If you didn’t grab anything during the slew of Black Friday/Cyber Monday sales, you can still get some sweet deals elsewhere—Blacksmith Games’ Appvent Calender has kicked off today and will be running up until Christmas. A different game will be offered for free every day, just as in an advent calender…gotta love those puns. About a week ago, I wrote about this upcoming free-fest, and now it’s here!

The first game is a great one, too: 33rd Division. Jeff took a look at this one back in October and rated it 4.5 stars out of 5. Nice! If you’re a fan of path-drawing games like Flight Control and Harbor Master, make sure to grab 33rd Division while it’s free.

Future games have yet to be revealed, but the developer behind the program has teased that they will include both “well-known” and unknown games. If they’re all as high-quality as 33rd Division, this holiday season might not drain my wallet as much as I feared!

The Appvent Calender can be found at http://appventcalendar.com/. Make sure to check back every day to see what app’s turned free; “sales” like this are too great to pass up. It might not have chocolate, but this advent calendar knock-off is just as sweet.

33rd DIVISION

Our Rating: :: TIME FOR COMBAT

Category: Games / Action
Released: 2009-10-22
Price: $0.99

Poor Mobigame. They’ve not had a day of rest, and have had a heck of a dog fight trying to keep their retro-based, multi-award winning 3D puzzler Edge, on the App Store. Read that Tim? Multi-award winning. Edge is loved by many, becoming a App Store hit overnight – so, as you can imagine, it was a shock to both Mobigame and the App Store crowd when Apple decided to pull it. But Why? I hear you ask. Well, a few months back Apple pulled Edge, and Mobigame became locked into a legal on-going battle against this man – Tim Langdell.

Claiming to own the trademark and worldwide copyright over the word ‘Edge,’ ever since he registered his computer publishing house ‘Edge Games’ back in the 80’s, called upon Apple to put a stop to what Langdell described as “copyright infringement”. See, the thing is, it’s not the first time he’s done this. In fact, after this case came to light, various well known news sources started scouring Langdell’s numerous websites, and found he actually makes a killing off threatening companies with lawsuits over this same trademark.

As described by David Papazian of Mobigame, back in May of this year ..

“We have legal issues with a man named Tim Langdell, and if you already asked yourself why Soul Edge (the Namco game) was called Soul Blade and later Soulcalibur in the US, you have your answer.” (via Fingergaming)

The situation got so bad that the International Game Developers Association got involved, asking for Langdell’s removal. It’s not just Mobigame that have had trouble though. Cult of Mac in November reported that ‘Killer Edge,’ a racing title from independent Nalin Sharma, was to also fall victim to Langdell’s copyrighting exploits. In fact, despite Killer Edge being released in 2005, Langdell reportely tried to register both Killer Edge Racing and Killer Edge Racers. Is this a sign of a man playing fairly? No.

If the fact that Langdell seems to think he owns the rights to one commonly-used word across an entire consumer focused industry isn’t enough to get the hairs standing up on the back of your neck, he also seems to have acquired each web address relating to the word Edge.

Edge (the game) actually returned to the store about a week back, as would you believe it – Edge (you can’t blame them for trying), and I think I’m right in saying it was up on the store for a matter of days, and then surprise surprise Apple pulled it. Again. Today though, it’s returned. Back in May Langdell told Mobigame that he’d drop the claims if they were prepared to change the game’s name to Edgy. The same week, Langdell filed a trademark on the very same name, and of course the claim was to cover ‘Computer gaming software’ – figures.

It’s unclear if Langdell did actually win the legal battle, or if this will be the end of the shenanigans for Mobigame. One thing is for sure, and it’s that Edge is back on the App Store – as EDGY.

EDGY

Category: Games / Puzzle
Released: 2009-12-01
Price: $4.99

We haven’t posted many lite versions in the past, but the recent release of Orbital Free got my attention… not because the lite version does anything fancy, but because it’s an amazing game. I originally bought the game back in August after Jeff proclaimed that Orbital was the worlds hardest game. While I don’t necessarily think that it’s the worlds hardest (I wanted to strangle my phone after playing Jelly Car 2), it is a fantastic challenge that will keep you entertained for weeks.

If you don’t have it already, pick up this lite version ASAP. You won’t regret it.

Oh, and here’s a good quotable bit from the press release. “We’ve chosen to offer the free version of Orbital because of lessons learned from cigarette companies and crack-slingin’ corner boys,” said Reto Senn, COO of Bitforge. “If you give the customer a taste, they will come back for more.”

