Did you get that long-coveted new iPhone 4s or iPad 2 for Christmas? Not sure what your new miraculous devices can do to improve your life? Or, maybe you’ve had an iOS device for quite a while and want a fresh perspective on its capabilities and the latest apps available for it. In either case, 148Apps and iPhone Life Magazine want to give you a chance to start 2012 off right by winning one of five magazine subscriptions to iPhone Life.
What do you have to do to enter? It’s simple! Just visit the following site: http://www.iphonelife.com/contest As a bonus, you’ll receive a free browser issue of iPhone Life.
This week at 148Apps.com, site founder Jeff Scott welcomed the Kindle Fire into the tablet fold with an overview of his impressions of the device. Scott says, “…while the Kindle Fire is around 40 percent the cost of a base level iPad, it’s capabilities are even less. It just so happens that those capabilities match up well with what a typical consumer uses a tablet device for. Because of that, the Kindle Fire will be a strong competitive device to the iPad. When it comes down to it, it’s the cost that matters to a very large portion of the buying public, not the capabilities.”
Meanwhile, our sister site, GiggleApps, took a closer look at a new educational app for children, iLuv Drawing Animals. Reviewer Amy Solomon writes, “iLuv Drawing Animals is a nice choice for kids who are interested in learning the very basics of drawing cartoony animals that are cute and relatively easy to draw. I like how these illustrations are broken down into smaller shapes that kids will easily understand and have had experience with, and the narration is pleasant and easy to follow.”
iPad Only App - Designed for the iPad
Released: 2011-10-10 :: Category: Education
Finally, on AndroidRundown, Carter Dotson announced the public availability of Google Music, an interesting development for all music lovers, no matter the device. Dotson writes, “Most importantly, this means that Google is now in the business of one of the big pillars of media, and it addresses a gaping hole in the Android Market. With videos and books already addressed, now the store is complete with music to go along with apps. Google is directly putting themselves in competition with iTunes, and they are making their operating system much closer in terms of features to iOS devices. This was a necessary move for Google.”
As we head into the week of Thanksgiving here in the US, remember that you can still enter to win an iPhone 4S, courtesy of 148Apps and Gameloft. To enter, just become a 148Apps and Gameloft Facebook fan – www.facebook.com/gameloft and www.facebook.com/148apps.
Or you can follow both of us on Twitter as well at www.twitter.com/148apps and www.twitter.com/gameloft. Then, write the following public tweet: “Upgrade to a 4S yet? Follow @Gameloft & @148Apps & RT for a chance to win an iPhone 4S! Gameloft gaming on the 4S: http://glft.co/uIR3Y1″
See you next week, true believers! Start thawing that turkey!
We’re heading towards the holidays, and this week at 148Apps.com we premiered a new Gameloft contest for the ultimate holiday gift – a brand spankin’ new iPhone 4S. To enter, just become a 148Apps and Gameloft Facebook fan – www.facebook.com/gameloft and www.facebook.com/148apps.
Or you can follow both of us on Twitter as well at www.twitter.com/148apps and www.twitter.com/gameloft. Then, write the following public tweet: “Upgrade to a 4S yet? Follow @Gameloft & @148Apps & RT for a chance to win an iPhone 4S! Gameloft gaming on the 4S: http://glft.co/uIR3Y1″
Our GiggleApps sister site featured a new review of Transport Jigsaw Puzzles 123 for iPad from writer Amy Solomon. She writes, “Transport Jigsaw Puzzles 123 for iPad is the terrific sequel to the original app, Farm Jigsaw Puzzles 123 for iPad. Seven scenes are included here that wonderfully introduce many vehicles and means of transportation, both traditional and unique, as well as a very fun, puzzle experience with the choice of using 2 to 16 puzzle pieces per scene and include hints if needed. There is also an iPhone version of this app available with 5 puzzle scenes included.”
iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2011-09-30 :: Category: Games
Finally, on 148Apps.biz, site founder Jeff Scott recapped his recent visit to the Sprint Open Solutions Conference, saying, “During the keynote from CEO Dan Hesse, he mentioned many times how great it was to have the iPhone on Sprint now (and to no longer have to answer the question of when they would get the iPhone). The addition of the iPhone 4 and 4S should allow Sprint to have their best year ever this year. Needing to have just one million adds to reach that record level. The iPhone should easily help them retain users and gain new ones.”
It’s a simple thing, really. You want the new Apple iPhone 4S, and Gameloft and 148Apps want to give it to you. Gameloft is celebrating the release of its newly-optimized titles for the iPhone 4S – BackStab, Silent Ops, Let’s Golf 3, Fast Five, 9mm, and Asphalt 6 – by giving you the chance to win one of the coveted little devices.
Or you can follow both of us on Twitter as well at www.twitter.com/148apps and www.twitter.com/gameloft. Then, write the following public tweet: “Upgrade to a 4S yet? Follow @Gameloft & @148Apps & RT for a chance to win an iPhone 4S! Gameloft gaming on the 4S: http://glft.co/uIR3Y1″
Once you’ve done either the Facebook or the Twitter route, head to the Contest Facebook Page and fill out the form to be entered.
It’s as simple as that! Even better, there are more ways to increase your chances to win, so read the full rules and requirements here to learn how.
So what are you waiting for? An iPhone 4S hangs in the balance.
Developer Screen Tear has launched their first iOS game, a reaction-based platformer called Springy. Players control a rolling pig that must jump over and through obstacles because if he hits them, he dies. But he just can’t stop rolling, so it’s the player’s job to tap in the screen to make him jump.
