Coming Soon to Your iDevice

What a week in apps. With so many new apps and updates available, I definitely haven’t payed enough attention to the apps that are being announced. I feel like I just went to a movie and showed up too late to see the previews. What a waste! To make up for this, I am going to create a Thursday roundup of everything (well maybe not everything) awesome that is coming soon to the app store.

First off is the greatest mystery in the history of the app store. I had a friend send me a link to this site the other day, and I wasn’t sure what to say. Is it GTA for the iPhone? Is it… not?

I did a bit of research (I scoured the Touch Arcade forums) and found a few different opinions. One clever person, dpmpolo, went to http://whois.domaintools.com/coming-on-iphone.com, and found that the site is registered to Gameloft. DaveMc99 claims that the game is called Gangstar, while another guy CDubby94 said, “It’s called The Cartel. I beta tested it. It’s almost ready for submission.” I love forums.

Admittedly lost, and a bit anxious, I was forced to contact the internet Oracle, who told me that the trailer is actually for Poker vs. Girls 2. Check out the original here, it’s amazing.

With that squared away, my attention turned to Doom Resurrection, an amazing app that we reviewed a day or two ago. After reading the review, I thought, “Wow, that looks awesome. I wonder where the original Doom is?”. Fortunately, the gaming gods heard my plea and told me to hop over to idsoftware.com to check out the “iPhone Doom Classic Progress Report“.

Basically, the article states that John Carmack, the inventor of the modern FPS and the technical director of id
Continue reading Coming Soon to Your iDevice »

Firemint Kick The Tires of the iPhone 3GS

Firemint gotten their hands on an iPhone 3GS and decided to take it for a little test drive. With it’s increased processor speed, better graphics processor, and extra memory, it’s built for killer games. The best way they came up with to test drive the 3GS was to make a special version of their fantastic racing game, Real Racing to stress it. The normal version of Real Racing has 6 cars on the track at once. Their iPhone 3GS test version has not 12, not 20, but 40 cars on the track at the same time! Take a look at the demo video below for the amazing proof — the real fun starts around 30 seconds in.

Amazing, just amazing. Looks like they might have even been able to put even more cars on the track! If you haven’t picked up Real Racing yet, what are you waiting for? It’s the best arcade game we’ve seen yet for the iPhone.

Real Racing

Our Rating:   Read Review >>

Category: Games / Racing
Released: 2009-06-06
Price: $9.99

QuickOffice to bring e-mail attachment editing in their next update

We’ve just heard from QuickOffice, the leading giant who provides office software for mobile phones, that soon iPhone and iPod Touch users should be able to edit their e-mail attachments on-the-go. This a feature that has been lacking on the iPhone natively since day 1.

Currently, Documents To Go can “talk” to mail and retrieve attachments for editing (only .doc and .docx supported at the minute - excel promised soon): however, only through Microsoft Exchange. Whilst this should accommodate many, QuickOffice hopes to accommodate all. For those who do use Microsoft Exchange for their mail, Documents To Go with Exchange Support is available for $9.99 (£5.99). For those who don’t, the best work-a-round at the minute is provided by QuickOffice themselves, who take on an Air Sharing-avec-Office role where a user can add files from their computer onto their iPhone for editing provided that they are on the same wireless network. I spoke to the QuickOffice team, and they said that “we understand the ability to open email attachments is an important feature many users want and [we] are excited to be adding this capability.”

This is rejoicing news for Blackberry users who have long had the ability to receive an attachment, edit it and send it back within a matter of minutes. Whilst the App Store’s “Business” section has been flourishing of late (as has 148Biz), it is surprising to see that it has taken this long for this feature to be available to the public.

We’ll keep you posted as we get more information - and we’ll have a review ready as soon as we can. QuickOffice is currently on the App Store for $19.99 (£11.99) and - of course - the new update will be free.

Note: current review is of an older version.