ORBITAL FREE

Category: Games / Puzzle
Released: 2009-12-01
Price: FREE

ORBITAL

Our Rating: :: BRUTALLY FUN

Category: Games / Puzzle
Released: 2009-08-13
Price: $0.99

We’ve had a chance to take a look at the new multiplayer game from Gogogic, Soft Freak Fiesta. Gogogic are based in Iceland and that strange Icelandic humor shows through in this game. After all, they think Bjork is normal there.

Soft Freak Fiesta is a sort of last man standing game take on marbles played out in turn on various game boards. While there are various game modes, they all have you aiming, bouncing, and rebounding your characters in the quest to destroy the players on the other team.

Multiplayer is key to this game. You can play either local/Bluetooth or over the data connection against anyone in the world. Since it’s turn based, a slow connection is of no concern. For each turn, you have the option of either moving a player, dropping a weapon, or skipping. To move, you select the player and give them a direction and speed by pulling an arrow from their current location to the direction you want to go. The longer the arrow, the faster the player moves. To drop a weapon, you select the player and touch the popup for the weapon to drop. Once you are ready and hit the ready button, or the turn timer runs out, your players and the opponent players will move, bouncing off of each other removing energy from each player. A player dies when it falls off the board (or gets bounced by another player) or loses all of it’s energy from weapons, hazards on the board, or from rebounding off other players.

This game has real potential to become a compelling quick play multiplayer game. The developers have told us of some new features they plan on adding and this could really turn into a good community game as well. Of course since this is a multiplayer game, the success depends on getting enough players. Because of this we expect to see some pretty aggressive pricing when it’s released.

Soft Freak Fiesta has been submitted to Apple for approval and we should see it at any time now. I’ll see you there.

Gogogic are based in Iceland and have previously released Symbol6 for the iPhone.

Symbol6

Our Rating: :: Recommended

Category: Games / Puzzle
Released: 2009-02-04
Price: $1.99

It’s become pretty evident to us that the iPhone / iPod Touch is the next big educational learning tool. If you’ve ever seen a 2-4 year old pick up one of their parents devices, swipe it to unlock, and then easily navigate to their favorite apps, you understand. Kids just seem to take to the device so quickly and so easily. It’s easy touch screen and accelerometer controls just makes perfect sense to them.

It’s due to that obvious affinity kids have for the device, and the need to have a site dedicated to both general and education apps for kids and parents that we’ve partnered with an iPhone obsessed mom to create GiggleApps.

We’re going to start out pretty slow with just a few app reviews per week. But along the way we’re going to do our best to get our readers input on what they want to see and help point the site in that direction. You can keep track of the new posts via Facebook, Twitter, an RSS feed, or even Email.

Keep an eye out, it’s going to be fun.

I don’t know if you are aware, but up in the site navigation bar is a “Gear Store” button. This “Gear Store” button links up to our very own “Gear Store”, where we sell all sorts of goodies… from iPhone cases to Bluetooth stereo headsets. Since today is Cyber Monday, we are running a 10% off accessories sale in the store. Just type in the coupon code “MONDAY148″ at check out and the sale price will be yours!

Just for the sake of entertainment, I’ll tell you what I’ll probably get. First off, I might get myself a good FM transmitter. I’d use AUX if I had it, but unfortunately all my money is spent on buying apps, so FM will just have to do. I’ve been holding off on buying one for awhile, but with 10% off, a good Belkin Tunecast Auto might be on the way today. While I’m at it, I may get myself a stereo bluetooth headset. I like the fact that I’d be able to listen to my music wirelessly, but even more amazing to me is that I can hear people in stereo. I’d get a midrange model, but the Motorola S7-HD Bluetooth Stereo Headset looks too cool to pass up. I think I’ll also pick up a Solio Hybrid 1000, a solar powered iPhone charger. It’s already discounted $30, and with an extra 10% off, it come to around $45. Solar powered iPhone chargers just seem amazing… maybe I’ll buy one for myself and one as a gift.

Regardless of what accessories suit your fancy, they are all in our gear store. Just remember to type in “MONDAY148″ in the promo code area and you’ll get your 10% discount. This sale is only going on today… so hurry up!

Black Friday Awesomeness
First off, I hope that everyone (in the US) had a great Thanksgiving. It was a fairly standard Thanksgiving this year I think… the Cowboys won, the Lions lost, there was far too much turkey consumed, and everyone patiently awaited for the shopping madness the following day. Black Friday 2009 turned out to be a bit of a drag for normal stores, but was a fantastic day for App Store customers. On Black Friday we posted an article with all the sales that we could find, including sales from almost every major developer in the App Store. It was especially great for those of you that were looking for a new GPS app, as we found 6 different GPS apps significantly reduced in price. Some of the sales are still going I think… and with Cyber Monday being today, we may see a few more go on sale. Boy do I love consumer holidays!

