Push News is a decent idea, but it needs more features to make it your one-stop way of reading the news. For now, I’d advise looking elsewhere if you want to stay up-to-date.

CNN reaches the App Store with its new flagship application, CNN Mobile. We take a look at its impressive array of features, including push notifications and live video viewing.

Vodaphone UK To Also Take a Slice of the iPhone Pie?

iPhone users and future iPhone users rejoiced earlier this week, as O2 announced it has finally (and officially) lost exclusivity of the Apple iPhone handset. In the next breath, Orange UK announced it would be bringing the handset to it’s product line, starting this fall. In fact, it reckons it will start selling the iPhone 3G in the UK and Ireland next month.

But just when you thought that two carriers wasn’t enough, and not one to miss an opportunity, Vodaphone UK have today also announced that they too have signed a deal with Apple to carry the handset:

From the press release:

Vodafone and Apple today confirmed that they have reached agreement to bring iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS to the UK and Ireland in early 2010.

Beginning today, Vodafone UK and Vodafone Ireland customers can register their interest in iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS at www.vodafone.co.uk/iphone and www.vodafone.ie/iphone respectively. Pricing, tariffs and availability information will be announced locally in the future.

So what does this mean for all of us loyal O2 customers? Well, not much really. It was a fun ride while it lasted, but I’m afraid to say you’re no longer “cool” by owning an iPhone. Just think, if Orange and Vodaphone do manage to get the actual handset price down, you could see everyone in your street with an iPhone by January 2010.

There’s no doubting this will be good for competition, but don’t get your hopes up too high. There’s still that little thing called price-fixing, and I think we’ll see Apple fix the pricing on these handsets. Period.

News Fuse is a streamlined app that gives you easy access to a wide variety of news sites. It’s not rich in features, but it makes up for it in ease-of-use. If mobile Safari is too cumbersome for you, give this app a go.

Even if you’re not into politics this is an invaluable tool to be in the know with local, state, and federal political figures. It is a wealth of information neatly organized and continually updated. Moreover, the developer is excited about his products and has several ideas for this app and others like it.

RSS Flash g is an RSS reader that syncs with Google’s Reader RSS aggregator. This is a middle-of-the-road RSS utility. It does a great thing syncing with Reader, which any Reader fan will love, but some may find the interface wanting.

Search For Satisfaction: the Lack of Full-Featured iPhone Games

The Search for Satisfaction
Nobody really expected the App Store to be such an enormous success. There are currently over 41,000 apps in the store, and more than 12,000 publishers. (These stats come from our sister site, 148apps.biz.) Since its debut, the App Store has produced games that scorn typical expectations of “mobile gaming” and present polished, cheap entertainment in an easily accessible form. Apple has taken advantage of the iPod Touch and iPhone’s gaming abilities, and is pushing gaming apps in its ads. By all accounts, the iPhone is becoming a force to be reckoned with in the world of handheld gaming.

But while the App Store is booming, there’s a sad lack of real games in the App Store. I’m talking about games that draw you in with knotted narratives, games that you can really sink your teeth into. I’m talking about games that could make the folks over at Nintendo and Sony fret over the futures of their precious handheld consoles.

Just look at the Top 100, and you’ll see what’s missing. At the time of writing, the #1 game is Stick Wars—a “good” game, perhaps, but hardly an overwhelming demonstration of the iPhone’s capabilities. The #1 free app is the “Urinal Test,” which speaks for itself; the #1 paid app overall is the Moron Test—that’s high-quality stuff right there. Two more examples: Doodle Jump and Flight Control are bestsellers that have met with both popular and critical acclaim, and for good reason; they’re wonderful casual titles. But their success is a testament to a marketplace that craves casual play, a marketplace where the cheapest often wins. iPod Touch and iPhone owners tend to buy games as if they were candy: sugary snacks that can be consumed mindlessly, and thrown away once the sweetness has been sapped. Those aren’t the kinds of games that will catapult the iPhone to true greatness as a gaming platform.

And that’s what we gamers would love, really. The diversionary games are wonderful, but serious gamers are still lusting after real games. Imagine a world where your PSP or DS has been made obsolete by your phone. That’s the world I want to be in; why carry two devices when you can have one? I want quality titles that will last more than a few hours. As a New York Times article lamented, “Those searching for a deep, meaningful, narrative-driven experience will generally have to
Continue reading Search For Satisfaction: the Lack of Full-Featured iPhone Games »

TechCrunch is a tech-centric blog network, and their offline reader promises to deliver all of their content in a quick, convenient package. While it’s pretty enough to look at, and has plenty of features, the reader is just too crash-prone to justify consistent use.

