Do you remember the billionth app downloaded on the App Store? It was Bump, a free app that lets you swap pictures and contact info by bumping two iPhones together. The concept was simple, the app was cheap, and lo and behold: people like gimmicks. For a while, Bump was a chart-topper.

PayPal has long had a free app on the App Store, which provided mundane features like managing your PayPal account. (Who needs that?) But recently, they added a new feature: just like Bump, PayPal’s app now allows you to exchange things by simply bumping phones. The difference is that PayPal lets you actually exchange money with the person you’re bumping phones with.

It looks like a gimmick on the surface, but the feature is actually pretty useful. If you’re using an iPhone and have a PayPal account, you can download the app from anywhere and quickly complete a transaction. The process is painless, requires no exchange of information, and it’s free. What more could you want?

It’s a neat feature, that’s for sure. I can just see it now: instead of paying the normal way, you’ll bump fists with an iPhone clenched in your fingers. Passersby will stare in bafflement, but that’s okay—because you’ll know that you’re at the cutting-edge of technology. Yeah, you could pay for stuff in cash, but this is the twenty-first century!

Yeah, it’s silly, but it’s still cool. And there’s nothing wrong with that. If you have a PayPal account, it’s probably worth downloading the free app just to manage your account and check your balance. And, hey, if the opportunity arises…bump-money-transfers are the way to go.

PayPal

Category: Finance
Released: 2008-07-11
Price: FREE

At GDC I had a very quick chance to try out a new zombie (yes, another zombie game) game from Bulkypix called Undead: The Last Refuge. This one is, honestly, very similar to Call of Duty: World at War: Zombies. It’s a very fast FPS that really shows off what the iPhone 3GS can do. The framerate is as good if not better than CoD. The movement and animation is very fluid and quick as you can see in the demo below.

Later in the video you see 32 zombies on the screen at the same time. CoD maxed out at 9 if I remember correctly. Very impressive.

We’ll have to wait for the game to drop before we can see if it’s a really good game. I only had a chance to play a partial level and honestly had pick my chin up off the floor, I was that impressed with the 3D engine they are using. The game should launch by the end of the month for $2.99.

Hit the jump for the full marketing text about the game and a feature list.

Description: The coming of the Apocalypse had been announced for centuries, so we were not to know that it was so close. The dead have risen from the ground and destroyed everything in their path.
You have managed to survive until now, but you are alone and cut off… How long will you be able to survive?

Features:

• Experience fear and stress in a battle for your survival.
• Enjoy being in an entirely 3D-modelled environment with impressive graphics.
• Take on the hordes of dozens of zombies coming to drink your blood. A totally new scenario for the iPhone/iPod Touch.
• Let your weapons do the talking as you drive back your assailants.
• Use OpenFeint to survive and achieve success. Beat the highest scores to become world number one.
• Challenge your friends on Facebook or Twitter by posting your highest scores.

At GDC this year we got a chance to take a look at a new game from Backflip Studios, Strike Knight. The game is a recreation of shuffleboard-type bowling you used to find in bars in decades past. The device in the app has a blue knight that never fails to make fun of missed shots.

The game offers both single player and multiplayer (pass and play) bowling. Take a look at the video for an idea of what the game looks like and how it plays.

Strike Knight will be submitted to the App Store next week, we should see it shortly after that.The game will be released free (ad-supported) much like Backflip Studios very popular Paper Toss.

Take a look at some screen shots after the jump.

Continue reading First Look: Strike Knight from Backflip Studios »

Lynda.com has been around for a long while now. Their video training series have been helpful to me in the past when I’ve needed to quickly learn a whole new platform, a new app, or just want to find out the right way to do something, not the way I do it.

Well now, Lynda.com have released a new iPhone app that gives you access to all of their video training from the app itself. You can now pick up where you left off on your training if you are on Wifi, 3G, or even Edge. The app features multiple streaming qualities that adapts to your connection speed.

Full access to all 700+ video courses requires a subscription starting at $25/month. If you haven’t ever tried any of the video learning featured from Lynda.com, the app lets you sample thousands of their training videos for free so you can get a taste of their gentle but informed teaching style. Here’s a quick video introduction to the app.

lynda.com

Category: Education
Released: 2010-02-25
Price: FREE

KaleidoVid is a fun little app from App Cubby and Polar Bear Farm. Two developers that spend their time making serious apps decided to take a little break and create something fun. Seems like a great idea!