Rolando Gets Reprieve - Topple Will Return As Well

Yesterday we reported on a plan by ngmoco:) to remove Rolando from the iTunes App Store once Rolando 2 had been released. Today, I spoke today with Clive Downie, VP of Marketing from ngmoco:) and we’ve got some good news for Rolando fans.

After reading our article and others relating to the proposed plan to pull Rolando from the iTunes App Store and the response from consumers, ngmoco:) have decided to rescind the plan to remove Rolando. Rolondo will remain on the iTunes App Store and Topple, the original, will be coming back as well.

To understand why this all happened and why the plan was hatched in the first place, it’s important to understand the climate that publishers on the iTunes App Store are currently working in.

The App Store is a whole new environment in which to run a software business. Apple has full reigns over what’s allowed and how you can operate. That’s great for Apple, their app store, and their devices. But it’s non-standard in the software world and not so great for publishers. It’s particularly difficult considering that Apple does not publish full guidelines on what is and isn’t allowed and has even been known to change it’s mind without telling anyone.

Then there is the sheer volume of new apps launched every day in the app store. Currently the app store is averaging over 300 new apps in the store every single day. That’s more new titles per day than most platforms see in a year. Just a staggering number.

At this point, the app store is less than a year old and has had over 57,000 apps approved. Some of the standard practices of marketing software just don’t apply to a volatile and chaotic market such as this. Trying new things, finding what works amid the chaos is the key. That’s what ngmoco:) is doing.

For ngmoco:) the question was become how do they best launch a sequel in the iTunes App Store. There’s very little history on how to do that. One method they wanted to test was to remove the prequel to see what impact that would have on the launch of Rolando 2. What happens if you launch an episodic title into the app store without the predecessor there. It was learning they thought was worth doing.

That was the plan, until they started hearing from consumers. Consumers didn’t like the idea of it. It can be a big concern to a user who has purchased a copy protected digital file when they discover they may not be able to download it again if something happens to their copy. Since all that was really purchased was a bunch of bits, if it’s no longer available, it can seem to the consumer like you’ve lost your purchase.

What the consumers said was the they didn’t care about the test, they want their Rolando and Topple to remain safe. That’s what ngmoco:) have decided to do.

So due to the consumer feedback, Rolando will stay in the store and we will see Topple return soon as well. Since Apple provides no way for customers of the apps, people who have already paid for the app, to get it any other way than for the app to be live in the store, this is what’s required.

I think we can call that a lesson learned. But maybe not the lesson they were looking for.

Mr. Downie made it clear that ngmoco:) will continue to test the market, figure out ways to best navigate the turbulent seas of the app store. In addition, they will continue to innovate, as they remain laser focused on developing the best games for the iPhone OS platform.

As a closing thought, Mr. Downie wanted to remind us all that after the dust has settled over this Rolando issue to remember that Rolando 2 is coming out really soon and it looks fantastic. He’s right about that — we got a chance to see it recently in it’s nearly complete form. It’s looking very impressive.

When we asked if the release date was still July 1st, his response was “let’s hope so.”

Flight Control 1.3 Update Adds Peer to Peer Cooperative Multiplayer

Firemint has just released a 1.3 update for their extremely popular Flight Control game that adds the ability to play cooperatively with a friend over bluetooth. Flight Control has sold over 1,000,000 copies on its way to becoming an App Store classic.

Flight Control is a deceptively complicated game in which you must guide planes and helicopters to their proper landing places by drawing paths with your finger. The game starts out very simply with very few vehicles on screen at a time, but quickly ramps up in difficulty as more planes and helicopters of varying speeds appear on screen simultaneously. If anything collides, the game is over. When Christine reviewed the game, she gave it a perfect five stars.

In previous updates, Firemint has added new maps and online leader boards via the Cloudcell service. Now, in order to utilize the new 3.0 software for the iPhone and iPod Touch, Firemint has added bluetooth play so you can share air traffic controller duties with a friend. No wifi is required, as you simply need two devices with bluetooth capabilities (note: only the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, and iPod Touch 2G can use bluetooth).

