App Advice

PayPal v2.0 Update Adds Loads Of Features And A New Look

Tyler Tschida — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 22:45:09 +0000

Before today the PayPal iPhone app was a complete yawn-fest not really worthy of a place on your springboard unless you were the kind of person who absolutely needed to send money while on-the-go because that’s basically all it could do, that and view your current balance and history. The recently released v2.0 however, gives the app some actually worthwhile features while also sprucing it up with a brand new interface.

PayPal iPhone app users will no doubt welcome the new look and feel in v2.0, sporting a more colorful and rich interface, but really it’s all about the features. The app now sports the somewhat gimmicky, although fun, Bump feature, allowing you to bump two devices together to quickly and easily transfer money.

PayPal v2.0 allows you to do a lot more with your money as well, giving you the ability to withdraw funds from your PayPal balance into your bank account, collect money from a group, event, gift, or cause, and request money.

Other neat features include the ability to instantly split a bill at a restaurant, calculate a tip, and request everyone’s share, and the ability to set reminders so you never miss paying a bill.

PayPal v2.0 is now available in the App Store for free.

Learn And Master Guitar On Your iPhone With Gibson

Phil Wheeler — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 21:45:48 +0000

The Gibson Les Paul is the best selling guitar of all time. With the Gibson Learn & Master Guitar App, you can now have one on your iPhone.

Gibson has teamed up with Legacy Learning Systems and Deepwell Software, to develop an App that they claim “is a must-have application for any guitar player”. Having bought a few of the best Guitar Apps available on iPhone I asked myself a simple question “what makes this app better than the rest?” The answer, as far as the Chromatic Tuner, Chord Database and Metronome are concerned is, nothing. These features are available as standard in any Guitar App in the App Store.

So why is the Gibson App so special? Well, The Gibson Learn & Master Guitar App, has an Ace up its sleeve with the “Lessons” feature. “Lessons” offers you free, full length guitar lessons from the award winning Learn & Master Guitar course for beginner, intermediate and advanced. “Lessons” puts this app ahead of the competition, particularly considering that it is free. It certainly is worth a look at for most guitarists, and even more so if you’re a huge Gibson fan.

Gibson Learn & Master Guitar App is available in the App Store – Free.

Appisode 91: iPad Numbers Looking Good, Games To Save You Money, Plus The Chance To Win Big

Robin Rhys — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 21:16:39 +0000

A group of Apple enthusiests have tracked iPad pre sale orders and estimate that Apple sold 120,000 units on day one – and will sell half a milion before they even ship. So where did these numbers come from? Well, according to Appleinsider, users on the AAPL Sanity Board at Investor Village have used their own order numbers to determine how many orders were taken total.

Want more for your money? Gameloft is here to give it to you, with their new 3 games in 1 Gameloft Sports Pac.

App of the Day: Fantell – check out how you can win a free iPad!!

Self-Proclaimed “Fastest iPhone Typist” Types 83 WPM

Tyler Tschida — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:29:39 +0000

YouTube user konceptzoflife has wowed the web with his shockingly fast 83 WPM using only an iPhone 3GS, iTextSpeed, and what we can only assume to be robotic spring-loaded thumbs.

The self-proclaimed “fastest iPhone typist” first achieved moderate Internet fame by typing a tepid 81 WPM on his iPhone. With most of you being avid iPhone and iPod touch users, you can probably understand how difficult of an achievement this is. Typing 81 WPM is an absolutely astonishing feat on a soft keyboard, and even fairly difficult on a full-size physical keyboard. His achievement is even more amazing considering he only made a single mistake out of the 44 words typed.

He later followed up his 81 WPM with a score of 83 WPM, although he only has screenshots to prove it, no video. His overall goal is to achieve a whopping 90 WPM.

Do you think you can come anywhere near that speed? iTextSpeed is a $.99 app, but the developer does offer a free version that allows you to test your typing skills for a full 15 seconds.