The app is really pretty simple. It’s like those little cardboard tube kaleidoscopes we all had as kids. Fire up your iPhone (this app requires a camera), and point the camera at something colorful. The app takes a triangular part of the image and reflects it just like the ones you had as a kid. I guess the difference is those cost 75 cents, this one costs $500.

The app lets you grab the screen at any time and save it as a unique image or share it on Twitter, Facebook, or via email. Pretty good way to create unique backgrounds for your iPhone too.

The app is available now for the crazy price of just $0.99.

KaleidoVid - Video Kaleidoscope

Category: Photography
Released: 2010-03-15
Price: $0.99

3bot, a 3D action/puzzle game for the iPad, iPhone and iTouch, developed by DevKid, in cooperation with PIXELFEDERATION, is gearing up for it’s app store debut!

3bot is shaping up to look like an exciting, unique, 3D puzzle/action game. Game play previews feature a tripedal “bot” traversing a dynamic, multi-colored polygonal game board, set within a retro, 50’s-60’s-style cosmic universe reminiscent of a puzzle version of Q-bert set in the 50’s space-age.

According to the game’s developers, 3bot is a robot with 3 feet that thinks in three’s. Game play centers around 3bot moving and coloring 3D patterns, navigating its way around a 3D environment set in outer space.

3bot’s cosmic puzzle/action unfolds throughout 3 worlds containing 45 different levels and features multi-touch controls, global score sharing and an authentic, “retro” 50s-60s sci-fi genre atmosphere.

Features:

1. 3+3+3+3+3 levels in 3 worlds = 45 levels.
2. New features added into levels to keep players “on their toes.”
3. Global Score-sharing.
4. Simple, intuitive touch controls.
5. Multiple player profiles.

3bot was developed by DevKid, in cooperation with Pixelfederation and looks like it’s shaping up to be a unique game play experience. You can follow 3bot on Facebook.

Hit the jump for some more screen shots of 3bot.
Continue reading 3bot for iPad, iPhone and iTouch coming soon! »

iPhone gamers who’ve been trawling the App Store for a while might remember when the first chapter of Puzzle Quest made it debut. The popular match-3 / RPG mashup has been a huge hit on the DS and PSP, but the initial iPhone port was sloppy, overpriced, and almost impossible to play. Thankfully, those problems were addressed after the release, and the second chapter was added as a free update to Chapter 1. However, Puzzle Quest is a three-chapter game…and now, a year after the second chapter’s release, the full experience is finally available to play.

You can purchase the third chapter as an in-app purchase for $1.99 if you own the paid version, but I recommend you go with the lite if you don’t own Puzzle Quest yet. Not only can you get a feel for the game, but you can purchase all three chapters for a bargain $4.99 in-app. Yes, you’ll be stuck with “free” on the game’s icon…but it’ll save you two bucks!

Puzzle Quest is really a great title—despite its simplicity, the balance of light RPG elements like spells and attacks mixes very well with match-3 gameplay. Quests require you to “battle” certain monsters in match-3 face-offs, and if the plot is unimaginative, at least the game is addicting! If you’re a fan of Bejeweled and its ilk, you owe it to yourself to check this one out. Even if you don’t particularly love match-3’s, Puzzle Quest is still fun.

Puzzle Quest Free

Category: Games / Adventure
Released: 2009-02-18
Price: FREE

PuzzleQuest Chapter 1 and 2

Category: Games / Adventure
Released: 2008-12-23
Price: $4.99

I know you’re going to think I’m crazy but I think man’s greatest invention is denim. Seriously, think about it, denim has worked it’s way into every modern society around the world. It’s durable, comfortable, and stylish at the same time. It can be business casual but add some paint spots and then it’s trendy. Heck, it can even pose as formal wear in the right circles, who doesn’t love a Canadian tuxedo? There’s not a doubt in my mind that everyone reading this has a favorite pair of jeans in their closet as we speak, unless of course you’re like me and already wearing them. The only problem I ever face with my jeans is that they wear out, not in the knees or the heels, I can deal with that, but in the back pockets. I used to blame it on my George Castanza like wallet, but even when I went to a slimmer style and purged all of the loyalty cards I still found holes, bringing my jeans to premature deaths. SmrtCase has come to my rescue though with an amazing new case called the Glide which combines your wallet and iPhone case into one.

