Continuing onward from our last week’s look at Puzzle Games on the App Store, we’re going to take a look at Word Puzzles on the App Store.  Word Puzzles have long been popular, making appearances in newspapers, children’s fun books, magazines and now they’ve paved their way onto the App Store.

WordsWorth

WordsWorth comes from a team of Indian creative minds called 99Games Online. Based out of Mangalore, India, [Milind: hey! That’s my native land!] 99Games has a bunch of puzzle games available in the App Store, WordsWorth being their latest offering. But, what exactly is WordsWorth?

WordsWorth is a fun, interactive word puzzle game wherein the objective of the game is to find words from a collection of letters scrambled in the form of a honeycomb looking grid. Although this sounds simple, it is quite difficult to find out and trace the words from the grid. You may either tap each alphabet to form a chain forming the word, or you can trace out the word chain by dragging the path. You are awarded points based on the length of the word and the alphabets chosen. The top of the game tells you how much a word formation will reward you before the submitting. Continue Reading »

Did you know that the App Store got more than 20 new farting applications in 1 week? See for yourself [iTunes link]. I remember when everyone was complaining about how Apple was being ‘selective’ about App Store approvals, and that were making a decision based on ‘taste’ rather than on the technical quality of the apps. Well this is it folks.

The problem is, that not only are these apps coming in droves, they are also making it to the top 10 lists! Number 3 and 4 are occupied by two such apps. Cheap as they are, The problem is that Apple is powerless in this regard. Damned if they do, damned if they don’t kind of scenario.

The only solution as I see it is Apple introducing something like an App Store Elite. Apple could be very choosy about this store, and only approve what they feel are good apps without allowing duplicates to enter. That way no one can complain about Apple being choosy, nor can they complain about it being more of a CrapStore. Of course, this will mean Apple admitting that their App Store is full of craps, and adding a whole lot of confusion in the process, which is why I’m not the CEO in the first place. 

Personally I’ve had the displeasure of using the iFartz Mobile [iTunes link], which I must say it is extremely disgusting and repulsive. I particularly like the ‘security fart’ feature, which makes a noise the moment someone touches your iPhone. All of my friends found this very amusing, which also made me realise the quality of my friends. If it’s a disgusting, repulsive, obscene and feature rich fart application that you’re looking for, you can’t go wrong with iFartz Mobile. If it’s not, I understand how you feel.

This week’s App Store reviews are all about games. We it had to be, considering that it is the most popular category in the App Store. For this roundup we have puzzle based games, namely Crossbones and Deep Green Chess. 

Crossbones

A newly set up software development company, New Insect Overlords get their first game out in the App Store. One of the developers, Steve Sprang, previously worked solo on the App Store developing the drawing app “Brushes” [iTunes link] all by himself. Well actually, for a person like Steve, Brushes should be a piece of cake. After all, he did work at Apple for 7 years developing the iWork office suite. An original member of the Keynote team, he left Apple to start off his iPhone development dreams (I guess he stayed in the family).

Enough about Steve and more about Crossbones.

Crossbones is a challenging and addictive pirate-themed puzzle game for the iPhone and iPod touch. Match cards as fast as you can to collect pirate loot. Play solo or against computer opponents in single player mode. Challenge your friends over the internet using either Edge or Wifi or play on a local network.

Like that made any sense. I fired up the game and briefly looked through the tutorial. For the first five minutes I didn’t know what I was doing. But once you get to know the concept, the game is really interesting, and challenging. I would say Crossbones is a very intelligent form of tetris. You need to be quick at looking colours, objects and well, a few other things to be able to put them together to form groups. I won’t try and explain the concept, as the only way to understand the game is to play it. Continue Reading »

Like any other week, there is always some App Store madness to report on. The first bit came when Air-O-Matic’s Pull My Finger [iTunes link], the fart application finally made its way into the App Store. Yes, the same one that got rejected a couple of months ago. So why now Apple? According to what an Apple rep told the developer, Apple is introducing a whole new genre of what can only be called ‘Stupid & Useless’ apps into the App Store. 