However, the real reason to check out this game? The first player who beats it flawlessly wins $250. The game is short, with only 6 levels (with three sections each), but is very difficult to complete without dying at all, due to the quick reactions needed to jump through the devious level sections. The best score so far is 212 attempts, so getting to zero might take a long time. Just remember, the US minimum wage is $7.25/hour, so spending more than 34 hours and 29 minutes trying to win the prize is an inefficient use of time. Good luck.
Do you love Scribblenauts: Remix as much as we do? Then show your love with a Scribblenauts-inspired Halloween costume and enter to win either a vinyl Maxwell doll (like the one pictured here) or a pair of Scribblenauts headphones.
What do you have to do? It’s simple. Just post a picture of yourself (or a family member – pets included) in Scribblenauts gear to our Facebook page, and we’ll take it from there. Winners will be announced Tuesday, while you’re recovering from your Halloween sugar binge. Get to it, wannabe Scribblenauts!
Congrats to Annalise Rose, winner of the $100 iTunes Gift Card. Look for an email for details on how to redeem your iTunes Gift Card.
The iPhone 5 should be coming along fairly soon, and we wanted to take a moment to gauge where our readers were at with their current service and their plans for their future service. Because, of course you’re gonna get an iPhone 5, right? We hope to use this data to make some recommendations on what the best provider for the iPhone 5 will be for you, in your area.
To get this data, we need your help. We need you to spread the word about this survey — the more responses we get, the better the results will be. Please take a second and tweet or post on your Facebook wall about this survey. All you need to do is hit those convenient tweet or like buttons at the top of the page for a quick post, or feel free to put the mention in your own words.
In the United States, AT&T has had exclusive iPhone rights up until January of this year, but now the Verizon is in on the game. And T-Mobile too, if you buy the unlocked iPhone 4 from Apple. There have been tons of complaints about service quality on the AT&T network in large cities like New York and San Francisco (and Las Vegas during CES). Switching providers to one that has better coverage for a user’s specific location may make sense. Of course, AT&T customers who have been with the telecom giant for a while might lose those grandfathered unlimited data plans, as only Sprint has unlimited data plans at this point. Of course, many of us use less data than we think, so we’ve included a spot for survey takers to measure that and report as well.
So tell us, 148Apps readers (and all your friends), what is your phone service like now? What will you choose to do once the iPhone 5 is released? Each completed surve will get a chance to be randomly selected for a $100 iTunes Gift card, on us. Make sense? Open to US iTunes accounts, only, please.
Very few things pique my curiosity as quickly as the combo of slugs, sci-fi and outer space. Leave it to app developer Bit Barons to create a new brainteasing puzzle game with a theme as unique as Astroslugs. Set in a time before time, Astroslugs challenges players to help the slugs gather Slug Energy through 35 levels. Controls are designed specifically with the iPad in mind, requiring players to slide their fingers to create paths for the slugs to travel. In a clever change of pace, each level of Astroslugs has multiple paths to a solution, so a deft mind can find numerous ways to achieve victory.
There’s a good introduction to the game via the Lite Version on the App Store, but for those hungering for more slugs, 148Apps and developer BitBarons have teamed up to offer five promo codes for the full version of Astroslugs. Just leave a comment below to enter. We’ll pull five names a little later in the week. Good luck, and happy slug hunting!
So, you’ve broken free of AT&T and now own a shiny new Verizon iPhone 4. How are you going to protect it? Speck has the answer with new fitted cases for the Verizon iPhone 4, and we have ten to give away starting Thursday, February 10th.
All you have to do to win is keep watching our Facebook page. Sometime on the 10th, and then for the next ten days, we’ll post on our wall that the daily contest is on. You then have to “like” our post and comment below it to be eligible to win. We’ll choose one winner at random from all of the commenters, so please keep it to just one comment per contest day.
Winners will need to provide us with a valid email address as well as a physical mailing address, since we can’t electronically transmit your case to you.
The first person to download the 10 billionth application, or submit the first free entry after the 9,999,999,999th download (more on that in a second), will win a $10,000 gift card to the iTunes store. We’ll consider that victory marginally better than the free balloons you get when you’re the millionth shopper at your local market.
It’s absolutely absurd to consider that in the span of only two and a half years (the App Store launched on July 10, 2008) there are more application downloads in a single marketplace than there are people on Earth. Nearly double the amount, in fact. That is, if you consider being shy by two billion a small margin of difference.
Those interested can head to the contest’s page on Apple.com. There you’ll see a scrolling ticker representing how close the world is to seeing that 10 billionth download. Is the ticker an accurate representation of the actual apps downloaded? Probably not. One would assume that Apple took the time to figure out how many apps are downloaded in a given span of time and then applied that rule to the ticker itself. But why is that important?
It’s only important if you plan on using the no purchase necessary form of entry. For those that don’t want to download the 10 billionth app or, alternatively, even for those that don’t have an iOS device, you can simply enter using this form within the contest page. You can do so 25 times a day. Obviously, it’s not fair to let non-purchasing folk walk away with the prize by just entering a bunch of times. So, the factor that contributes to the entrants eligibility is the timing of said entry.
The gift card will go to either the person that downloads the 10 billionth app or the person that uses the entry form immediately after the 9,999,999,999th download, whichever comes first.
If you’ve already checked out our massive list of Black Friday sales then you may have noticed a few cool apps from Readdle available for great prices. Well it seems they’re a company that keeps on giving, as they’ve also announced that they’ll be giving away three lucky winners a free iPad.
