Senior Writer with the 148Apps Network since June 5, 2010
My name is Carter Dotson. I can tell you everything that I am, which is that I'm from Texas, am currently a student, have been a portable gaming enthusiast from the Game Boy to the iPad, and a lover of offbeat humor. I could do all that, but I will tell you what I am not: a killer robot sent from the future to destroy humanity. Take solace, human.
Host Carter Dotson and Josh Presseisen of Crescent Moon Games discuss the publisher’s role in the games they release, as well as some of their recent titles. As well, they discuss the free-to-play trends in iOS games, along with the ways that Crescent Moon titles implement in-app purchases.
To get it out of the way: The Proposal is not an app for proposing marriage, though it would be convenient with Valentine’s Day here. No, The Proposal is an app for a different kind of proposals – business proposals. This lets sales professionals access their proposal information directly on their iPad, in order easily make their business proposals. GPS data can be used to automatically add the user’s current address. Image locos can be added directly from the iPad or the web. Tax info can be added, along with detailed written proposals, with preset options available. This also means that proposals can be easily and quickly modified when being pitched to other clients. Proposals can be saved and exported with iTunes, saved as PDFs, printed directly form the app, or emailed directly to clients. The app also supports importing price lists as Excel spreadsheets either by being loaded into iTunes, or by being imported in from Dropbox. This versatile app for sales professionals is available now.
We all show our love in different ways. Sega’s way is to put games on sale, and there are 5 titles on sale from February 11th to the 14th (that’s Valentine’s Day) in order to show their love for iOS gamers everywhere.
First up is Sonic CD, a meticulously-crafted remake of the Sega CD original, and what could be called a love letter to Sonic fans. It is on sale for $2.99 from its regular price of $4.99.
Next up is Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I, a game that recalls the undying passion that fans of the original franchise have for the game. It is on sale for iPhone/iPod touch for $1.99 (was $3.99) and iPad for $2.99 (was $4.99).
iPad Only App - Designed for the iPad
Released: 2011-12-21 :: Category: Games
Then there’s Super Monkey Ball 2 and the Sakura Edition, which iPad owners will be head over heels for because it’s a universal app, and it’s on sale for $0.99!
The GRAMMY awards are on Sunday, February 12th, and for those excited about the awards being given out and acts scheduled to perform, there’s a new GRAMMY Live app available for iPhone, iPod touch and iPad. It offers news and photos surrounding the event, and video updates about the awards and nominees.. There’s a list of this year’s nominees and recent award winners, along with award prediction and trivia games. Tweets from official accounts, nominated artists, and analysts can be easily accessed through the app, with the ability to eaisly follow, RT, or reply to tweets seen in the app.
The app also offers a variety of live streaming video around the event, from red carpet events, to un-televised award ceremonies, and a multi-screen experience during the live event, airing at 8pm Eastern Sunday night on CBS. There’s also a streaming radio station of GRAMMY nominated artists and songs. The universal app is available now for free.
Designed for those telecommuting workers, Work+ is an app for finding new places out and about to work. Those who work at home or have jobs they access through a computer may find their home or apartment distracting, or come down with a case of cabin fever. Work+ is designed to help find places to work around the city, and to keep track of the best places to work while out and about. It looks up the locations of hotspots and Foursquare checkins to find good places to work based on various criteria. Want a quiet coffee shop, or a restaurant with no noise preference? The app can find these. As well, it uses background geolocation in iOS 5 to track when a user leaves a location, noting the time and allowing the user to rate it or save it in their favorite locations. This does mean that the app requires an iPhone or 3G iPad as they have the GPS signal necessary to make the app work. Work+ is available for free from the App Store.
For those who like Atari’s modernized iOS remakes, such as Asteroids: Gunner, but would rather just buy an app once and have all the content unlocked, they are now in luck. Asteroids: Gunner+ is now available from the App Store. This is the same gameplay as Asteroids: Gunner, which is the classic Asteroids gameplay reimagined as a dual-stick shooter, but now with all content unlocked upon purchase of the app, instead of having to unlock through in-app purchases. This includes 8 ships, 3 galaxies, and a total of 150 waves of enemies. The game is still universal, and still has consumable IAP for buying crystals for ship upgrades. Note that this may not be a pass for future content as well; the similar Breakout: Boost+ recently received an IAP level pack, but as this game has launched at $4.99, and Breakout: Boost+ at $0.99, the strategy for future content may be different between each. For fans of Asteroids: Gunner who are also wary of purchasing content through IAP, this may be a viable option for them.