More Black Friday Awesomeness
Being the consumer all-star that I am, I went out and braved the masses on Black Friday. It was quite crowded, but I really wasn’t there to buy a ton (although I did get suckered into a cashmere sweater… don’t judge me), I just wanted to go out and see if there were any huge deals out there. Because I’m an App nerd, I thought that it would be fun to use Red Laser to see if the prices were good or not. I had never really used the app much in the wild, and was really shocked at how well it worked. Next time you’re going out to buy something, I’d definitely recommend checking out Red Laser… there’s a reason it’s been in the top 10 for so long.

RedLaser

Category: Utilities
Released: 2009-05-13
Price: $1.99

How To Stop Piracy
I’ve been thinking about how I would stop piracy if I were an app developer. Sure, you could go into a bunch of tricks and gimmicks that hurt the user experience, or you could just throw up an advertisement. Now most people think that advertisements should only be in free apps, but why? Why can’t a developer be out to make a bit of money to support the App Store’s obsession with 99 cent apps.

I just got an email from iTankster (who, oddly enough is based in Rosenberg, TX… right down the highway from where I am), saying that their newest app, iTankster, will have an advertisement.

“iTankster has a single advertisement from the sponsor in the menu screen of the game, featuring in both the legally paid as well as the resulting pirated versions. This will ensure that even the pirates will see an advertisement. The developer is hopeful that the pirates will support the game by either clicking on the sponsor advertisement or by paying for the game later. While placing of an advertisement is bound to cause a controversy among some users who feel that if they paid for an application it should be advertisement free, the vast majority understand that in today’s world with rampant piracy developers have to look at alternative means to earn revenue for recovering the cost of development.”

Rock on iTankster. By no means do I support piracy in the App Store, but if you do in fact steal a game that has an advertisement, it really is your civic duty to click on the ad. It’s just good karma.

iTankster

Category: Games / Strategy
Released: 2009-11-20
Price: $0.99

Another Word On Ads
Sorry to get on my soap box here, but I really think that people need to rethink their repulsion towards unobtrusive ads in paid apps. I don’t want it to get annoying, but is a small ad on a paid app really that big of a deal? Just think, because of that ad, that developer may make twice as much money, giving him/her the opportunity to make an even more developed app in the future. I myself would like to see every developer become absurdly rich… most of them are really great people with some great ideas for bigger and better apps.

And seriously, if the market demands apps that are less than $3, why not let a dev make a few bucks on his/her project that could’ve taken 100+ hours to complete.

This Weeks Sign of the Apocolypse
You know, being right around Thanksgiving, I’m going to choose to be thankful this week that the App Store, and all of the apps in it, exist. The moral high ground feels good sometimes.

Fact For Will Raskin
Did you know that prior to this last game, Oakland was 3-0 when playing in Dallas? Weird.

There aren’t many people who don’t love Tweetie for iPhone. In mid-October of this year we saw Loren introduce to us his completely re-vamped version. Hyped to high heaven, Tweetie 2 saw a more simplistic UI, a new (coined revolutionary) way to refresh your timeline, better account management, a new tweet composing experience, custom URL endpoints, the ability to save tweets as drafts for later publishing and more. It was seen as a great step up to the original Tweetie.

But with recent changes to Twitter’s API, new service introductions, and with Tweetie 2 not having any support for these out of the box, it was clear it was in for an update, very soon. Cue, 2.1. If you happen to follow me on Twitter, you’ll probably (almost definitely) know that I’ve been closely involved in the beta-testing of Tweetie 2.1, and I have to say it’s an update well worth attention. Most notably, this version brings support for Twitter’s new ‘Lists’ feature.

If you’re not already aware, Twitter Lists are the new universal way to categorize your followers, and for them to categorize you. It’s as simple as selecting which ‘list’ you want that person to appear on. Other people following you then have the option to follow that specific list, meaning if you make a list called ‘Favorites,’ and add all your favorite Tweeters, anyone who follows that list will essentially see the best content from your followers. The Twitter list feature has become so popular in the short space of time it has been live, that people are now starting to judge ‘influence level’ on how well you are listed, and in what categories.