In order to enter into the sweepstakes you must answer me these questions three. No wait, that’s not right, but you do have to take the following steps:
1. Own any Readdle app
2. Follow @Readdle on Twitter
3. Send out the following Tweet sometime between November 24-30: “Readdle Apps #BlackFriday Sale. Follow @readdle, RT to win an #iPad: http://readdle.com/blackfriday”
Once you’ve completed all the tasks set before you you’ll be entered to win one of Apple’s wonder tablets. In order to cause general jealousy amongst friends and family we recommend if you win that you wrap the iPad and then place it under the tree with a card addressed to you from Santa. Then act shocked when you open it and snidely comment how you must have been so much nicer over the past year than everyone else in order to be worthy of such an amazing present.
We’ll take this opportunity to say good luck to everyone who enters and please know that we’re already jealous of you even before you’ve won. Just because we write about the iPad doesn’t mean we can actually afford it so congratulations, you’re better than us.
If you’ve got any questions or want to check out the official rules then head on over to Readdle’s Black Friday page and have a look around. Otherwise enjoy your Thanksgiving weekend, especially since you’ll be using it to gather up as many horseshoes, rabbits’ feet and four-leaf clovers as you can find.
As the site says “Put down your iPad, pick up a knife and carve a homage to your favorite app.” App-o-Lanterns, started by a group of enthusiastic app developers and fans, is a site that’s offering a fun, unique Pumpkin Carving contest this Halloween. It’s a way for fans to show what their favorite apps are, and to express their creativity. It’s also a really unique way for developers to try and get some attention – it’s an interesting way to show off their app, all wrapped up into a contest which gives anyone the ability to win a great prize!
All you need to do is carve up a pumpkin that pays homage to your favorite App (or if you’re a developer, your own App!) and send in the photo to the site – they’ll add to to the blog and you could win one of five prizes, depending on your category entry.
There are three kinds of submissions: Fan Submission (this is from everyday joes who are just carving up their favorite app), Developer Submission (Use a App-o-Lantern as a showpiece for your app!), or Kids Submission (if you’re under 13!).
The prizes, in addition to having one of the nerdiest pumpkins on the block, are as follows. Winners will be chosen by a panel of judges.
Kids Submission: Promo codes for some of the App-o-Lantern Sponsored apps. Fan Submission: Also win Promo codes from App-o-Lantern’s Sponsors. Developer Submissions: You get 100k ad impressions within the Sponsor’s app. Best Back-story: Come up with some sort of unique take about your App-o-Lantern and you could win a Promo Code for the Story Tracker app.
But here’s the Big Grand Prize: Best In Row!
If you make your submission and you get the most Tweets + Facebook Shares from their blog you’re going to win an AppleTV!
Obviously you should head over to their site and read the full contest rules, and definitely check out the submissions so far. But more importantly, I really think that you should head out to the pumpkin patch, grab your power tools and carve up a tribute to your favorite app! I’ve already got a few ideas of my own — good luck to all the entries!
The design team behind the new Decide Now decisions-making app is running a contest to try and find the most interesting and creative ideas to be added to their app. What’s in it for you? Well, a pretty nice Bluetooth headset or one of two iPhone 4 cases, is what. All you need do is give them a neat idea or suggestion, your honest and creative feedback on the app itself and the best three ideas will win the prizes.
Decide Now is an app for those who can’t seem to make up their minds. I’m sure I’m not the only one who will instantly think of Office Space’s “Jump to Conclusions” mat as the possible inspiration for this app. But the idea makes sense, and I know there are probably a couple times that I’d rather someone decide for me instead of having to think about all the options in a given situation.
What it offers is 10 predefined wheel templates for varying situations. Also, you can create your own custom options, so if you want it to decide what movie you should see, simply enter in each of the movies, and spin the wheel. Leaving it to chance or even letting Decide Now narrow down your choices for any situations might relieve you of any worry or stress associated with tough choices. Although, obviously this is for entertainment purposes — please people, don’t spin this thing for any major life-choices.
The description boasts of different color design options and that the graphics are retina display quality, so this app should be easy on the eyes. Try it out, and if you think you have a brilliant idea on how to improve it, head over to the contest page website and enter the contest. Not only will you help make the app better, but you could be walking away with a sweet new case or better still, bluetooth headset. The contest started September 28th, and runs until October 10th! Good luck!
To celebrate the release of Star Wars: The Battle for Hoth LITE, developer FluffyLogic is giving away some sweet prizes. All you need to do is download and install the free Star Wars: The Battle for Hoth LITE game, review it in four words or less on the iTunes App Store, and then email that review to FluffyLogic. Click here for full details and official rule stuff. More details from the developers:
The top prize is an original 80s Star Wars action figure of Luke Skywalker in his Hoth battledress. Second prize is also an 80s action figure – but of a Snowtrooper this time. Both winners will also get a copy of the book Plug In & Turn On: A Filmmakers Guide to Internet – written by the game’s producer and designer a long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away – so they can get some hints and tips to use their new found action figures to make fan films! The best runners-up will also get a copy of the book.
The full version of Star Wars: Battle of Hoth is also out – and the devs have a handy help guide for the game if you get stuck. But wait, THERE’S MORE!
In the email we got today, FluffyLogic teased us with the fact of a near-future iPad version coming out. With even MORE sweet new features and levels. Stay tuned for them right here as they’re revealed.
Being a developer in the iPhone world is a tough life to live. You’re bombarded every day with all sorts of worries like “Where is my app in the App Store?”, “What if people don’t like our new app?”, and “How many shots of espresso should I get in my latte?” While some people handle the stress quite well, many fall into the dark world of addiction. From the sounds of things, employees at Two Tribes, makers of the hit game app (Toki Tori), fall into the latter category.
