Review

Clic: the elegant case that’s barely there

Jim Gresham ∙ April 12, 2014

I have tested many, many cases in my short two year term as a hardware review editor. The one genre of case that I have seen overdone, rinsed and repeated, is the simple clip case. Almost every iPhone hardware company as one. The generic, little flimsy, thin-as-possible case that is just there to keep your phone from getting scratched up.

The trouble with these simple, small, thin cases is lack of detail and, really, passion. Companies seem to pass the thin do-nothing case as their last item at the trash can's bottom. They just produce it because it is a cheap, quick way to make a buck from people just wanting a simple solution. Native Union is here to correct those notions and is really killing it with their Clic...

Flashout 2 review: race in a future with flying cars and rockets

Lory Gil ∙ Updated January 26, 2018

Racing games all have pretty much the same game mechanic. Drive fast, beat your opponent, and sometimes upgrade your car. No matter how many different versions of the game I play, I love every one of them. Racing is fun. Especially when you can blow your opponent to smithereens.

Flashout 2 is a racing game set in an utopian future where cars can fly, money litters the streets, and it is legal, in some cases required, for you to destroy your opponent…

15 Coins review: good luck collecting coins in this ultra hard arcade game

Lory Gil ∙ Updated February 5, 2018

I never got into the Flappy Bird phenomenon. I remember hearing groups of people talking about it at a restaurant only days before its untimely demise wondering why something so simple was so popular. I think I have an understanding of that now.

15 Coins is a simple arcade style game that is impossibly difficult. Similar to Flappy Bird, it makes you want to keep playing over and over, no matter how poorly you perform, just to try to get one more coin before you die…

Sometimes You Die: a side-scrolling platformer with no rules

Lory Gil ∙ April 6, 2014

What would a game look like if you took all of the glitz and glamor out of it - if there were no coins to collect, and no points to earn? What if, in order to progress, you had to kill your character, ruining a “perfect game”?

Sometimes You Die both asks and answers those questions, as well as a few others. It is striped down in looks, but extraordinary in execution. If you think you’ve beaten the game, think again…

Just Mobile AluBolt cradles iPhone and iPad mini

Jim Gresham ∙ Updated April 16, 2018

Docks are my favorite iPhone and iPad accessory. I am not exactly sure what about them is enticing, but having my iOS devices propped elegantly at my workstation has been alluring since I first purchased an iPhone. Apple's products are not just devices for productivity. Apple's products are works of carefully crafted art.

In that nature, I would rather prop them up as a showcase. You wouldn't buy a $600 piece of art and let it lay aimlessly around your home. You would place it prominently, making sure others can tell you have great taste. You own an iPhone, right? Apply the same concept...

DEAD Room – The Dark One review: welcome to your worst nightmare

Lory Gil ∙ Updated January 24, 2018

My first discovery of the fabled “Slender Man” happened a few years ago. A friend showed me YouTube videos of found footage starring a tall, thin figure with a featureless face. In the videos, the electronics of the camera would fail every time Slender Man would appear on screen. Although I knew it was make believe, it still creeped me out.

Dead Room – The Dark One is a play on the fictitious figure. Only this mysterious entity looks and moves differently. The gameplay is similar to other Slender Man survival titles, but seems to have no ending, except a bad one…

Fantastical 2 for iPad: the best calendar app is now available on iPad

Sébastien Page ∙ Updated March 16, 2018

I'd probably be wasting my time if I spent more than a few words introducing Fantastical, an app that most of us here at iDB use on a daily basis, and which we recently ranked as one of the best calendar apps for iPhone. And it's not just us!

Up until today, you could only use Fantastical on your Mac or your iPhone, but things are changing as Flexibits just released Fantastical 2 for iPad, now available in the App Store...

TriBlaster review: step back in time with this retro arcade game

Lory Gil ∙ March 31, 2014

I can almost still smell the scent of stale popcorn and feel the sticky joystick in my hand when I play certain retro style games. At the risk of outing my age, when I was a kid, there was no such thing as home consoles. If you wanted to play a video game, you had to go to an arcade.

TriBlaster is an updated version of one of the best vector graphic 3D games of the 1980s, Tempest. Instead of a boring old fixed view, this game offers a multitude of angles to confuse and amuse you…

TodoMovies 3 keeps you up-to-date on the latest movie releases

Lory Gil ∙ March 29, 2014

Almost a full year ago, we reviewed Taphive’s ToDoMovies 2.0. Since that time, technology has improved and Apple released iOS 7. In response, Taphive updated their movie app to match.

TodoMovies 3 is a movie discovery app that lets you keep track of what you want to see in the future, what you’ve already seen before, and find out relevant news about the film industry…

Review: the iQi wireless iPhone charger

Oliver Haslam ∙ Updated April 16, 2018

Wireless charging has long been one of technology's Holy Grails. Being able to charge your devices without them having to be tethered to a power outlet would undoubtedly change the way we work, but seeing as we're still quite some ways away from having electricity beamed to our smartphones and tablets, we'll have to make do with the next best thing - charging plates.

Many phones support what they like to call wireless charging, but as the pedantic amongst us would point point out, that's not strictly accurate. After all, that charging plate still needs a wire! Get beyond that hangup though, and wireless charging is actually pretty cool even in its current state. Putting your tablet or smartphone on a pad and having it start charging is impressive enough, but unfortunately Apple still isn't up for it. Neither the iPad nor iPhone support wireless charging out of the box, and existing third-party solutions need big cases that come with the required technology built-in, which is far from ideal. Wireless charging should get out of the way, not make itself unmissable.

Enter the iQi wireless charging adapter...

Perfection! Do you have what it takes to achieve this puzzle?

Lory Gil ∙ Updated November 19, 2018

My dad fit into a category many would call “perfectionist.” His socks were neatly folded and color-coded. The hangers in his closet were always spaced exactly the same distance apart. He even scrubbed out the garbage cans on a weekly basis. Living up to his standard of perfection was hard. I guess that’s why I gave up and turned into a slob.

Perfection! (the game) is a fun puzzle title that is just as hard to be successful at as it is to live up to a perfectionist’s standards. Only, it is actually fun. You won’t have to clean the bottom corners of your closet with an old toothbrush or restack dishes that don’t sit properly in the cupboard. You just have to play the game. Perfectly…

Symbol Link is Tetris designer’s newest puzzle game

Lory Gil ∙ March 26, 2014

If you didn’t already know it, Alexey Pajitnov created Tetris in 1984. His simple shape-dropping mechanic changed the face of video game puzzles for decades to come. He probably didn’t know just how important his role in the world would be, but he is legendary.

Symbol Link is a puzzle game designed by the famed developer Pajitnov. Players connect two shapes that trigger an automatic connection of other shapes. It may never reach the level of success that Tetris had, but it is fun just the same…