[via 148apps]

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From GDC: Glu Mobile Announces Three New Games

Trevor Sheridan — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:19:44 +0000

We met with Glu Mobile during GDC, and they revealed three new games. The first game is How to Train Your Dragon: Flight of the Night Fury which was released the day we met with them last Wednesday. The game is built upon the same engine as the Glyder series just with the Dreamworks movie tie in.

The gameplay itself is pretty similar, though there are a few simplicities like having a dragon so you don’t need to manage your air the same way as in Glyder. You can pick it up today, or wait for a full review which should be coming shortly.

The next game is called escape from NOM which is quite away from being finished, but we got to see a real early build. It’s a physics puzzler where you try to change the color of the nom to land in the colored pool at the bottom. You will need to use tools like bumpers to change color, deal with various hazards and switches, as well as enemies.

There are five different worlds with 10 levels each. On top of that a level editor is planned. The game is similar to Peggle in that you scroll to line up the nom to launch it through the course.

The final game is Stranded 2 Mysteries of Time which is a classic franchise they’re bringing to the iPhone. It’s an adventure game with a deluxe story that places you on an island trying to figure out its mysteries. You explore using virtual d-pad controls, and attempt to beat all the missions and sub-quests given by various characters you chat with.

The game plays unlike many other games in the App Store by allowing you to progress and fire at the same time in a top down view. In the end you’ll be figuring out mysteries of an island, and traveling though time, wait isn’t there a TV show with that premise? The game is expected to take quite a few hours to get through, and is arriving sometime in April.

Glu overall is a mobile game maker who makes games for all mobile platforms, and isn’t just on the iPhone/iPod Touch. They have the iPhone more in mind though recently, and are going to be bringing social features to their games, but whether it’s their own service or something like OpenFeint they haven’t decided.

Discover And Share Nearby Media With Lokast

Kiet Chieng — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 20:13:45 +0000

It’s probably an oversimplification to say that social networks have become a way of life. Sharing ideas and personal content has never been easier and the trend will continue to explode as mobile applications make this sharing even more seamless. A new app introduced today at SXSW from developer NearVerse promises to deliver on the experience with its amazingly rich media sharing app Lokast.

Lokast works on the simple premise of creating micro social sharing networks. Users with the app can share personal media like movies, photos and music when in the vicinity of other users. All media shared is personally chosen and can be easily downloaded to others without the need to pair bluetooth, connect cables or create the connection. The app also allows for shared browsing as well enabling other users to view your screen as you surf the internet. It’s all done within the app and it’s done rather well.

Open up the free app and you’ll see the icons at the top representing users nearby that you can instantly connect with. Tapping on one will bring up their shared content and from there, you have immediate access to view and even download the media to your Lokast account. Once you’ve added that media, you can then share it with others resulting in a very simple way to virally connect content.

Music clips are limited to 30 second previews but the app will provide links so you can download the track from iTunes. NearVerse has also made deals with featured users like indie bands to provide full downloadable tracks to promote up and coming musicians.

The developers mention many simple use cases where this social sharing could work very well. Your choice in music and movies can quickly reflect your personality so meeting new people at parties and making a connection couldn’t be any easier. Promoters and bands at concert venues would also be able to distribute music to thousands of fans instantly using Lokast.

As with any social media, success can only be measured in the amount of users willing to participate and begin the sharing. Fortunately, the app is available with no costs.

Start sharing and discovering the media around you. Lokast is free and ready for download now on the App Store.

Review: Eveningstar

Robert Horner — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:40:03 +0000

Overview

Eveningstar is a vertical scrolling shooter with a new twist. You control a magnetic ball of energy that is tethered to your spaceship through your ship’s movement. Your job will be to solve puzzles using the Eveningstar, and destroy unique looking enemies. The graphics are beautiful and the colors vary widely in each of the nine total levels. There is no social score keeping available but the difficulty is adjustable.

Features

Touch to control your spaceship as you fly through a slow vertical scrolling environment. You have a life bar and a total of three lives. Upon death you return invincible for three seconds right were you died, losing all upgrades gained up to that point, and making death seamless.

There are nine levels in total, each of which has very unique creatures and includes a boss at the end. You can select any level that you have unlocked to play each time you start the game. You fire the guns by touching the bottom left of the screen, there is no fire button displayed.