There have been reports from inside Two Tribes that their employees have been experiencing some sort of mass confusion. Items are going missing, things are being found in absurd locations, and people have been doing jobs that they weren’t hired on for. Most importantly, the staff at Two Tribes has completely forgotten what kind of app they were developing.
All that they have to go by is an obscure game trailer (see below) and a picture that is too pixelated to make out, and they need your help solving the mystery.
If you have any idea what kind of app they are producing, send Two Tribes an email; they would be extremely grateful. According to Two Tribes, they will reward the most helpful answers with “an exclusive goodie-bag as well as a free copy of the game when it hits the iTunes store!” The deadline for emailing your thoughts is Wednesday August 18th, so don’t miss out on your chance to do a good developer a favor.
Click here for more information on the addiction and related contest. And remember, friends don’t let friends forget what they are developing.
Up until now, App Store sensation Pocket God has revolved around whatever you (as the de-facto god) did to your poor pygmy subjects. The folks at Bolt Creative, however, decided to bless the pygmies with initiative of their own…and their antics and adventures are the subject of the new Pocket God Comics. Yep, that’s right. A real, honest-to-goodness comic spin-off of the famous pygmy-torture game. Let the mayhem begin.
Pocket God Comics hit the App Store on Tuesday. Your $0.99 purchase includes the first issue; later releases can be obtained through in-app purchase. The app is universal (iPhone + iPod + iPad compatible), with higher-resolution artwork on display for the iPad version. The art looks fantastic, even on a small device, and the pygmies are as entertaining as ever.
But wait! Why should the pygmy conquest be limited to the virtual world? Bolt Creative is trying to push a print comic, too. Of course, stores need to carry the Pocket God comic before you can buy it, so Bolt is staging a contest. Take a look at the blog post for full details, but essentially: print a flyer that asks the comic store to stock Pocket God. Go to comic store. Take a picture of yourself with the flyer. Give flyer to comic store staff, then email picture to Bolt Creative. Pocket God gets exposure; you get a code for a Jet Pack in Ooga Jump as well as an entry in a drawing for a $1000 Apple Gift Certificate.
Pocket God is really a stunning success story—it hasn’t left the Top 50 for over a year—and it’s really neat to see the developers branching out into the “real world.” Hurrah for pygmies!
tap tap tap (Convert, Voices) has done quite well in the App Store despite not being a game developer. Continuing this trend, the company has announced today in a lengthy blog post that their newest app, Camera+, has made $250k in its first month. Surprisingly enough, the app did so with no advertising (the company doesn’t advertise for its apps anymore due to costs) and quickly declining sales in the US market.
So how did they do it? Here’s the abridged version.
Since tap tap tap does no advertising anymore, John Casasanta, head of the company and writer of the blog post, says that the key is to start with a HUGE launch. Huge as in contest for $10,000+ worth of camera equipment… but the key is how to get the word out. Fortunately for tap tap tap, John Casasanta is also the head of MacHeist, so the company got a large head start, but now tap tap tap has its own opt-in list with 70,000 subscribers. Says Casasanta, “Granted, not every developer has access to such resources, but there’s no reason that anyone can’t build-up resources of this sort over time… it’s taken us years so patience and persistence is key.”
I guess in any business, you’re only as successful as the people you know, or in this case, the amount of people you know.
The rest of the success lies in the app itself. Since the US App Store is completely dominated by games, it’s imperative to have a flawless, detail oriented app with some fun touches and well done social network integration. The post talks, in detail, about making things feel right, with not too many options, but enough to work correctly. Also, developers need to be completely open to feedback, and update when the app needs to be updated, but only when the updates are necessary.
As a non-game, it’s very important to keep hope even after sales wane in the US. The app market overseas is very different from our game and entertainment app dominated store, with countries like Finland having 14 of the top 25 being non game and entertainment apps. Check out the sales chart on the right to see how foreign app store are supporting Camera+.
The post ends with a warning. “You can spend a year on an app and hardly make a dime on it. It’s not just the nature of the App Store… it’s the nature of practically any business.” Only make an app if it’s something that you love, and be sure to slave over every last detail.
So good luck to all the devs that are out to make your own $250k. If every app turns out to look as well made as any of the tap tap tap apps, the world would be a much better place.
[Source: taptaptap]
This weekend, we’re going to have fun in another brain game. This time, it’s a game similar to Risk, Strategery.
Strategery is a land battle game where you battle up to 4 other players on random maps of various sizes. You start out controlling an equal part of the world map and battle to control more. You initiate a battle against another country on the board and then automatic dice rolls determine the winner. You turn continues until you have done all of the valid battles you wish. After your turn you can reinforce your troops in the countries that you still control to give you stronger forces for the next round. The game continues until one player or the other obliterates the others and controls all of the countries on the map.
The game takes strategy, planning, and a little bit of luck.
Strategery includes an online, 2 player battle mode that works similar to last weeks Words With Friends. Each player takes their turn on their own time and there are push notifications to let you know when it’s your turn. While the multiplayer system isn’t very robust, it gets the job done.
Now, the contest part! Add your Strategery user name below so that we can have a group of willing players to play against. I am, as usual, Jeff148Apps, feel free to hit me up for a game. We’ll pick a random winner for a $15 US iTunes gift card from all the entries and announce it next weekend.
If you want to check the game out before buying, there’s a Lite version available for the iPhone, but it lacks the online battle mode.