U-verse has released an app for subscribers to their TV and high-speed internet service that brings both control of their receiver, along with access to on demand video. By downloading AT&T U-verse for iPad and logging in to the user’s AT&T U-verse account, the app’s functions become available.
The app’s first function is to serve as a remote for a U-verse receiver. By setting up the U-verse receiver by turning to channel 9301 and enabling remote device access, it can then be discovered by the app. The app offers virtual remote buttons for changing the channel, rewind/fast-forward controls for recordings and live TV, pause/record buttons, and all the other basic commands available on the U-verse remote. As well, the app has an easy-access guide with the ability to quickly jump to the channel, and to record future programs easily. Receivers can be independently named and controlled, so it’s possible for multiple iPads to control different TVs in a house.
For those who have a secondary router on their network to extend their network or because of device incompatibility (AirPlay to an Apple TV has issues with the U-verse router in particular) will need to connect to the U-verse router directly, as even having both devices on the same secondary router will not work.
The app also offers on-demand video from U-verse’s on-demand selection that can actually be watched on the iPad itself. These videos can be watched anywhere, not just on the U-verse network. It ironically also supports AirPlay to a TV, which may explain just why the AirPlay protocol has issues with U-verse routers. The app does have the notable lack of any kind of live TV – especially considering that Comcast launched their own iPad app with live TV just a month ago.
Still, this app should make it much easier for U-verse users to control their TV and watch the content they want, thanks to the touch interface provided by the app. AT&T U-verse for iPad is available now.
Chillingo keeps digging through the App Store, with new games frequently bubbling up, and this week, their games are about both digging and bubbles!
First up is Diggin’ Dogs, a game where three precocious puppies dig their way through levels, collecting coins and bones on their way to getting the golden treasure at the end of each level. Players use their finger to cut through the dirt, creating paths for the dogs to travel, swipe upward on the dogs to make them jump, and tilt left and right to move the dogs, as well as maneuver treasure. There are over 60 levels in this game for iPhone and iPod touch, available now.
iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2012-02-08 :: Category: Games
Next up is Bubble in Paradise, a word game where players try form words by popping bubbles that contain letters. The bubbles come in various sizes and point values, and they must be popped before the screen becomes overcrowded with bubbles and it’s game over. The game comes with four modes: Normal, Blitz, Endless, and Battle, which is playable against an online opponent. The universal app is available for $0.99.
One of the concerns with 60beat’s GamePad has been whether the device would see enough support from developers to make it worthwhile. As promised by 60beat back when it was announced, February has rolled around and some titles are beginning to support the 60beat.
Both Alien Space and Alien Space Retro from Owens Rodriguez have been updated to support the 60beat. Given the number of dual-stick shooters on iOS and the lack of analog joysticks on the external controller frontrunner, the iCade, dual stick games could spearhead 60beat support thanks to its unique-to-this-platform functionality.
Katana Jack, a game that claims to have had its graphics hand-painted on the iPad, has also been updated with support for the 60beat. It also supports the Gametel controller, the iCade, and iControlPad, so this free app is a must-download for anyone with an external iOS game controller, if only because it supports them all.
+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2011-11-17 :: Category: Games
There’s also No Gravity, a game which started life way back in the days of PSP homebrew development, before seeing legitimate releases on PSN, and now on iOS. Both the Lite and full versions of the game support the controller.
+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2011-06-16 :: Category: Games
There are likely to be more titles that support the controller, and its particular advantages may prove to be a boon to developers looking to support external controls in their games. The total list of games that support the GamePad is available here.
Nitro Games have announced an iOS spinoff of their pirate-themed PC game Pirates of Black Cove, Sink ‘Em All – and they have an entertaining trailer to go along with it. This will take the ship combat gameplay of the PC version and make it the featured element, essentially a naval isometric shooter with cannons to fire, and booty to plunder. Well, at least this is an arcade-styled interpretation of the whole process – that ship is clearly traveling faster through water faster than any real ship would. Also, while pirates may be heavily mythologized by our society, I’m pretty sure none of them used “Fart Bombs” in order to fell their foes. I’m no historian, though, so maybe they did. Their trailer, embedded below, shows just how this game’s combat system would apparently work in an office environment, or at least one where conflict resolution comes through the launching of cannonballs at one another. Pirates of Black Cove: Sink ‘Em All is coming soon, and will be free to play.