In Tweetie 2.1, lists are pretty much the same as they are on Twitter.com, but it’s how they’ve been implemented which makes the experience a whole lot more user-friendly. Tapping the ‘More’ tab in 2.1, you’ll now see all the ‘Lists’ you belong to, or have been added to, including the one’s you’re not even following. Choosing a list will throw you into a specialized, scrollable time line which only consist of the members of that list. Want to see the stats of a list? In the bottom left you’ll see an ‘i’ info button. Tap it, and the current list being viewed will flip over to reveal the owner of that particular list (and tapping on him or her will take you to their profile page), alongside the list’s following and follower counts.
Continue reading First Look: Tweetie 2.1. Brings Twitter List Support, Among Other Trippy Stuff. »

Updated :: 11/27, 1:09pm Pacific – Final (?) update. 284 total sale items, 34 of them free!
Updated :: 11/27, 11:59am Pacific – Added 12 more.
Updated :: 11/27, 10:51am Pacific – Added Gameloft NFL 2010, few more.
Updated :: 11/27, 10:25am Pacific – Added another 10+ games.
Updated :: 11/27, 9:42am Pacific – Added GPS apps, dozens more. Time to get buying.
Updated :: 11/26, 10:08pm Pacific – Added Com2uS games, and 30 others. Too much pie. Must sleep.
Updated :: 11/26, 10:55am Pacific – Added 20+ from the night before. Happy Thanksgiving!
Updated :: 11/25, 11:38pm Pacific – added a bunch of games from Namco and more.

Every year on Black Friday, retailers put things on huge discount. It’s become a tradition to have “Door-Buster” sales to get people out and shop on this day that retailers traditionally first turn a profit for the year. Well, the app store is no different. App developers big and small are putting their apps on sale for the holiday weekend.

We’ll try to update this a few times over the holiday weekend, it’s a good way to escape the in-laws.

Don’t forget to come back on Friday as that’s when a bunch of the following go on sale.

A whole bunch of ifs, ands, or buts.

These apps are the sale items that we have been notified about or have found. Some of these items may not be on sale yet, but we’ve been told they are going to be on sale. The prices do change at any time and do change quickly – developers are tricky that way. Some are on sale for the weekend, others for only Black Friday. If the app you want isn’t showing up as on sale, I’d check back Friday.

Because prices change so quickly, we can’t always update things to show the correct prices below. We like to take a break and eat pumpkin pie too you know. Click through to the App Store to see the current up-to-the-second prices. And if you see something you like, at a price you like, grab it immediately as it may not stay on sale as long as you would hope.

It’s quite possible that we missed a few sale apps – I blame the tryptophan. So, head on over to our iPhone App Price Drops for the constantly updating full list of app price drops. Also, if you are just interested in apps that have gone free, check out our Twitter stream for @148Apps_nowfree – you don’t have to sign up to Twitter to see the newly free apps.

GPS Apps

All of the best GPS apps are on sale. CoPilot started it out by dropping to $20, Navigon followed by dropping to $70, then TomTom matched the price from Navigon. Magellan is now the highest priced at $80. What will they do? It’s a good time to be in the market for an iPhone GPS solution.

• Tom Tom US & Canada (Now $69.99)
• Navigon MobileNavigator North America (Now $69.99)
• CoPilot Live North America (Now $19.99)
• Ndrive United Stated of America (Now $29.99)
• gMap US & Canada (Now $49.99)
• Magellan Roadmate 2010 North America (Now $79.99)

Com2uS

Com2uS has joined the fund by reducing the prices of all of their games to only $0.99.

• Sniper Vs. Sniper Online (Now $.99)
• Homerun Battle 3D (Now $.99)
• World Tunes (Now $.99)
• 9 Innings Pro Baseball 2009 (Now $.99)
• Trapped Undead Infection (Now $.99)
• Chronicles of Inotia: Legend of Feanor (Now $.99)

Namco

Namco has surprised us with an early present and put most of their games on sale. Some of the classic are at amazing prices. I’m in retro heaven!

• Pac-Man Remix (Now $.99)
• Galaga Remix (Now $.99)
• Pole Position Remix (Now $.99)
• Dig-Dug Remix (Now $.99)
• Burgertime Deluxe (Now $.99)
• Garters & Ghouls (Now $2.99)
• Inspector Gadget (Now $2.99)
• Tomagotchi Round The World (Now $2.99)
• Time Crisis Strike (Now $2.99)
• I Love Katamari (Now $2.99)
• Ms. Pac-Man (Now $2.99)
• Pac-Man (Now $2.99)
• Star Trigon (Now $.99)
• Alpine Racer (Now $.99)
• Brain Exercise with Dr. Kawashima (Now $.99)
• Mr. Driller (Now $.99)

EA Mobile

EA Mobile has put just about every single game they have released on sale. Each one maked down up to 50%. These go back to normal price on 11/29.