Update 5/8: Wow! What a great response. Over 300 of you joined us in playing Words With Friends. Of the 20+ games I’ve got going, I’m losing most of them. No big surprise there! As mentioned below, we picked a winner, emailed them and once they respond we’ll send them the $15 iTunes gift card. Check back later for another Weekend Fun post about another multiplayer game and a $15 iTunes gift card winner.
Last week, we kicked off our Weekend Fun series with We Rule. 99 of you joined us to build our kingdoms to new levels. We’ve announced the winner of last weekends $15 iTunes gift card on that page and emailed the winner. This week, it’s time to step it up a notch and start to exercise our vocabularies a little.
Words With Friends is our Weekend Fun contest for this week. If you aren’t familiar with Words With Friends, it’s a multiplayer Scrabble type game. What makes it work so well on the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad (with HD version), is that you play it at your own pace. Once you play your move, the control passes to the other player who will play at their own pace.
Want to play Words With Friends? The cheapest way is to download the free version (link below), set up an account, and get started. From there you can initiate a game with someone you know, or have the game pick a random player for you. If you are looking for opponents, please add your username in the comments below and I’m sure someone will be more than happy to challenge you! Feel free to challenge me if you feel like winning (jeff148apps) — I have about a 3rd grade vocabulary. (and yes, vocabulary is the largest word I know how to spell)
We’ll pick a random player to win a $15 iTunes gift card (for the US iTunes Store) — all you have to do to win is leave your Words With Friends id (not email address) in the comments below.
Update 5/1/2010: gokbert is our winner — check your email and respond and we’ll send you the iTunes gift card code.
We Rule from ngmoco:) is one of the more popular community trading games. A genre of game most popularized by Farmville. This type of game revolves around building things and trading goods and services with other players. In We Rule one of the best ways to gain experience points and in-game currency is to sell and buy services with other players. Both buyers and sellers gain in these transactions.
To sell services, you just need to build buildings that sell goods and services. This is basically any of the buildings other than farms and homes. Users can then come to your kingdom and order from those buildings just by touching them. This is the same way that you can order services from other kingdoms. Visit other kingdoms and look for open signs to see what’s available.
So let’s use this post as a place to share each our Plus+ Network usernames so that we can start trading with each other. The idea being that we build a community within the We Rule community all trading with each other to build our XP as fast as possible. I’ll start, I’m jeff148apps.
Add your Plus+ Network username below, in the comments. We can then all add each other as friends and start building up experience points and gold. To make it a little more enticing, we’ll pick a random user from below for a $15 iTunes Gift card so you can buy more mojo in the game. We’ll give away the gift card next weekend.
Also, make sure you have the latest version installed. Ngmoco recently fixed some bugs related to open businesses that should make things easier for us all.
Bottle Rocket, the developers of Doodle Bomb have teamed up with OpenFeint to deliver the Blast for the Cash contest. The idea is that the higher up the Doodle Bomb leader board you are, the greater your chance of winning a piece of $2,000 in prizes. Here’s a partial list of how the prize winners will be chosen:
–> Grand Prize <–
We will randomly select one of the top 5 overall scores to be awarded $1,000 cash!
–> First Prize <–
We will randomly select one of the top 10 overall scores to be awarded $500 cash!
–> Second Prize <–
We will randomly select one of the top 20 overall scores to be awarded $250 cash!
Winners will be selected on April 4th — so you better get bombing! For a complete list of rules and prizes, see the contest site.
We’re proud to announce the world’s largest iPhone app promo code contest held to honor the nominees of the 2009 Best App Ever Awards!
In honor of the second annual Best App Ever Awards, nominees were invited to submit promo codes for their apps for a promo code contest. What we got back was absolutely staggering. We have thus far received 912 1092 promo codes for 100 121 different apps. That comes to a total retail value of almost $2500 $3045! Continue reading World’s Largest App Store Promo Code Contest! »
We recently reviewed iSamJackson, and found it to be one of the best soundboard type apps you will find in the app store. Our editor Chris liked it so much that he’s foregone all verbal communication, and speaks only through Sam Jackson. To be honest, we hardly notice the difference…
Hot on the heels of the app’s success, Heatwave Interactive has announced “The Perfect iSamJackson Line” Contest. Fans of Sam Jackson can submit what they think would be the ultimate thing for him to say. All entries are being collected on the iSamJackson website until February 18, 2010. Although there is no guarantee that the winner’s line will be recorded and added to the app, there are some prizes up for grabs for the top submissions, including…
- Grand Prize (1): 8GB Apple iPod touch preloaded with iSamJackson
- Runner-Up (4): Custom limited edition iSamJackson iPhone cover
The iSamJackson app comes with 150+ original soundbytes recorded by Samuel Jackson, and can be had for roughly the price of a Royale with Cheese. You’ll find a retort for almost any situation, and there is an in-app store for downloading additional themed packs. iSamJackson is available in both Explicit and Clean versions, although there’s really only one choice for the full Sam Jackson experience.
Yep, that’s right, folks…the Appvent Calender has come to an end. iTunes Connect is closed for Christmas, presumably to help iTunes handle the influx of traffic, so developers can’t change prices until the holiday is over. There won’t be any more free games, at least not through the official Appvent Calender.
What the folks at Blacksmith games are offering, though, is a contest. You can go here to read the full details, but the main thing is that you have to create a sketch, design, or description of a unique Plushed character. The winner will receive a $200 iTunes gift card (USA only, sadly). That’s a nice prize right there!