Oregon Trail: Origins Announced

The Oregon Trail is one of my all time favorite games and gameloft did an amazing job of remaking the game for the iPhone and iPod Touch. If you haven’t had a chance to check out the game yet, definitely check out our review.

While everyone is still excited about the apps recently launch, gameloft has decided to announce a prequel to their latest success entitled The Oregon Trail: Origins. Here’s the quick write-up we’ve received from gameloft:

Gameloft Announces The Oregon Trail: Origins Featuring Cave Men Going West

Grab your sticks and stones, take your woman by hair, and pray that you make it out West!

Before there were settlers, there were cavemen. Often forgotten, largely ignored, they paved the treacherous roads of the Oregon Trail before there was an Oregon Trail.

Gameloft’s newest title brings The Oregon Trail: Origins to all the wannabe Neanderthals of the 21st century. The game will be available for all platforms.

Check out Gameloft’s exclusive screens and follow our Twitter feed today for more game detail leaks: http://twitter.com/TheOregonTrail

We’re as excited as you are to check out this amazing new title and will keep you posted as more information breaks. We’ve got two great screenshots of the game after the break, so make sure to check them out!

Continue reading Oregon Trail: Origins Announced »

Although this is billed as a great way to showcase URLs (websites, blogs…) to a client, the application is much more than that. Essentially, it’s giving you back precious application space on your device!

Upcoming Release from Illusion Labs Sway

Illusion Labs today sent out word about their upcoming release Sway. They game looks like it continues the innovative games and control schemes that Illusion Labs is known for. They have previously released Labyrinth (iTunes link), the ball rolling game recreation of the classic wood puzzle where you roll the ball to the goal, and winner of the 2008 Best App Ever Awards category Best Casual Game. They also released Touch Grind (iTunes Link), the winner of the Most Innovative Game for it’s fantastic control scheme where your fingers control a skateboard rolling in a skate park.

Sway is described by Illusion Labs as:

Introducing Sway – The nice and friendly, but clumsy, wizard has accidentally blown up their home planet. All your friends survived the big badaboom due to their soft interior and fuzzy exterior but are scattered all over the galaxy. Now they are on a mission to find each other again!

Swing and sway through beautiful worlds in bouncy physics simulation using finger gestures to control their little grabby hands. It takes a bit of practice to get used to the controls but once you get the hang of it, you never wanna stop swaying.

Meet Lizzie, The Friendly Ninja, Benny the Bear, Recyclable Man and all your other friends in a swinging and swaying adventure like nothing you have seen before! Sway will be available on the App Store for the iPhone and iPod Touch before you can say smorgasboard!

Take a look at the video below — looks like an interesting game. We’ll get you more info as soon as we can get our hands on this game.

ngmoco Announce Topple Too and WordFu

Today, ngmoco announced their next two games, Topple Too, an update to the popular and currently free Topple, and WordFu, the worlds first kung-fu word / dice game.

Topple Too, is believed to be a revision of ngmoco’s second game, Topple. We looked at Topple a while ago and found it a great game, we gave it 5 stars. We are trying to get more info from ngmoco on what they have in store for this second edition. Topple is currently free and I highly suggest you grab it if you haven’t already. Best free game out there.

Topple

Our Rating: :: 99 CENT GEM

Category: Games / Puzzle
Released: 2008-10-18
Price: FREE

The second game announced today, WordFu, is a dice/word game was first shown at MacWorld last week. WordFu looks to be a very fun, and comical multiplayer word game using dice with letters instead of pips. Think MotionX Poker Quest for words with a lot of Bruce Lee thrown in. Though ngmoco says that it does not contain MotionX technology, it’s a good example of the dice rolling technology.

The goal is to discover as many words as possible, in the time limit, from the dice rolled on the screen. The multiplayer pits you against another player on the wifi network who is looking at the same dice. The real fun part of this game though are the strange and wonderful kung-fu sounds that the game generates when you find words.

These two games are expected to arrive in the App Store within a month.

Astraware Platypus Sneak Peek

Astraware/Handmark today published a video showing some of the gameplay of their new iPhone game, Platypus. It looks to be a pretty good side-scrolling shooter — something the iPhone has had very few of. (good side-scrolling shooters that is, there are plenty of crappy ones)

No word on the release date yet but would expect it soon. Hit the read more link for the video.

Continue reading Astraware Platypus Sneak Peek »

Frenzic from The Iconfactory Submitted to the App Store

The fine folks at The Iconfactory have let us know that their game Frenzic has been submitted to the iTunes App Store and should be showing up any day now.

Continue reading Frenzic from The Iconfactory Submitted to the App Store »