• Tetris (Now $2.99)
• Sudoku (Now $.99)
• Scrabble (Now $2.99)
• Spore Origins (Now $.99)
• Yahtzee Adventures (Now 1.99)
• Sim City (Now $2.99)
• Trivial Pursuit (Now $2.99)
• Anytime Pool (Now $1.99)
• Tiger Woods PGA Tour (Now $2.99)
• Need for Speed Undercover (Now $2.99)
• American Idol: The Game (Now $.99)
• Star Trek (Now $.99)
• Clue (Now $1.99)
• Wolfenstein RPG (Now $1.99)
• Sims 3 (Now $4.99)
• Mass Effect Galaxy (Now $1.99)
• Zombies & Me (Now $.99)
• Snood (Now $1.99)
• Boggle (Now $.99)
• Madden NFL 10 (Now $6.99)
• Mystery Mania (Now $.99)
• FIFA 10 (Now $6.99)
• Auditorium (Now $1.99)
• Command & Conquer Red Alert (Now $6.99)
• Rock Band (Now $6.99)
• Surviving High School
• NBA Live (Now $6.99)
• Monopoly (Now $2.99)

Gameloft

Gameloft, unlike EA, are putting some of their underperforming games on sale. But the good news is that they are nearly giving them away at only $0.99. Some really good bargains in there. I highly recommend Blades of Fury if you are at all into the Street Fighter genre. These go back to normal price on 11/29.

• NFL 2010 (Now $.99)
• Terminator Salvation (Now $.99)
• Shrek Kart (Now $.99)
• Brothers in Arms Hour of Heroes (Now $.99)
• Blades of Fury (Now $.99)
• Real Tennis 2009 (Now $.99)
• Castle of Magic (Now $.99)
• Hero of Sparta (Now $.99)

In addition, Gang Star, West Coast Hustle recently went on sale.

Gangstar: West Coast Hustle

Our Rating: :: EPIC

Category: Games / Action
Released: 2009-08-20
Price: $6.99 ON SALE: $4.99

Konami

Konami jumped the gun a little and put a bunch of games on sale last week. But we’re not mad at them because they are all just $0.99!

• Metal Gear Solid Touch (Now $.99)
• Power Pros Touch (Now $.99)
• Krazy Kart Racing (Now $.99)
• Silent Scope (Now $.99)
• Dance Dance Revolution S (Now $.99)
• Dance Dance Revolution S+ (Now $.99)
• Silent Hill (Now $.99)
• Frogger (Now $.99)

IUGO

IUGO has put a bunch of their games on sale for Thanksgiving and to celebrate the release of their new Wario world like mini-game collection, A.D.D. Highly recommended titles below include Zombie Attack, Zombie Attack Second Wave, and Star Hogs.

• Zombie Attack! Second Wave (Now $1.99)
• Cliffed (Now $.99)
• Star Hogs (Now $2.99)
• Toy Bot Diaries 1 (Now $.99)
• Toy Bot Diaries 2 (Now $.99)
• Toy Bot Diaries 3 (Now $.99)
• Toy Bot Compliation (Now $1.99)
• Spy Bot Chronicles (Now $1.99)
• Toy Bot Mini Missions (Now $.99)
• Zombie Attack! (Now $.99)
• Freeballin’ (Now $.99)

Pangea

Pangea, have put a bunch of their great games on sale. If you like puzzle games, make sure you pick up Enigmo and Enigmo 2.

• Enigmo 2 (Now $.99)
• Enigmo (Now $.99)
• Billy Frontier (Now $.99)
• Bugdom 2 (Now $.99)
• Otto Matic (Now $.99)
• Nanosaur 2 (Now $.99)
• Cro-Mag Rally (Now $.99)

But wait, there’s more. Hit the jump to see oh, about a gazillion more.

Continue reading Black Friday – App Sales Galore »

In a recent press statement (which I had trouble tracking down), Virgin announced that they will be offering the iPhone in the “coming months” to Canadians (all indications are that it will be in February 2010). Recently here in Canada (Ryan, the author, is from Canada – ed.) we saw the addition of two more iPhone carriers in Bell and Telus but both offered very little in terms of competitive plans against the previous carrier, Rogers. As a consumer I was really hoping this increased competition would see an improvement in the available plans, but it appears that they all have a pact to not even make an effort. All of them offer almost the exact same plans, rates, and contracts with extremely little variation.