The developers will pick their top five choices on December 29th and show them on the Appvent Calender site. In true democratic style, “the people” will get to pick the winner. Not only will the winner receive that awesome gift card, but their character will be animated and added to the game as an enemy in the fifth level of Plushed!
A fitting end to the Appvent Calender? I think so. It’s hard to believe how close it is to Christmas.
Don’t forget that EA still has a massive 24 games on sale, and other developers are still running promotions, too. Here’s one last sale from an awesome app to conclude our Daily Double:
Beejive IM
Those App Store veterans among you will recognize Beejive as the widely acknowledged leader in the field of IM apps. Even Apple selected it as one of 2009′s best app in their “2009 Rewind” feature. Sporting push notifications, group chat, support for a wide array of IM services, and oodles of other features, Beejive has long set the premium standard. We gave Beejive a shining 5-star rating, and highly recommend it to any heavy chat users. It was worth it back at $15.99 and was still a deal at $9.99. Now, its current sale price of $5.99 is likely the lowest you’ll see this premium app go. Make sure to read our review for a more in-depth look!
UK development studio Sauce Digital will be holding a 12 Days of Christmas Apps contest from December 26 (Boxing Day) through January 6 (Epiphany). They’ve gathered hundreds of promo codes from participating developers, and will be giving away one twelfth of the codes on every day of the event. To enter the contest, all you have to do is submit your name and email on the official site, http://www.12daysofchristmasapps.com. The website also has an area where interested developers can sign-up for taking part in the promotion.
Sauce Digital is probably known best for their game Nano Rally, and have recently released Touch Soccer 3D. Their suite of games will be offered in the competition, as well as those from a variety of developers including Hanged by Freeverse, and Harbor Master by Imangi Studios. So far 47 developers have joined the contest pool, and the total number of promo codes collected is at 365 and counting.
Last week, as most of you know, Rockstar Games announced that it was porting its critically acclaimed GTA: Chinatown Wars to the iPhone. Not only is this great news for fans of the game, though we do already have the superb Gangstar, but it also shows how seriously the iPhone is taken as a gaming platform. Rockstar is not a company to make gratuitous ports for every platform available (I don’t think the Wii will be getting GTA anytime soon), so this upcoming port shows that Rockstar believes in the power of the iPhone. If Rockstar will port GTA for the iPhone, what other big-name developers will follow? The days of the iPhone being a phone that you could play some gimmicky accelerometer games on are over. Sony, I would be afraid.
New ngmoco FPS trailer, now called Eliminate, reveals the use of micro-transactions
Ngmoco has released a new trailer for their upcoming Eliminate, and while the game is looking awesome, most people are fixating on another detail: you will only be able to play so many matches online for credits in one day, and if you want to play for credits again without waiting a day, you have to buy an “energy pack” using real money. So what’s the big deal? Well if you ask me, as long as ngmoco doesn’t abuse this, nothing. Here’s the kicker: if you run out of energy, you can still play online, you just won’t win credits. So the only people who will buy extra energy are the perfectionists who have to show how good they are. For people like me, who just want to play a game to have fun (isn’t that what a game is for), you can play however much you want and still have fun. So really, this is a great idea as long as two things hold true: the game is not originally priced above $6.99 and the amount of energy you get per day is reasonable. What do you guys think? Sound off in our comments below.
C64 Emulator finally approved by Apple
After months of back room deals, Apple rejections, and Apple non-communication, Manomio has finally gotten their superb C64 emulator has been approved! Obviously this won’t appeal to everyone, but if you’re one for nostalgia, at $4.99, it’s worth picking up because of the high level of polish and solid controls. The emulator comes with five fully licensed games, but no BASIC emulator as was originally included, though it’s apparently suspiciously easy to enable the BASIC if you’re SSH savvy. Future games will be available via DLC at prices to be determined by the original IP holders. Next up, Manomio, a legal Atari emulator (I wish)!
iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad
Released: 2009-09-04 :: Category: Music
Contest!
This, week, as a first for MMAHQ, we’re holding a contest where you can be the lucky winner of a $15 iTunes gift card! To enter, simply comment on this article with your prediction for what will happen at the 9.9.09 Apple event on Wednesday. What will the new iPod Touch look like? Will any huge games come out (like Madden)? Will Steve Jobs be there? The winner will be the person who has the most accurate or funniest prediction will be deemed the winner (that’s right, this is completely arbitrary)! Hopefully we can get some good participation, and if all goes well, we might have some more contests later on.
Apps of the Week
Modern Combat: Sandstorm
Modern Combat is the most visually impressive title on the iPhone to date, bar none. Models are good, textures are sharp, and everything is fully and accurately 3D. Not only this, but Gameloft actually nailed the controls, a first for an FPS on the iPhone. The gameplay, specifically the AI and level structure leave something to be desired, but Sandstorm remains a great accomplishment nonetheless, and it comes with a solid recommendation at the low price of $6.99.
Samurai is one of the coolest games I’ve played on the iPhone. It’s a hack-and-slasher with great graphics, perfect controls, and gratuitous blood! Controls involve different combinations of swipes, and the gameplay is actually somewhat strategic – you have to balance small attacks with huge combos, because if you miss a huge combo, you leave yourself very prone to an attack. Execute moves correctly, and you might be lucky enough to see the body of the opponent samurai stop, then fall on the ground in two pieces, with blood squirting across the screen. Samurai comes with both a story mode and an endless or “dojo” mode. My only complaints about this game are that once you figure out the controls, it’s too easy – there’s an uneven difficulty curve, and that it does get repetitive at times. Still, I found myself playing this $2.99 gem much more than Sandstorm. Expect a full review soon, but until then, you really have to see a video to appreciate the awesomeness of this game.