The main damage you do and the answer to most of the puzzles is the Eveningstar. The Eveningstar is a blue orb of energy that can destroy most enemies instantly, and can also manipulate the environment by touching it. It is tethered your ship and can swing wildly in any direction around you, depending on how much you can swing your ship around to create a slingshot effect.

The controls will see you firing your gun, swinging your ship in wide circles, and dodging to avoid incoming missiles and enemies, all this becomes a lot to deal with at the same time. Fortunately the map scrolls very slowly allowing you time to focus on the tasks at hand. There are a number of upgrades including extra lives, healing, double straight shot, triple wide shot, fire backwards, and Eveningstar size increase.

The Good

The responsive touch controls take vertical scrolling shooters to a whole new realm. The graphics are colorful and crisp. The backgrounds and enemies are all quite unique and very beautiful. The soundtrack is professional quality and adds to the already high excitement level with an epic quality. The levels are quite short allowing for easy replays whether for higher scores or just to beat the level. Each level has a boss and each boss needs to be outwitted using your Eveningstar and guns.

The Bad

As you fly through the levels, the screen scrolls forward at a snail’s pace which can be annoying at times. The backstory is only available intext form and you need to select it if you want to read it. The Eveningstar is difficult to control at first but becomes instinctual as you play on.

The game has a brisk overall feeling. You can die quite easily if you don’t pay attention to where you are swinging that thing. It can become difficult to see obstacles near your spacecraft due to the wild touch and slide control movements needed to get the Eveningstar to do it’s maximum potential damage.

The lack of social score keeping really hurts the replayability despite the adjustable difficulty. There is no store to buy permanent upgrades from, nor a monetary system of any real value, despite coins being attainable as you play through the levels.

The Verdict

The unique touch specific controls makes Eveningstar a game that would only work on the iPhone and is worth checking out just for the revolutionary controls. The soundtrack is top quality and enhances the gameplay. With three easily adjustable difficulty levels this game is accessible, from the casual gamer right on up to the pro. Eveningstar could have easily earned a 4.5 with social score keeping, but this app is still a gamer’s dream.

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Offline Listening Coming Soon To Rhapsody iPhone App

Tyler Tschida — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 19:07:50 +0000

Rhapsody’s iPhone app already provides subscribers (Rhapsody To Go subscription costs $15/month) with over 9 million full-length tracks that can be streamed over Wi-Fi, 3G, or Edge, but the company is looking to make their service more enjoyable and much more convenient with the ability to download songs to your iPhone or iPod touch, pending Apple’s approval of course.

Rhapsody’s recently released YouTube video shows the offline listening feature in action. It demonstrates how you will be able to download a single song or entire playlists to your device so you won’t have to rely on finicky wireless signals. Downloaded songs and playlists will be highlighted with an orange color while streaming songs remain blue for easy navigation. Besides the obvious upside of not requiring a wireless signal, downloaded songs help preserve your device’s battery life by a relatively large margin.

Rhapsody has stated that the update will be submitted to Apple for approval “very soon.” When it will be available for download, however, remains to be seen.

From GDC: Hands On Preview Of Gameloft’s Zombie Infection and Fishing Kings

Trevor Sheridan — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 18:21:17 +0000

Gameloft gave us hands on time with three upcoming games including Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction, as well as Zombie Infection, and Fishing Kings. Zombie Infection is another App Store game where you blast away zombies, but this is a game we’ve seen before. It’s very similar to Resident Evil 5, and even begins in Africa.

It’s a third person shooter with an over the shoulder camera. In the game all movement is slow, and you have to stop to fire. Controls are standard for Gameloft with a left virtual stick, and action buttons in the bottom right. You tap on the gun to aim, then tap again to fire, and then you have to holster it before moving on.

10 levels are included of zombie shooting action with a familiar storyline of a cameraman looking for his brother who picks up a female counterpart. I got hands on time of blasting away infected Africans in a slum type area, and then moved on to a zoo infested with zombie animals. An arena mode is also included for continuous zombie action, though the heart of the game is the campaign.