Actually let me rephrase that, the concept of the Glide is amazing, being able to carry up to two cards in your phone case is perfect for going out, especially for women who don’t want to carry a purse or a pocketbook with them. “Amazing” is a bit of a stretch though when referring to the physical case itself. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good case, but there are a few key drawbacks that keep it from reaching its full potential. Honestly I think SmrtCase put too much focus on making the case thin and lightweight that they actually took away from the overall product. The impact resistant polymer material used for the case is 100% recyclable, which is great but it’s so lightweight that it feels almost cheap or brittle. To be fair I do think it’s a misperception as I put the case through several impact tests and it withstood them all very well, but a little extra weight would oddly make me more comfortable.

Read on for the rest of our look at The Glide case
Continue reading The Glide ~ Combines your Wallet and iPhone Case »

This week, historically, is the most important week of the year for the college basketball fan. It all starts with Selection Sunday when the field of 64 (or 65 as it is now) is announced. Then, college basketball fans worldwide struggle for the next 3.5 days to fill out their brackets. And finally, Thursday comes around and the first game tips off. From there it’s 4 straight days of basketball nirvana.

Here’s a quick round-up of some apps that can help you enjoy this week. Some to fill out your brackets with, and one to even help you catch the games when away from a TV.

CBS Sports NCAA® March Madness on Demand® is back for the second year. This app is on the high end price wise for an app, but it has one really special feature. Along with sports scores, news, and full bracket coverage, this app lets you stream video of every single NCAA Tournament game. That’s right every single one of the games, even over 3G and Edge. There’s also audio-only coverage if you prefer that. Last year the app worked really well for me. Great if you can’t get away from work to watch a game, you can just sneak into the bathroom and watch it there. I’m not too proud admit that I’ve had to do that once or twice…

CBS Sports NCAA® March Madness on Demand®

Category: Sports
Released: 2010-03-08
Price: $9.99

CBS Sports NCAA® March Madness On Demand® LITE

Category: Sports
Released: 2010-03-08
Price: FREE

Hit the jump for more great apps to help you enjoy March Madness.
Continue reading March Madness is Here! Let your iPhone help you enjoy it. »

In May of last year a mysterious video popped up on YouTube showing Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 running amazingly well, it seemed, on the iPhone. That video was created to celebrate Tony Hawks birthday and to hopefully present a product idea to Tony and Activision.

Well it looks like the game might really be coming out. Tony Hawk revealed this picture on his Twitter stream over the weekend. That tweet has now been removed, but the image remains on the image hosting site. The original tweet from Tony was “In the PR world, this is considered “going rogue,” but I’m too excited to contain it. This is real & dropping soon.”

Activision have the rights to the Tony Hawk franchise so the game will be released through them. We connected with the developer of the version we saw last year to see if they were the developers of this new version. The bad news is that they are not creating it. It was apparently created by someone else for Activision or possibly internally by Activision. I’ve contacted Activision to see if they have a comment on this game, but have yet to hear back.

Hit the jump for the original YouTube video to see Tony Hawk running on the iPhone.

Continue reading Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2 Really Coming to the iPhone »

(editor note: GodFinger is not available in the US App Store yet, but ngmoco:) says that it is coming soon!)

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of playing Bolt Creative’s Pocket God, you’ll probably understand how much fun it can be acting as ‘God’ over a group of (admittedly adorable) virtual characters. Within the game, players get to control almost every aspect of every day life for the islands small inhabitants, the pygmies. While good in its own right, Pocket God only focuses its attention on one small, virtually insignificant island. Released today, GodFinger by ngmoco takes this genius concept and multiples its size by … a lot.

In GodFinger, you don’t just get to control an island … you get to control a planet. Your planet. To do with whatever you please. Your planets inhabitants are called denizens and you get control them in any which way that you please! In order to play the game you’ll first need a Plus+ account. If you’re not familar with the service, Plus+ is ngmoco:)’s own social network which allows you to interact with other players of certain ngmoco-owned games, store achievements and game progress. If you already have an account, simply login and you’re ready to roll!

Starting out the game will take you on an interactive tutorial in which you complete a number of task to make you familiar with the game and its working. As you act as God, most of the in-game elements are “power” related. For example one of your first tasks is to find and guide your followers to your shrine. Your shrine is the global source of your godly power. Having your followers worship you around this totem-like statute will generate Mana. There are three types of currency you will come into contact with and use in GodFinger. These include; Mana, Awe and Gold. Mana is the “currency” of your powers, and while you have Mana you can perform various different wonders. Wonders are events like triggering a rain shower from a cloud, commanding lightening bolts, or lighting up your planet with sunshine. Your Mana regenerates over time, but you can speed this up by forcing your followers to worship you. If you need a quick fix of Mana you can trade Awe for Mana in the Awe store.
Continue reading GodFinger »

ngmoco’s new games have all been based off of the freemium play model. Whatever your opinions of freemium in other games, there’s denying that for Eliminate, it’s been a huge success; the online FPS has legions of dedicated fans. If you’ve tired of it in recent weeks, however, this might bring you back into the fold: ngmoco has released a new Eliminate app that adds a new and much-asked-for mode to the game. Cooperative play is here!