American Express has launched an app for members and subscribers to their magazine, Departures, to help them find the best shopping, eating, drinking, and hotels in a variety of cities around the world with Departures Ultimate City Guides.
While there are plenty of apps for finding just those things in cities around the globe, this app clearly caters to more of a “high roller” crowd than those other apps. The magazine Departures is only available for Platinum and Centurion card members of American Express. Loosely translated, that means that this magazine and this app is for those that make a lot of money only. Getting a Platinum card apparently requires a six-figure income minimum. The Centurion card is available by invitation only, requires $150,000 of annual spending with American Express, and has a $2500/year membership fee, but it does come with a personal concierge service. Oh, and the card is made of titanium. The magazine also has content focused on issues of the 99% such as: plastic surgery addiction, custom clothing for men, and all kinds of articles on world travel.
This is an app for those who are looking for a higher class of digital travel guide, one that will not point out all the hotels around them, but the five-star hotels. This is for finding restaurants where the gratuity would likely feed a middle-class family of five for a week. This is for finding lounges where the cost of a bottle of wine would let a college student party for a full four years.
Note that while the app is free to download, to enter it, it requires an authentication code from an issue of the Departures magazine, which again, is only for those high-earning Platinum and Centurion cardholders with American Express. The app is universal, as having to download two separate versions of an app is just so upper-middle-class.
A photography app for switching around two faces in a photograph automatically, without any necessary configuration or input from the user? Sounds unlikely, right? Well, there are many, many apps out there for transforming our faces. Ones to make our faces fatter, ones to make our faces skinnier, Photo Booth is on the iPad for all kinds of crazy effects, and we can even turn ourselves into Star Wars characters now. But switching faces with someone else? Surely, that’s impossible! Face Fun says “No it’s not!” and “Don’t call me Shirley.”
Face Fun works by taking pictures of two people, and then automatically processing the image and switching their faces around. This does require an internet connection to work, as it utilizes Face.com’s face recognition API. This creates an immediate swap of the two faces, which can look rather freaky at first, as people have different face sizes, or the subjects might not be facing entirely forward. Thankfully, the app does let users manually adjust the faces to get them perfect. Swapped faces can be moved about, pinched and expanded to scale them, double-tapped to flip them around, and rotated around with a two-finger-twisting gesture. Photos can be imported from the Camera Roll, but the app recommends taking photos directly from within the app itself.
Face Fun comes with social features – photos can be saved to the Camera Roll, shared via email, Twitter, or Facebook. Facebook friends can also be tagged in photos with the app. Face Fun is thankfully and surprisingly universal – the iPad’s benefit for storing and viewing photographs is a selling point of the device, yet many photography apps tend to avoid iPad support, likely due to the iPad 2’s poor cameras and the iPad 1’s nonexistent cameras. So, while this might not be optimal for taking new photos on the iPad, importing and editing photos work very well on the larger screen. Face Fun is available now.
Dark Elves aren’t evil, they’re just misunderstood.
On This Episode:
Carter and co-host Rob Rich discuss the current cloning epidemic that continues to spread with games that appear to clone Tiny Tower and Triple Town. As well, they discuss some of the games that they’ve been playing lately.
So, for those ready to file their taxes – they have all their paperwork ready at hand, their dependents counted, deductions itemized and ready to go, this means that it’s time to start filling out confusing paperwork, or hop on the computer, or just go down to a local tax professional, right? Nope. TurboTax doesn’t just have a way to estimate tax returns, there’s now a full-fledged iPad app for filing and submitting taxes. TurboTax guides users through the tax filing process with handy, user-friendly steps and language that is designed to hopefully make the process less confusing, and to help find deductions. As well, info from past TurboTax returns can be imported into the app to speed along the process.
TurboTax is free to download and use, with the only fees coming when it is time to e-file, then the app charges an in-app purchase for filing. The app supports both filing federal and state income taxes, though there is a separate fee for each filing. Still, for those looking to do their taxes the easy and technologically-savvy way on their iPad, this is a definite option. The app is available now.
