But, like the MasterCard commercials, being able to watch your favorite live program on your iPhone when you're away from home is indeed PRICELESS.

Price swings, Lite versions and Sub-platforms

Guest Author ∙ Updated November 20, 2008

The iTunes App Store's control over developers is notoriously binding, so none of them really expected any fancy business model to emerge. Online, nobody knows you are a dog, and people are OK to pop $.99 for something with a funny name and a promising screen cap. If you actually plan to make a living from more than $5, and you're a developer and you were not one of the three games featured at the Jobsian App Store launch... Too bad!