In most countries iPhone purchasers have the ability to pick up the devices for $199 on 2 year contracts, but not here in Canada. All 3 carriers offer 3 year contracts only. It also rumoured that Virgin will be offering the same forced 3 year contracts on us consumers. Now, Virgin has been establishing itself as a budget carrier with free phones, cheap plans, and generally the place to go if you are a very light phone user. So how they come at the release of the iPhone on their network should be very interesting. I believe that they have a real chance to steal a significant market share if they offer up something unique and flexible with this famous device. I’d love to see Virgin take a risk in it’s pricing structure and allow a la cart pricing plans, pay as you go data, and 2 year contracts. I’d even be willing to fork over an extra $100 at purchase to get one less year on my contract.

With this addition, we are one of the leading countries in terms of carrier choice for the iPhone, but sadly still behind on pricing and contract options. If Virgin misses this opportunity to steal a decent size of the market, I’ll be sad, because I really want to get one, but no one has provided what I’m looking for.

Dashboard. Introduced into Apple’s OSX operating system in late April 2005, allows you to manage various little programs dubbed ‘Widgets’ visually on the screen, arranging them anywhere and in any way you like. Each widget then has its own certain configurable preferences. It wasn’t anything new, but as always, it was the way Apple went about it that made it so popular. With iPhone OS running on Leopard, many people have looked into the possibly of bringing well adorned aspects of OSX, to the touch platform. With the recent release of ‘Orbit,’ (for jailbroken devices), from Ireland-based developer Steve Troughton-Smith, we saw ‘Spaces’ unofficially make its debut on the iPhone, for the first time. But .. What about Dashboard?

Developed by Mobile Pond, and designed by their lead Omer Shoor – also the designer behind Photogene, iGizmoz brings the fully-fledged ‘Dashboard’ experience, to iPhone – Only due to SDK restrictions, it’s an app and it’s not directly built into iPhone OS .. (I wish it was!). Here’s how it works. Opening the app will reveal your dashboard. Tapping on the bottom left-hand corner will slide two further section out from the sides of the screen. The first is your ‘Widgets Dock’. Just like Dashboard OSX, iGizmoz dims the background (your now in ‘Edit Mode’) and displays all the available addable widgets on a visual dock. This time though, the dock is Leopard-styled. Reflections and all!

In total, the app offers 11 widgets, with no obvious way to add more, yet. The widgets included are: Clock, Search, Calendar, Contact, Countdown/Stopwatch, Stickies, Picture Frame, A Swinging Cat Thingy, Os and Xs (naughts and crosses) and a Light Bulb. To add a widget to iGizmoz, simply tap and drag it from the bottom dock, onto any point on the dashboard. You know that shrink and grow animation you get when dragging a widget onto Dashboard? You guessed it. That’s there, too! Once you’ve added a widget to the Dashboard, activate ‘Edit Mode’ by tapping and holding any widget of your choice. From here, as well as being able to edit the current position the widgets, you’ll find two more options. Delete, and Settings.

Tapping the settings button will bring up the specific configurable options for that particular widget. For example, in the ‘Clock’ widget settings, you have 6 different clock styles to choose from, as well as options to configure your timezone and the seconds display. Once your happy just tap on an idea of the dashboard which is not taken up by widgets, and you’ll exit edit mode. Need to delete a widget? Simply enter edit mode by tapping a holding again, and hit the ‘X’ button (top left) associated with that particular widget. Now granted, the icons for each of these built-in widgets do need a little work, but graphically, the widgets themselves are (in my opinion) – stunning!

The second sliding draw in edit mode offers a few other configurables. Tapping the global settings button (top right) throws you into the main settings of the app which basically consists of letting you choose a different backdrop for your dashboard. iGizmoz offers 19 pre-set backgrounds, and the option to add your own custom image from your iPhone’s on-board photo library. Need to reset iGizmoz, under the ‘Maintainence’ section, just tap ‘Reset Gizmoz,’ and factory settings for your dashboard will be restored. Tapping the next button on the sliding draw will snap all your current widgets to grid. Exit edit mode? just tap that last ‘X’ button to return to your dashboard.

I know what your thinking .. “320 x 480 is way too small for this kind of thing. I mean, I’ll be able to fit like, What? .. 3 widgets on-screen?”. Normally you’d be right, but iGizmoz has a hidden secret. Swiping to your left (while not in edit mode) will reveal your true dashboard space, spanning roughly 3 homescreens wide!