It’s another game that looks great running smoothly right in front of me. The zoo environment looked great with nice shadowing effects, as did the zombie enemies. The game progresses slowly though, and there’s always extra button presses to fire that you occasionally forget to do. A map in the upper right always shows you where to go so you’re never stuck or have to think, so you can play just as a mindless zombie.

You have to fire multiple times to kill any zombie, though when you get them to the ground you can walk over, and stomp on their head resulting in an explosion of blood. For a zombie shooter which are known for killing tons of zombies quickly, this one feels dull in comparison. The game is expected later this month, and we will have a full review once it’s released.

The third gameloft game we saw was Fishing Kings. It’s a fishing simulator that when you see it you instinctively think of Flick Fishing from Freeverse. The controls are similar where you flick to cast, and then spin the reel to reel in a fish. The difference is once you cast an underwater camera appears.

Now you see the fish, and can see when a potential bite is close. You can tell a fish is hooked when it jumps at you like popping out of the screen. Then you start to reel it in which will take a few minutes of tedious reeling. The fish will struggle hard, and your line will become tight quickly so you need to reel a little, then let go and just tilt the device in the direction the fish is going all in an attempt to tire it out.

The fish will finally give up for a little so you can reel it in quickly, but the fish will get a second wind, and more struggling will ensue. The entire time there is a voice over telling you what to do, like let it go left which is annoying to say the least. Five varying locations are included with three fishing spots per giving you 15 in total, and each location giving you appropriate fish (30 to catch).

The game is really well designed providing a deluxe 3D view above and below the water that no other fishing game on the iPhone has yet to provide. The game will be available later this month as well, and a full review will soon follow its release.

Overall from our sit down we can expect more of the same from Gameloft as they port existing ideas to the iPhone that look great. When actually playing though the gameplay will fall short of many other games in the App Store from developers who don’t have the name recognition to charge similar prices.

From GDC: Hands On Preview Of Gameloft’s Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction

Trevor Sheridan — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 17:49:54 +0000

Gameloft showed us three upcoming games at GDC with the biggest name being Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction which is going to be very similar to the console version of the same name. If you’re unaware of the franchise it centers around Sam Fisher who after all the different games through the years has gone from being part of an elite NSA team called the “Third Echelon” to pretty much a rogue agent trying to save his kidnapped daughter.

In the upcoming iPhone version the game plays like the entire franchise where the goal is to be as stealth as possible. You can go in guns blazing, but more often than not you will be killed. The game is a third person shooter where you move in the shadows targeting enemies. You can also open up the action firing your way through levels, and a few levels are made that way.

The game features 10 levels across the globe, and I got hands on with the docks at night, and in the middle east. The default controls have a virtual stick in the bottom left, and action buttons on the right. In the top right corner there is an eye that shows how much you’re spotted.

Being a stealth game it gives you the opportunity to sneak up on enemies, and snap their necks, or shoot out the street lights, or even target multiple enemies from cover. Playing as Sam Fisher you know that you will have weapons, but more importantly you use all types of gadgets to get through.

From playing the game you instantly see how well it’s designed with the same 3D engine as NOVA, and runs smoothly on a 3rd gen iPod Touch. Gameloft knows how to make great looking games in a cookie cutter mold they’ve been given. The gameplay though for the most part has lacked that fun engaging experience giving you a pretty package without soul.

In limited play time with Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction it feels more of the same just going through the motions. Stealth type games are few and far between on the platform, but having great production values doesn’t make a great game. In only minutes with the game it was just moving from cover to cover tapping the multi target action button, and then tapping fire.

We’ll have a full review once it hits the App Store, and put the game to the test. The console game is coming April 13th, but we don’t have an exact release date for the iPhone version though it should be close to that time.

App Advice

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Review: Eveningstar

Overview

Features

The Good

The Bad

The Verdict

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Offline Listening Coming Soon To Rhapsody iPhone App

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From GDC: Hands On Preview Of Gameloft’s Zombie Infection and Fishing Kings

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From GDC: Hands On Preview Of Gameloft’s Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction

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