It’s the most wonderful time of year – tax season. Thankfully, TaxCaster from TurboTax is here to help users figure out whether to expect to be cutting a check to the IRS, or if Uncle Sam will be sending some money their way. TaxCaster is a universal iOS app that lets users plug in their vital financial information and get an estimated refund amount. Income, tax withholding, donations, deductions, dependents; these can all be plugged into the app and the app will give an estimate of how much the user can expect as far as payments or refunds in taxes will go. The app is very easy to use, with various sliders for adjusting income, and it just requires the user to have the information to put in. This is not an application for actually filing and submitting one’s taxes, it is just for estimation, but it makes it very easy for users to help get a clue on what they can expect from the process.
Zinc Roe Design has released a new app for iPad that can help out with education. Entitled Doodlecast Pro, this is an app that allows users to draw on the screen, with various colored backgrounds, pointer options, and the ability to import backgrounds from the Camera Roll. The catch is that all of this can be recorded by the app. Users can doodle to their heart’s content, and have the drawings recorded and saved, with the ability to record audio from the mic along with the video. The video can then be saved to the Camera Roll, emailed, or uploaded directly to YouTube.
This app could have amazing applications in the field of education. Teachers could use this to record math lessons, by drawing out problems, and providing detailed explanations of how they work, which the students can then rewatch at their convenience. Science teachers could use it to point out the features of atoms and molecules, or to point out specific features on diagrams, again with voice commentary included. Students could make use of the app, as well: they could use this to record their notes or homework, and go back to see not just the solutions to their work, but to see their thought process in doing it. Videos can be saved in their crisp high-resolution quality as drawn on the iPad, or in lower qualities to save space.
This is an advanced version of Zinc Roe’s earlier Doodlecast for Kids app, and with some more of these advanced features, and design intended for serious usage, their technology can be used to everyone’s benefit. This is the kind of app that shows how education can take advantage of the latest technology, and how the iPad in particular could be a major part of the way that education is improved across the world. This app has that kind of potential. Check it out in motion below.
With Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace being re-released in theaters with post-processed 3D, LucasArts has released an app called Darth Maul Me. Do note that the name is not an invitation for a Sith Lord to come and maul the user, but an app for turning the user into Darth Maul, Sith apprentice in the first prequel episode of the Star Wars series. Users can either import or take a photo of their face, zoom in and out to line up the eyes and get their head in frame. Then, they adjust the area of their face, and select from one of three Darth Maul effects, from the full-on makeup and horns look to just the crazy Sith eyes. Then, the image processes and the user is ready to go out and share to the world that they are a Sith, and proud of it, and there’s Facebook connectivity to help prove it. The Dark Side will only truly win if they receive enough likes on Facebook.
There’s a little sporting event happening this weekend: I believe it’s called the Super Bowl. Yes, the New England Patriots and New York Giants will square off in the middle American metropolis of Indianapolis this Sunday, and most of America will tune in. But for those with iPhones, iPods, and iPads, these devices need not go unused during the big game! Here are 5 ways to use that device to get analysis and information that the TV broadcasters just won’t provide.
SportCaster: Providing a second screen experience during the game is this app from the developer of TweetCaster. The app aggregates tweets from various sources, and organizes them by topic, so following team-specific tweets is easy with this app.
iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2011-08-31 :: Category: Sports
NFL Mobile: What better way to follow the Super Bowl on an iPhone than, to, well, watch it on there? While streaming the Super Bowl will only be available for Verizon customers, this universal app should be perfect for when nature calls, if work won’t stop for the biggest football game of the year, or if a significant other who doesn’t know what this “super ball” is really needs something from the store, right now.
+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad
Released: 2011-04-25 :: Category: Sports
Sportacular: Can’t watch the game, but need updates on the score and play-by-play updates? Sportacular is a great choice, allowing users to just check up on the game’s status, or to chat with fellow users about what’s going on in the game. By this, I mean “talk smack with random people on the internet,” which is also fun. The app also handily provides the line on the game and the over/under, helpful reminders for those who could be affected financially based on the outcome of the game. 148Apps does not promote gambling, and reminds our readers to do it legally and responsibly, but still – that info’s there.
iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2008-07-31 :: Category: Sports
Quickish: Not exactly an app, but a fantastic web site for perusing the latest news and opinions in sports – open it in Safari on that iPad for an ideal second screen experience. Curated by internet sportswriting veteran Dan Shanoff, the site is a must-follow during big live events like the Super Bowl, as it provides rapid-fire updates and reactions across social media from both fellow writers and athletes, along with relevant news stories written about the game. Before, during, and after, this is a fantstic way to track what is being said about the Super Bowl from sometimes-unexpected voices.