So, there you have it. Dashboard on the iPhone. Personally, I’m hoping they’ll add widgets via in-app purchases. That would totally rock. Right? iGizmoz officially launches on the App Store tomorrow, Wednesday 25th for just $0.99

Update: iGizmoz is Now Available on the App Store. Get it here.

iGizmoz

Category: Productivity
Released: 2009-11-23
Price: $0.99

We all know Apple’s App Store approval process is less than perfect, and that sometimes their rejection policies seem down right crazy. We’ve seen app’s rejected for multiple reasons, but nothing quite like what happened to IUGO earlier this year. If you cast your mind back to June 29, you might remember Vancouver based development studio IUGO releasing their hilarious, quirky title A.D.D Lite. The idea behind the app was simple; to give the user short bursts of fast-paced, addictive and challenging (slightly risque), crazy, raunchy, fun. For example, tasks you may encounter include the waxing of a man, threading a pencil into a bum-crack, and un-doing a chick’s bra as fast as you can .. Just an regular ordinary day for me, then.

As with any developer, they too thought they’d be in for a smooth ride on the approval train, and unfortunately as we all now know, that wasn’t to be the case. IUGO submitted a ‘Lite’ version of thier A.D.D app, with the intention of submitting a more feature-packed paid version, at a later date. Monitoring the success of A.D.D Lite, shortly after releasing it they submitted the full version of A.D.D to Apple for approval. Now, although the game is raunchy (in parts), and it was meant to be .. they didn’t think that anything in it would break Apple’s App Store policies, because let’s be honest- it didn’t.

With all this in mind, (as you can imagine), IUGO was more than I little stunned when their approval wait time surpassed 2 weeks, then 4 weeks, and then 6 weeks. It was clear that Apple wasn’t going to let this through. With word from Apple simply stating “the game is taking an unusually long time to review and that they apologize.”, they drew their own conclusions and in August of this year IUGOME took the decision to pull ‘A.D.D Lite’ from the App Store in all countries. Their reason being was that the lite version existed only to sell copies of the full version of A.D.D. What’s even more baffling is that IUGO was actually prepared to re-think and change elements of the game at Apple’s request, but never once got word to do so. At this point, they just wanted the game approved and would do anything they could to help it.

After 6 months of the full version of A.D.D being stuck in Apple’s approval process, I can’t blame the guys and girls over at IUGO if they’d completely forgotten about the title. Yesterday though, out of the blue, their painfully long waiting came to an end, announcing via their Twitter stream that the game had indeed now been approved by Apple, and that we should wait for it to appear on the store!

“OMG OMG OMG!! A.D.D. has been approved! No I’m not kidding! Still waiting for it to show up on the App Store! Holy Crap! Six months later!”

A few hours after that, it did. In all it’s glory. Packed with roughly 80 mini-games, and updates coming with more on the way, A.D.D is now available for purchse in the App Store, for $2.99. There’s no lite version however, as mentioned that was pulled earlier this year. Will it return? I hope it does .. But, God help IUGO if they have to wait another 6 months for Apple to re-approve that ..

Congrats guys!

Grab A.D.D. here (App Store Link)

I’ve always been a fan of Google Earth. Ever since it was first introduced I’ve always thought the concept behind it, was incredible. Having the ability to virtually surf the globe, and search in any country, state, region, city, town or street and visually fly to it, get walking or diving directions to it, or simply see and read about the surrounding area via various Wikis, was (and still is) almighty powerful stuff – But really, Who am I kidding? You already knew that!

Up until October 28th 2008, Google’s ‘Earth’ service, a spherical flurry of thousands of satellite images which depicted the planet in 2D (and shortly after, 3D), was available on PC, Mac and a selection of chosen mobile handsets. When Google announced Google Earth for iPhone though, I was, like most of you, quietly excited. Not just because this was a mobile version of Google Earth, but that this was a gesture-based version of Google Earth, on the iPhone – and with its built in GPS unit, we now had location-aware mapping, tied into the largest search engine on Earth. That, was exciting.

When the app finally debuted on the App Store, many people including me thought Google had gotten it as right as they could. Spot on, in fact. A stable, feature-packed release which (without exaggeration) literally put the globe in your pocket. Okay it ran a little clunkier on the 3G than the 3GS, but that was to be expected.