“The very kind Apple Team Member told me that they didn’t want to reject it originally, but that they were sorting out how this ‘genre’ of apps were going to be handled,” he added. “She told me they’d be lifting the restriction on them, and more apps will follow that may have been previously not allowed.”

While I’m glad that the whole ordeal of everyone suddenly wanting – no, needing – a farting application, but I seriously  wonder what the implications of this new development are. Soon there will be hundreds of these apps with seemingly no use, but Apple will have no control over whether or not they are allowed. They will inadvertently make their way into the top 10 lists, and the good apps that have utility will be lost in the thousands. We hope Apple uses some discretion in approving these apps. 

The second bit of news, is the surprising rejection of a contacts app “Peeps” that uses Cover Flow to display contacts. First of all, why are rejections always made a big thing out of? Actually, it appears that an apps ticket to fame is it getting rejected. I can only imaging a dev’s disappointment when an app goes through without a hitch. Now I believe John Gruber was the first one to report on this, and when he does, the entire Apple community goes berserk.

Apple rejected the app because of the use of a non-public API, namely Cover Flow. According to Gruber,

The problem? According to developer Landon Fuller, they didn’t use any private APIs — they created their own Cover Flow implementation using the public APIs.

This is a situation where you cannot exactly point fingers. There’s the apparent use of the word Cover Flow throughout the the description of the application. “Rotate your phone to view only that group’s photos in Cover Flow!” says part of the description. How is an Apple employee supposed to know that it’s their own implementation! I don’t suppose an Apple employee goes through bits of code seeing whether someone has in fact made their own version of Cover Flow.

The developer has since resubmitted the application and I hope the description is clear this time. Cover Flow technology is under the Apache license, and so I don’t think Apple should have a problem with approving it to to the store. Personally, I’m more worried about being able to find my contacts using Cover Flow…

[Update: We’ve been told that the devs infact made it a clear mention to Apple that this was their own API while submitting it in. Moreover, there are apps that do in fact use the Cover Flow API that have been accepted into the App Store. The whole situation is classic App Store nonsense, and Apple is definitely the bad guy here - Milind]

[Pull My Finger approved - Ars Technica]
[iPhone peeps rejected - Landon Fuller]

A friend recently asked me to recommend an article for app management. “There’s so many apps on my iPhone!” he said. Well since I didn’t find one, I thought I’d make one myself!

My friend has four home screens filled with apps. This is not something out of the ordinary, as most App Store addicts have no less than 5 home screens on their iPhones. A few even find the 9 screens to be restrictive. With over 10,000 apps in the App Store, it’s not hard to find yourself looking at such a large number of apps on your iPhone. Having all these apps not only makes your phone slow, it also makes it difficult to locate that any particular app.

Doing what I do, I install end up with a whole lot of apps on my iPhone, and the important thing I’ve realized is to have a plan. Without a plan, your iPhone experience will become very hectic.

My first bit of advice is to arrange your most used apps on your first screen. While most people will prefer to leave Apple’s default apps on the first screen, I say move them out. Apps like weather and Stocks make little sense in my world, so I move them away from the first screen. Instead I keep my twitter client Tweetie ($2.99), NetNewsWire, Airsharing ($6.99) among others, as the screenshot to the right explains.

Remember, the bottom four are also movable. And they are the four apps that stay the same across all the home screens. And since I hardly ever need to access all of my phone contacts, I’ve tucked in my speed dialing app Favorites ($1.99). If you have more than 9 contacts that you frequently dial, I’d suggest you try out Smart Dial ($0.99), recommended by our very own Aayush.

Another tip I’d like to mention is never to fill up your home screens. Always leave at least one empty space or better still two. This will make sure that your apps never change their place when you want install new apps or move them between home screens. I for one get lost when any app moves even a single block on any of my home screens.

I have three key home screens. The first one is the one for those that I need at an instant. The second screen is for those apps that I need every so often, but not necessarily at the touch. The App Store, Maps, Facebook, and Record feature on this screen. I try to keep my third screen for games. And the fourth one is for those that I cannot delete – why do we have that useless Contacts app? – and for those that I’m not sure about. If I don’t access them often enough, off they go!