SB Nation: This network of sports blogs comes with its own app, and the sites are known for thoughtful opinions on sports that go beyond the hysteria of the typical sports media, with an often wry sense of humor – and sometimes a single article will contain copious amounts of both. Why have an app, though? Well, it not only makes it easy to follow specific blogs, such as their team-specific blogs and general football one, but to follow updates on specific stories from one place. Few other sites will provide ‘simulations’ of the Super Bowl where they put the punters in at QB. Keep this one installed for baseball season, too, as their writers and blogs are top-notch on the subject.
Launch Center has gotten a major new update that brings new automatic app detection. While the app launched with support for built-in notifications, now the app supports launching third-party apps with specific commands, that can be scheduled to appear as notifications on iPhone and iPod touch.
The way it launches third-party apps is that iOS lets apps register with the device a specific URL scheme. Like how websites begin with http://, apps can register as tweetbot:// or facebook://, for example. Thus, when the device prompts to open up one of these URLs, the app will open. As well, special commands can be added after the // that will perform actions in those apps. Launch Center has commands for a selection of apps with registered URL schemes that it can launch. Those apps that are installed are displayed at the top of Launch Center‘s list, and then the specific control options are given. Then, the command can either be just displayed in the Launch Center main list, or scheduled to be appear at a certain date and time.
The uses for this are many. Want to be reminded to post a tweet with Tweetbot, with the specific text automatically entered in, at a certain time? That can be done with this app. As well, an app like Camera+ that supports launching from external apps can be queued up, reminding users to launch it at a certain time. These notifications can also be customized with particular titles in Notification Center for greater convenience.
Note that the feature is not perfect: apps sometimes crash, or work better if they’ve been closed from the multitasking bar, instead of being loaded into an app currently in memory. These are more the fault of the apps in question, rather than anything Launch Center does, as it is just using the app URL schemes that apps have baked in to them. This update to Launch Center is available now as a free update.
EA and Firemint’s Spy Mouse has an update out now that’s designed to be more appropriate for this time of year, with Valentine’s Day coming up. Love is in the air, and while the cats in Agent Squeek’s life are still out to keep him from getting his cheese, everything is a lot more lovey-dovey. The app icon shows not a stern and focused Agent Squeek, but a more charmed Agent Squeek, presenting delicious chocolate for a willing suitor. The whole menu is now Valentine’s-themed, which means that it’s more pink and heart-filled. In-game, the cheese crumbs that give bonus points are now hearts. As well, those cats now get hearts over their head when they spy Agent Squeek, broken heart icons when the try to grab him and miss. Plus, when they do get him, it’s now a heart-filled dust cloud. Okay. This alternate interpretation of Spy Mouse update is available now for both iPhone/iPod touch and iPad versions of the game.
Carter discusses the new puzzle game PuzzleJuice with developer Asher Vollmer. They discuss how the game’s frantic multi-faceted gameplay works, its connection to SpellTower, and the difference between how this game utilizes existing gameplay concepts versus what a ‘clone’ does.
Carter discusses the new cooperative iPad game Fingle with Game Oven Studios, and talk about how the game was designed to try and bring people together.
Hearts alive!
:: TRADITIONAL STATIONERY
We all show our love in different ways. Sega’s way is to put games on sale, and there are 5 titles on sale from February 11th to the 14th (that’s Valentine’s Day) in order to show their love for iOS gamers everywhere.
Chillingo keeps digging through the App Store, with new games frequently bubbling up, and this week, their games are about both digging and bubbles!
Next up is Bubble in Paradise, a word game where players try form words by popping bubbles that contain letters. The bubbles come in various sizes and point values, and they must be popped before the screen becomes overcrowded with bubbles and it’s game over. The game comes with four modes: Normal, Blitz, Endless, and Battle, which is playable against an online opponent. The universal app is available for $0.99.
There’s a little sporting event happening this weekend: I believe it’s called the Super Bowl. Yes, the New England Patriots and New York Giants will square off in the middle American metropolis of Indianapolis this Sunday, and most of America will tune in. But for those with iPhones, iPods, and iPads, these devices need not go unused during the big game! Here are 5 ways to use that device to get analysis and information that the TV broadcasters just won’t provide.
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