If there’s one thing I like about the App Store though, it’s the update process. It forgets the old, and ushers in the new. Most of the time, updates to said app(s) happen fairly frequently. Google being Google though, their 2.0.0 update (a major milestone release) has been nearly 10 months in the making, and last Monday saw it’s debut on the store Has it been worth the wait? .. Well, somewhat. While this release doesn’t bring too many ground-breaking features, it does have some nice additions. For example, if you’ve been waiting to view maps you’ve saved on Google Earth Desktop on your iPhone, your sure going to like this release. A new feature in the software aptly named ‘My Maps‘ now allows you to view any and all previously saved ‘Maps’ on the software’s desktop counterpart(s), on your iPhone. Not only that, but these ’saved’ maps can include layers upon layers of information. For example; itinerary, route lines, traffic, and other data. This essentially means you can no create truly ‘personalised’ maps – and it works well!

Another nice addition I liked was the use of greatly enhanced visual feedback when tapping objects. Before, it was kinda a guessing game of which ‘Wiki’ or place marker you were selecting, (especially if you happen to be selecting from a group of similar wikis or places). Now in 2.0.0, tapping on a wiki or object results in a light glow of that object, meaning you can differentiate, more easily. It’s still not perfect, but it’s a helping hand. Alongside this ‘icon glow’, you’ll also notice that the presentation of place information is much more streamlined, and easier to read.

And that’s it! Apart from those two main new features, the app is said to have had its overall performance enhanced – although I have to be honest and say it wasn’t really all that noticeable (to me anyway!), and of course Google took this opportunity to add support for a variety of new languages, brings the total supported up to 31 (from the previous 18)!

My only gripe now is I wish they’d update some of the satellite images in their database. Some of them are what? 2003? .. Ugh. You can read more about this update in detail over on The Official Google Blog.

Google Earth

Category: Travel
Released: 2008-10-27
Price: FREE

My least favorite thing in the world is hearing people try to bash Apple products. My friends come to me all the time trying to tell me how they are going to get the next great $800 Sony computer or how they are so pumped to get the Droid. I used to bark back, but now I’m taking higher ground, just using my product like I would on a day to day basis… problem free with absolutely no regrets. At this point, I could really care less if you choose to buy Windows 7. I think it’s a dumb decision, but that’s your deal and you have to live with it. The iPhone though is another story to me.

I’ll be the first to tell you about the iPhone’s shortcomings. It is stuck to the AT&T network, and… that’s it. Sure, maybe the battery is an issue, but every other smart phone with comparable specs has similar issues. Being an employee of a company that is directly tied to the iPhone, I get people all the time that question me about why I like the phone so much. I hear the “Oh, you just like it because it’s your job” comments all the time from people trying to convince themselves, through me, that they should get the “we have a touch screen too” Samsung Instinct, the “oh, it’s a business phone too” Blackberry Storm, the “we’ve got an App Store too” Palm Pre, or the latest challenger, the Motorola Droid, whose App Store is currently being abandoned by some of the worlds largest devs (most notably, Gameloft). Regardless of AT&T’s shortcomings, I, and millions of others, know that the iPhone is the best phone (and possibly piece of electronics) that money can buy.

Sometimes, when arguing my point about iPhone dominance, I wish that I could just put together a little presentation, on my phone, about why it’s better than the rest… but without looking like a bozo. Fortunately for me, the company that makes the iPhone has, in my opinion, the best marketing team in the world, and they have answered my prayers with a new line of commercials. I can’t wait to see Verizon’s, and my iPhone hating friends response to these. Enjoy!

These ads, according to CNN Money, are scheduled to start tonight and air during “House, Dancing With the Stars, How I Met Your Mother, One Tree Hill, Big Bang Theory, CSI: Miami, The Daily Show, and the late-night talk shows (Conan, Kimmel, Fallon, Craig Ferguson).”

Remember the good old days, when holiday promotions didn’t start until after Thanksgiving? If you’re like me, your inbox is already flooded with promotional emails. Enough, already!

Blacksmith Games, thankfully, isn’t starting this promotion until December 1st—that sounds reasonable, doesn’t it?—but what they’re offering is sure to delight any and all App Store junkies. Their new program is an “Appvent Calender,” and if all goes as planned, customers will be able to get a different free game every day, from December 1st to the 24th.

Jo from Blacksmith Games writes:

While finishing Plushed I got the idea to make an advent calendar with free games. It is called appvent calendar Developers can apply for providing their game for free for one day. Then 24 games will be chosen.

It looks like they need more developers to join the program before it takes off, though, so any developers interested in participating should apply here. Jo is quick to point out that this benefits developers and much as customers; switching an app to free for one day, combined with the Appvent Calender, should generate a nice promotional boost.

Meanwhile, customers should check appventcalender.com once December hits. Let’s cross our fingers and hope that the free games are good ones…Talk about a sweet treat!