Update: 8/16: We’ve got a winner!!! The winner of the iPhone 3GS is @auntiethesis Congratulations from PressOK and 148Apps!
Update: Bumper Stars is now on sale for only $0.99! Grab it now! (iTunes Link)
PressOK, the makers of BumperStars have partnered with us here at 148Apps to give away a brand new iPhone 3GS to one lucky Twitter follower. The contest runs from today through the end of August 13th.
How to enter the contest
To enter the contest, you just need to follow the Press_OK on Twitter and sent a tweet that includes the hash tag #FreeiPhone3GS. That’s it. Here’s an example of the tweet you might send:
I want to win a free iPhone 3GS! Follow @Press_OK and retweet! Contest details here: http://bit.ly/WinA3GS #FreeiPhone3GS
Click here to send that Twitter message or edit it to your liking.
You can enter more than once though your followers might not like like it if you go too crazy.
Contest Details
The contest is open from now until 11:59pm Pacific time, August 13th. Only entries before that time will be considered. The winner will be chosen and posted here the following morning.
You must follow Press_OK, the people giving away this huge prize. That’s how they will communicate with you on how you can redeem your prize.
You must send the tweet from an account that isn’t protected, suspended, or deleted. If we can’t find the tweet with this Twitter Search, then it won’t count. And there’s nothing we can do about that, it’s up to Twitter search.
The Tweet that you send has to have the hash tag #FreeiPhone3GS included for us to be able to find it.
You can enter as many times as you wish.
The prize will be delivered via an iPhone Gift Card from the online Apple Store for the price of the iPhone 3GS, $199 here in the US. We’ll do our best to accommodate other countries, but you can’t buy iPhone gift cards in all countries. In the case where an iPhone gift card can’t be purchased, we’ll make other arrangements with the winner for the prize.
Don’t have a Twitter account? Well just create one to get started.
Have any questions? Put them in the comments to this post and we’ll do our best to answer them.
More about Bumper Stars
Bumper Stars has been described as pinball mashed up with pool smashing into a game of Peggle. The goal of the game is to bounce around your helmeted beaver and gather all of the fruit on the screen in 3 shots or less. The games gets more difficult as more fruit and more bumpers get added to each successive level. The game is integrated with Facebook and allows you to see your friends score and challenge them to games. Bumper Stars is currently in the App Store for $2.99.
Delayed but not forgotten! Ok, so this is the most people I’ve ever had to apologize to at once, well except for that night in Vegas…on stage with Cirque Du Soleil…I’ve said too much. Regardless I must apologize for the delay of our Design A GelaSkin contest, as it turns out even we are not immune to the technical difficulties of the interwebs. Alas it’s all done, our galley is set up and awaiting submissions, our voting plan is setup, and I’m just itching to see what kind of creativity you, our readers, are really made of.
If you haven’t a clue as to what I’m talking about here’s a brief recap of my blog post a few days ago. Today we are beginning a new contest called Design A GelaSkin, if you’re not familiar with them, check out their site, each case is truly amazing and we need you to design one for us. If yours is chosen not only will you get a free skin for yourself and your very own 148Apps T-Shirt but also your design will be on a limitless amount of skins that we will be sending out for promotions and giveaways around the world!
Even if your not an artist we still need your help on picking out the best design so please come vote!
It’s official, 365 days & 1.5 billion App downloads later 148Apps has officially turned 1 Year old, Hurray!!!!!!! Now that you know, mark it on your calendar for next year, this year is your freebie but if I don’t get a birthday card from you on July 16th next year we will sooo be fighting!
Seriously though, can you say “wow,” just look at how much we have changed and grown from that very first Aurora Feint: The Beginning Review Jeff started us out with. We’ve reviewed hundreds of apps, added a staff of over a dozen writers, launched our sister site (148apps.biz), and have a Web Fourm section up and kicking, it’s amazing, we are now easily the best gosh-darn iPhone review site this side of Mars.
We have you, our readers, to thank for all of it, so thank you. So in the spirit of thanks I want to announce a new contest. While I know we all love the App & ITMS Gift Card giveaways, we thought that this called for something special, Design your own GelaSkin. Let me explain, for those of you who aren’t familiar with GelaSkins you definitely need to check out their site, they describe it as “Protection with style. Not Bulk.” And it’s true, their skins are ultra thin with amazing print quality.
Alright, I’m getting to the point, we are asking you guys to design a skin/logo for us. I’m not talking about a design for just a few skins, we’ll be ordering tons of these things for different contest and promotional giveaways. Think about it, if you win your artwork could be on iPhones around the world, how cool is that! On top of that we’ll obviously be giving you a free skin of your design and also your very own 148Apps T-shirt.
So heres how it’s going to go down:
The Design
Your design can be of anything, App related or not, but it must be tasteful. You can get some great ideas and inspiration from the GelaSkins gallery page. Although it need not be directly related to iPhone apps we do ask that you work our 148Apps logo into it somewhere. If you check out the GelaSkins gallery you’ll notice that many of the iPhone skins are cropped down from larger pictures, we can definitely do this as well, in the end the picture printed will need to be cropped to 1500 x 1500 pixels. You can grab a large version of our logo artwork here. You’ll also notice that they recommend designing an optional wallpaper to go with the skin which if your skin is chosen we will post the downloadable artwork on our page.