In this new mode, you and your friend share a cumulative score for a game. Each person has a complete map on screen (you can either use the same map or different maps), but can only land planes of a certain color. If a plane appears on screen that you cannot land, you have to direct it to the side of you screen, which will cause it to appear on your partner’s screen. This makes the game even more hectic, as you have to manage planes that both normally appear on your screen and those redirected by your partner all while trying to communicate with your partner.

Flight Control

Our Rating:   Read Review >>

Category: Games / Strategy
Released: 2009-04-29
Price: $0.99

ngmoco:) Announce Rolando 2 Releases on 7/1, Will Pull Original Rolando From App Store

When the release date of Rolando 2 was announced, ngmoco:) also indicated that Rolando, the original, was going to be pulled from the app store when the sequel goes live. It’s an odd move, very smart, and yet wrong at the same time.

I recently asked Neil Young, CEO of ngmoco:), why the original Topple was no longer in the App Store, his comment was “We pulled it, trying something.” Short response and at the time I didn’t think much of it. I assumed they were planning on trying some new marketing technique with it. Turns out they were testing a fundamental business idea in preparation for the Rolando 2 release. Something new, something that really may change the way we think of games in the app store. Apps aren’t forever anymore.

According to our App Store database, Rolando was released originally on December 8, 2008. That effectively puts the lifespan of the original Rolando at 7 months. Is that really all the life Rolando has left in it? I doubt it. One thing is for sure, it’s going to be pulled from the app store when Rolando 2 is released.

While Rolando is their product and they have the absolute right to do with it what they choose, pulling it just doesn’t feel right. Something about the spirit seems wrong. They aren’t doing anything odd with the price to rise up the charts and increase the price to ride the higher exposure as many high profile developers have been doing lately. But they are sacrificing a product and it’s customers for increased expose for the next episode. Maybe I’m just being too sentimental, but I want to see the game stick around.

Back to the original test that ngmoco:) did, removing Topple from the app store. I’m not sure that it relates directly, removing Topple, a free app, to see what it does to sales of Topple 2 at $0.99. But there is something obvious to it. By removing Topple, they see if that increases sales of Topple 2, the more recent game.

By removing Rolando when the sequel comes out, they don’t lose any sales to the original, cheaper version. When users search for Rolando, they will get just 1 result, and 1 price. That makes sense as a certain percentage people would probably choose the cheaper one, and it removes any confusion of their marketing message for the new game.

What doesn’t make sense is why remove one of the best games on the App Store? Rolando may not have been a runaway commercial success, but it is a great game, very well reviewed, and still has some life in it. You know, what about the long tail? What about all those articles that point to Rolando on the app store. They won’t point to Rolando 2 automatically — you’ll just get the error on the app store that the app is not available.

This decision is also bad for people who have purchased the original Rolando. The app store is a digital delivery system. The only way to get Rolando is to download it from iTunes either on the desktop or on the device. If you don’t have a backup, and you lose it, you’ll never get it back if it’s no longer in the store. In addition, there have been weekly updates for a while from Rolando, building up to the release of Rolando 2. If you haven’t updated in a while, and you wait until July 1, you’ll never see those updates.

And what about the people that try Rolando 2 and want more? They know it’s a sequel, why can’t they get the original. Perhaps the original Rolando levels will be available as in-app purchases in Rolando 2.

It seems as though ngmoco:) is willing to live with a little bit of bad customer experience to try to increase the sales of a new game. Not a great thing, but considering the constraints of the App Store and the very limited ways that developers can operate, it might be the best decision. If nothing else, you have to hand it to them for trying something different and thinking about how to best build a business in the maddening chaos known as the iTunes App Store. It will be interesting to see if other publishers follow suit and do the same. Let’s hope not.

I hope we’ll see Rolando and Topple back in the store, re-released as classic versions maybe, at some point in the future. For now, I think I’ll make sure I have the latest version, do a back-up, and play a little Classic Rolando while I wait for Rolando 2.