In the new co-op mode, two players team up to fight off the attacking bots. It includes a bunch of new loot to collect, so you can earn credits to upgrade your player’s armor and weaponry. It’s a lot of fun so far, and as a free update it’s even better. Eliminate fans, go grab the new app!

Eliminate: CO-OP

Category: Games / Adventure
Released: 2010-03-13
Price: FREE

For those who have been living under a technology rock, the iPad went on pre-order today and is set for a release date of April 3rd. With a hard launch date finally in place new details have come to light about the yet to be held device. The most talked about addition thus far is the addition of a Screen Orientation Lock switch on the side which replaces the formerly announced mute switch. Personally this is a feature I wish they would build into the iPhone as well. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve been texting while laying in bed and my phone can’t decide if it wants to stay in landscape mode or not. Please Apple, even if you don’t add a hard switch to the next iPhone, make a software option to turn off the accelerometer in the settings menu.

Additionally more information about the data plan for 3G users has also come up. It’s confirmed that any user subscribing to the 250MB plan per month ($15) will receive three separate warning notifications when the iPad is approaching it’s limit, popping up respectively at 20%, 10%, and 0% remaining. At any point a customer can chose to upgrade to the unlimited plan for $30. All can be done straight from the iPad itself with a credit card, no need to go into any store or call anyone, you can do it straight on the go. Combined with the ability to cancel it at any time I think it’s safe to say the 3G model is the one to buy. As an added bonus, just like the iPhone, AT&T is throwing in its access to over 20,000 hotspots, what’s not to love?
Continue reading iPad Pre-Orders Available ~ New Device Details Emerge »

The Magellan Premium Car Kit is a feature rich mounting solution with a lot of promise, but for $130 it ultimately leaves you wishing for a bit more. We’ll break these attributes down in detail later on but a brief overview shows the kit boasting a Bluetooth speakerphone, adjustable 360º bracket, GPS booster (with iPod Touch support), and in car iPhone charging through a 12v port. Built similarly to TomTom’s mount, Magellan’s Car Kit is designed to be used in conjunction with the company’s own $90 (currently on sale for $60) turn by turn navigation app, Magellan RoadMate 2010 (reviewed separately). Other navigation apps can be used successfully with this kit but some of the unique features may not function fully, more on that later also.

Bracket & Mounting Performance:

Using a suction-cup system the MPCK (Magellan Premium Car Kit) can be mounted very securely to any part of your windshield without fear of it falling or slipping. The only issue with this is one of aesthetics, being that the kit is powered off of the car means it needs to be plugged in 100% of the time and this results in an ugly cable hanging down from your windshield. To help with this MiTAC includes an adhesive dashboard disc for the mount to attach to, which while It doesn’t get rid of the cable entirely, it certainly does help with concealing it. The bracket attaches to the mount via a ball-joint which allows for a smooth 360º rotation. Be cautioned though, since the power cable hangs down rotating the mount too many times in one direction causes the cable to become taught and tangled.

Continue reading Magellan’s Premium GPS Car Kit ~ Wish it was Cheaper »

As you probably already know, GDC or the Game Developers Conference in San Fransisco is an annual conference at which game developer get together to share development, tools, tips and technologies. This year, independent development companies Semi Secret and Backflip Studios were quick to share just how successful their dive into the App Store has been. Between the two of them, they have 8 paid applications on the store.

Yesterday, co-founder of Semi Secret, Eric Johnson revealed to Pocket Biz that the company had sold 115,000 copies of their popular side-scroller adventure Canabalt. Whats interesting though is these download statistics he said were based upon Canabalt selling at the $2.99 price point over 5 months. He was also quick to estimate the ball-park piracy rate of Canabalt, which he put at 20 percent over those 5 months.

Similarly, Backflip Studio revealed it had generated $2.5 Million in around nine and a half months of being on the store. The company stated these figure were based on enjoying a staggering 22 Million downloads overall, revealing 17 Million of those came from just one of their App Store titles – Paper Toss. On a side note Backflip also announced mobile advertising is making them a substantial $1 Million in just six months and $379,000 in December last year, alone.