Choosing the Winner
We’re going to be stealing a page from the American Idol book here. The judging panel will consist of 3 148Apps representatives, each counting as 1 vote and then all of the readers will be allowed to vote on their favorite design. The most popular choice of the readers will count as 1 vote in the final panel. If there are enough submissions then there will be a semi final round where the designs are narrowed down to the top 3 to choose from and a new vote will be taken.
Viewing and Voting
There will be a submission gallery page setup where readers can browse through all of the submitted artwork for their favorites. The official voting and design submission procedure is still being discussed and details will be released soon.
Run Dates
While the contest is being announced today it will not officially begin until Monday, July 20th, 2009. Submissions will then be accepted until 11:59 pm Friday, July 31st, 2009. Votes will then be counted at 11:59 pm Monday, Aug 3rd, 2009. Results will then be announced on Tuesday, August 4th, 2009.
**One note about the artwork submissions. At 148Apps we fully appreciate artistic nature and encourage everyone to follow that nature and design anything they would like. But because of the wide demographic of readers we have we request that all submissions remain tasteful and reserve the right not to post any which we consider to be inappropriate or offensive. Thank you and have fun!
Welcom to the Design A GelaSkins Gallery Page. All submissions are added the night of submission so if you don’t see yours right away don’t fret, it will be there in the morning. To keep things honest voting will not take place until all the submissions have been made. In the mean time feel free to make comments about them at the bottom. Click here for more contest details. Spread the word!
Fearing the End of Days? Wondering why everyone is so freaked out about the Mayan Calendar? Think all this talk about The Apocalypse is silly but still curious about the details? Well there's an app... yeah, I can't go through with it.
Did you get that long-coveted new iPhone 4s or iPad 2 for Christmas? Not sure what your new miraculous devices can do to improve your life? Or, maybe you’ve had an iOS device for quite a while and want a fresh perspective on its capabilities and the latest apps available for it. In either case, 148Apps and iPhone Life Magazine want to give you a chance to start 2012 off right by winning one of five magazine subscriptions to iPhone Life. 
This week at 
Finally, on AndroidRundown, 
We’re heading towards the holidays, and this week at 
Finally, on 
It’s a simple thing, really. You want the new Apple iPhone 4S, and 
Do you love 
:: SPARK OF GENIUS
The iPhone 5 should be coming along fairly soon, and we wanted to take a moment to gauge where our readers were at with their current service and their plans for their future service. Because, of course you’re gonna get an iPhone 5, right? We hope to use this data to make some recommendations on what the best provider for the iPhone 5 will be for you, in your area.
Very few things pique my curiosity as quickly as the combo of slugs, sci-fi and outer space. Leave it to app developer Bit Barons to create a new brainteasing puzzle game with a theme as unique as Astroslugs. Set in a time before time, Astroslugs challenges players to help the slugs gather Slug Energy through 35 levels. Controls are designed specifically with the iPad in mind, requiring players to slide their fingers to create paths for the slugs to travel. In a clever change of pace, each level of Astroslugs has multiple paths to a solution, so a deft mind can find numerous ways to achieve victory.
So, you’ve broken free of AT&T and now own a shiny new Verizon iPhone 4. How are you going to protect it? Speck has the answer with new fitted cases for the Verizon iPhone 4, and we have ten to give away starting Thursday, February 10th.
There are three kinds of submissions: Fan Submission (this is from everyday joes who are just carving up their favorite app), Developer Submission (Use a App-o-Lantern as a showpiece for your app!), or Kids Submission (if you’re under 13!). 
Up until now, App Store sensation Pocket God has revolved around whatever you (as the de-facto god) did to your poor pygmy subjects. The folks at Bolt Creative, however, decided to bless the pygmies with initiative of their own…and their antics and adventures are the subject of the new Pocket God Comics. Yep, that’s right. A real, honest-to-goodness comic spin-off of the famous pygmy-torture game. Let the mayhem begin.
tap tap tap (Convert, Voices) has done quite well in the App Store despite not being a game developer. Continuing this trend, the company has announced today in a lengthy blog post that their newest app, Camera+, has made $250k in its first month. Surprisingly enough, the app did so with no advertising (the company doesn’t advertise for its apps anymore due to costs) and quickly declining sales in the US market.
As a non-game, it’s very important to keep hope even after sales wane in the US. The app market overseas is very different from our game and entertainment app dominated store, with countries like Finland having 14 of the top 25 being non game and entertainment apps. Check out the sales chart on the right to see how foreign app store are supporting Camera+.
Strategery is a land battle game where you battle up to 4 other players on random maps of various sizes. You start out controlling an equal part of the world map and battle to control more. You initiate a battle against another country on the board and then automatic dice rolls determine the winner. You turn continues until you have done all of the valid battles you wish. After your turn you can reinforce your troops in the countries that you still control to give you stronger forces for the next round. The game continues until one player or the other obliterates the others and controls all of the countries on the map.
:: ADDICTING
We recently reviewed iSamJackson, and found it to be one of the best soundboard type apps you will find in the app store. Our editor Chris liked it so much that he’s foregone all verbal communication, and speaks only through Sam Jackson. To be honest, we hardly notice the difference…
What the folks at Blacksmith games are offering, though, is a contest. You can 
Update: Bumper Stars is now on sale for only $0.99! 
Delayed but not forgotten! Ok, so this is the most people I’ve ever had to apologize to at once, well except for that night in Vegas…on stage with Cirque Du Soleil…I’ve said too much. Regardless I must apologize for the delay of our Design A GelaSkin contest, as it turns out even we are not immune to the technical difficulties of the interwebs. Alas it’s all done, our 
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