Related Apps

Rolando

Our Rating:   Read Review >>

Category: Games / Action
Released: 2008-12-17
Price: $5.99

Topple 2

Our Rating:   Read Review >>

Category: Games / Puzzle
Released: 2009-03-11
Price: $2.99 ON SALE: $0.99

Casual Gaming Perfection?

Back at E3 I met up with Don Lim from Com2uS, who showed me a few of his upcoming games, one of which being Baseball Sluggers. At first glance, the game looked pretty fun, but certainly nothing groundbreaking. It looked like MLB Slugfest for the iPhone, except without an MLB license and limited only to the home run derby. Being the skeptical gamer that I am, I picked up the game with low expectations, thinking that the game would probably be average at best. But boy, was I wrong.

Instead of showing me all the different menu options and gameplay modes, Don had me just straight into the matchup mode, which is unlike anything else I had ever played on the iPhone. Within a minute of booting up the game, I was engaged in a matchup with one of the beta testers of the game in Korea. The game was easy enough to pick up instantly, but with a variety of pitches and speeds, had enough depth to satisfy my inner gamer. Surprisingly I ended up beating the beta tester, shocking Don… and myself. What can I say guys, I’m just good at sports games.
Continue reading Casual Gaming Perfection? »

Kevin’s “Utility of the Week” - Week 5

I’m shocked that I’ve been posting these picks for five weeks already. For this week, my utility of the week is the IMDB app - Movie Genie.

Movie Genie is basically just an interface to IMDB (Internet Movie Database). It allows you to search movies and actors and provides you with a ton of details about them. Movie Genie is a well developed and fast app that interfaces with IMDB perfect. The developer promises a lot of features in the feature, but the app is great as-is. Check out the review here.

If you’d like to suggest a utility for my “utility of the week”, visit my thread on our forum here. And below is a list of previous Utility of the Week picks:

Week 1 - Groups
Week 2 - Put Things Off
Week 3 - Stick It
Week 4 - Air Mouse Pro

Movie Genie

Our Rating:   Read Review >>

Category: Reference
Released: 2009-06-03
Price: $1.99

A Day In The Life

I’ll say it now - I’m an iPhone addict.

Every week, I have to go to a 12 step program designed to wean me off my addiction.* But, you know what? It’s not working. You see, to be cured of an addiction you have to want to be cured. I love my iPhone. It’s a part of my life. It’s never far from my grasp, and I use it many, many times throughout my day. I don’t want to be cured.

Paul Pelosi (look at his hands) is also an iPhone addict.

When I first got my iPhone, I was amazed - due to the superb implementation of the web, that I could actually use it to buy my wife’s Christmas presents… from the sofa… while she sat next to me. I would ask her what she wanted, she’d have a little think, then tell me, then I’d buy it, without her even realising her wishes were coming true within seconds of her uttering the words. She might as well have been saying abracadabra. It was magical, and exciting in a way only another iPhone-phile can understand.

This is how my iPhone and I spend the day.

Wake Up Call
Even before I awake, my iPhone is there for me, dragging me from my slumber with the sound of Marimba. Clock has become my Alarm Clock. I’ve even taught it not to wake me at all at the weekend - at those times my iPhone allows me to dream on (although my daughter does not respect the covenant me and the iPhone have made).
Continue reading A Day In The Life »

Beejive IM Updated With Push Notifications

There has been some question if Apple had been holding applications that use push notifications. Well, it looks like they have been, and they have started releasing them. Today we’ve seen updates to both AIM, and Beejive. Let’s take a little closer look at the update to Beejive.

Beejive today released an update to Beejive IM, our favorite IM application. The update includes the greatly anticipated push notification services.

Adding push notification services to an IM application allows you to stay logged into the IM servers even when you are not running the application. Created by Apple as a substitute for allowing third party applications to run in the background and reportedly much less of a battery drain, done properly it allows much of the same functionality.

I’ve been using the push notification services of Beejive for a few days now and it seems to work pretty well. There have been some outages, times when the notifications didn’t work, but we’re chalking that up to Apple.

When you first launch the updated application with push notifications, you will be prompted just once to allow Beejive to send you notifications. This dialog is very similar to the “Application X would like to use your location” dialog we are all very familiar with. If you ever want to turn off the notifications, that can be done in the settings app.

Overall, push notifications is a fantastic feature and one of the main reasons I’ve been looking forward to OS 3.0. I use IM a lot and being able to stay logged in during the (unfortunately few) hours per day I’m not at my computer is fantastic.

Once caveat — you can’t stay logged into forever, there is a 24 hour maximum. To stay logged in longer you just need to make sure that you launch Beejive once a day.

There are some limitations to push notifications though. For one, push notifications don’t stack up — so you’ll see only the latest notification from an single app. Other IM messages will only be in the app once you launch it. If your device is locked, you will see the notification, but can’t respond or launch Beejive automatically once unlocked. These are all limitations of the push notification service itself and iPhone OS 3. Beejive have done a really good job working within the limitations such as these.

Currently the push notification option for Beejive is free, and there’s no indication to think they they plan to charge separately for this feature. But I do expect some applications to use in-app purchasing to let users enable push notifications as there can be a significant cost to the publisher to support this option

The update to Beejive IM has been approved and is available now and will be free to previous owners, $9.99 for new users.

Note: There’s something odd going on in the store — the update is listed in iTunes as 2.2.0.24, but once installed it will show as version 3.0 in the app.

BeejiveIM 3.0 with Push

Our Rating:   Read Review >>

Category: Social Networking
Released: 2009-06-22
Price: $9.99

More screen shots after the jump.

Continue reading Beejive IM Updated With Push Notifications »

E3 Wrap Up: Dexter

I want to preface this by saying that I love the show ‘Dexter’. Its blend of drama, suspense, and comedy make it one of those gems that grip you and never lets go until the end of the season. It’s so good that I unraveled the whole mystery of the Ice Truck Killer (season 1) in a single marathon weekend.

Sadly, my love for TV shows, and movies for that matter, rarely translates into good video gaming. Off the top of my head, I can think of very few adaptations that have worked. It’s just hard to capture the essence of a show in a game. Between clunky controls, bad stories, and odd graphics, there is always something wrong with media adaptations. Knowing this, it seemed to me that Mark Ecko Entertainment and Icarus Studios had their work cut out for them.

Tucked away in a small corner of the convention center, I met with the Dexter team to see how the game was turning out. To my surprise and delight, the game looks really good. The game is your basic stealth game where you, as Dexter, sneak around finding clues to legitimize your serial killing ways. Feeding Dexter’s “dark passenger” is the main point of the game, but there is an overarching Ice Truck Killer story line, complete with the characters involved. To make things more realistic, Icarus Studios built all of the sets from plans from the show (the police station looks amazing!), and got actors from the show, including Michael C. Hall, to do the voices.

Video after the jump.
Continue reading E3 Wrap Up: Dexter »

E3 Wrap Up: Robocalypse

I often wonder about iPhone gaming in its infancy. I get the feeling that developers are creating games in a bunch of different genres, feeling out which genres work, and which don’t. It’s obvious to me that platformers work fine, along with tower defense, turn based strategy, and the occasional casual game… while 3D shooters struggle due to their lack of proper controls. RTS’s are on the fence in my opinion. Part of me wants to say that they can’t be done correctly due to the small screen size, but another part of me thinks that the touch screen options are too much to pass up. I’ve seen games like Warzone Inc. implement the RTS genre on the iPhone quite nicely, but I’m still waiting for that killer app.

Ready to take on this hurdle is Vogster entertainment with their game, Robocalypse. Robocalypse is an RTS in the Warcraft 2 mold, with a good balance between lighthearted graphics and action. Written by Micah Wright and Jay Lender (an ex-writer for Spongebob), Robocalypse offers a full, 17 mission single player campaign on top of 18 multiplayer maps that can be played with 2-4 players. From what we saw of the game, it looks like an extremely funny, well executed RTS… possibly capable of outshining Command and Conquer when it arrives in the app store.

Vogster is expecting Robocalypse to launch Q3 2009.

Welcome New iPhone Owners! Starter Apps and Info.

I know what it’s like. The anticipation of getting a shiny new gadget. You stand in line waiting patiently for the assistant to become available, or sit at home wondering what the UPS guys excuse for being late will be this week (my local UPS plant has had three power failures in the last month, apparently). And whilst you can’t MMS anyone, and the nearest to tethering you’ll achieve is if you get some sticky tape, attach your new phone to the computer screen and pretend, you know you’re holding a pretty awesome piece of kit.

Whilst this article isn’t really designed for people who’ve already experienced the wonderful world of apps (I’d recommend they explore our reviews or forum), for a new iPhone or iPod touch user the sheer variety of apps and games available can be intimidating and some gems might be hidden under the surface.

But fear not, new iPhone users, because I, an eccentric British man writing to a 4am deadline, am here to guide you through the perils of the App Store and give you some pointers as to what you might want to buy, what you really should avoid and how this whole apps business works.

Read on for dozens of great apps and more info.

Continue reading Welcome New iPhone Owners! Starter Apps and Info. »

148 is Not Enough, Apple Heard Us!

In one of the lesser talked about new features of iPhone OS 3.0, you can now install more than 148 applications on your iPhone. With OS 3, the number of pages you can fill with applications has been raised from 9 to 11. This gives you a maximum number of applications you can display of 180.

So now the next question will obviously be, are you going to change the name of the site to 180Apps? No, we aren’t going to change. We’re happy with 148Apps and we’re sticking with it.

One of our slogans around here at 148Apps has been “148 Is Not Enough!” — there are even t-shirts available with that slogan. And now, are we supposed to change that?

Truth be told, with OS 3.0 there really is no limit to the number of apps you can install — other than available storage space. Even though your phone will get slower and slower with the more applications you install, you can keep adding them. The only limit is the number of applications that you can see on your phone application launcher. That maximum to display is 11 pages or a total of 180 icons including the 4 in the tray at the bottom. Beyond the 180 icons displayed, you can use Spotlight search to find and launch the applications. The only problem with this is that it will be nearly impossible to remember what applications you have installed beyond the 180 you can display.

It’s a very odd decision for Apple to make. Why add only 2 more pages? Why not just allow for an infinite number of pages? And even though there are only 11 pages, why allow users to install more than what you can display? These are answers that we will never know as Apple never discusses such minute details. We’ll just have to guess as to their motive. Personally, I think the whole reason was that they heard our call to add more — but didn’t want to make us too happy.

Accuterra Maps by Intermaps

Accuterra maps include some interesting features you won’t find in Google Maps. For one, you can use them offline. That is huge if you are and enjoy going on hikes. Anyone who has ever gone to a National Park knows that the cell phone coverage is bad and you’re lucky if you can get data service at all. All levels of zoom of the topographic maps are available instantly.

There’s something very satisfying about zooming in and out, and scrolling around all without waiting for the images to load. It is completely instant. Fantastic.

Other great features include recording your tracks, creating walking tours (combinations of your tracks and photos), mark waypoints and points of interest, save and share your trails, and view a profile of a hike to gauge the elevation changes.

Here’s a quick introduction to the app from the developers.

OS 3.0 In-App Purchasing

Versions of the maps updated for OS 3.0 will also include some great in-app purchasing functionality. You’ll be able to buy small map regions for areas you are visiting for as little as $0.99. Think of a trip to Lake Tahoe and the ability to add the detailed map for that area with just a couple touches. Should be very powerful. The versions that take advantage of OS 3.0 should be hitting the app store soon.

Currently there are two free versions available in the app store. These include the Bay Area and Yosemite example applications.

SF Bay Area

Category: Navigation
Released: 2009-06-10
Price: FREE

Yosemite Lite

Category: Navigation
Released: 2009-06-10
Price: FREE

More screen shots after the jump.

Continue reading Accuterra Maps by Intermaps »