That’s it for my iPhone app management techniques, and I hope at least some of it makes sense. That said, I’d really like to know what methods you guys use to manage the 100s of apps that we come across.

It’s that day of the week when we talk about the App Store apps that have grabbed out attention. This may not be a first look, nor might it be an exclusive. And it certainly isn’t an ultimate look. We just find these apps interesting enough to let our readers know about them. Now that I’m done with the unnecessarily long introduction, I’m going to talk about two apps that I found really useful, Weightbot and Habits.

Weightbot

Apple should have a separate category on the App Store for those apps that really present something new in User Interface experience. Weightbot is for all purposes a weight tracking app. It allows you to enter your weight, and then presents you with a graph showing your progress, or well, your regress. But importance here is how it you enter in that weight. 

Just tap the big button to go into input mode. Move the slider which resembles the dials on a weighing machine, and tap again to confirm your weight. Then you can go back in time and check on any day that you’ve entered your weight, or turn your iPhone sideways to see a pretty graph of what you have accomplished so far. In my case, not much. 

With features like automatically backing up online, and a secure passcode based entry, Weightbot is a good app if you are the sort of person who needs to keep a track of your weight. Available for $1.99 at the App Store (currently on sale for $0.99) Oh, and I’ve lied about my weight in that screenshot.

Habits

A good looking weight tracking app is only so good until you are actually doing something about it. Sitting on your rear end all day isn’t going to get you in shape. To help you with that I am here to present you with a nice app I found, Habits.

Habits is a GTD companion. It is not a event based GTD, but a recurring task based one. Plainly speaking, it is an app that helps you develop good habits. You enter in the habits that you need to develop, and the frequency that you need those tasks to be done. For instance, I need to make sure I sleep early every night, check for comment spam every other day, and clean up my room every week. Habits will tell me which of these tasks I need to do, which of them are approaching soon, and which are overdue. Tapping the “I did it!” button resets the queue for that particular task. 

Habits also has memory, telling you which of your tasks you have a tendency to skip out on, so make sure you only gain good karma. You don’t want to accumulate bad karma do you? Habits costs $2.99 at the App Store, and I highly recommend it if you need to mend your ways.

As always, if you have any interesting apps to suggest, or want to know more before purchasing any app, sound off in the comments or send us an email.

I woke up today to find an email from Nnooo Games announcing that their new game “Pop” has finally hit the App Store. We had the beta floating around in our test labs for a few weeks now, and am finally able to talk about it. Pop is a bubble popping game with slick graphics that will grab anyone’s attention.

If you remember back when the App Store first made its appearance, there were a lot of these fun bubblewrap games that had become quite popular. I know my 27-year old brother couldn’t stop playing that game. Of course the game started getting old (same thing happens when a kid is given bubblewrap) and we needed a little more. So I was thrilled when we were offered to beta test the game.

The game has a superb graphics engine where it renders smooth 3D soap bubbles and you just got to pop them. Of course, the game has its rules. Tapping anywhere but a bubble will reduce your time, tapping small or large bubbles gives you more or less points and there are special bubbles giving you extra points or slowing down gameplay. Ultimately the gameplay is entertaining and the graphics are spot on.

Oh, and for those who just want to pop bubbles, there’s a casual mode where you can endlessly pop bubbles, useful for when you are at the psychiatrists office. 

Pop is priced at a reasonable $4.99 at the App Store, so if you want some high quality bubble popping action, Pop has got the pop. After all, my 27 year-old brother quickly moved from the Bubblewrap to Pop!

The Iconfactory has been known for its beautiful design skills. Primarily an icon designing company (hence the name), Iconfactory has been famous for it’s beautifully designed apps like Twitterrific and CandyBar. So naturally, when their desktop game Frenzic hit the App Store, we all wanted to know whether it lives up to the name. 

Frenzic is a unique tetris like fast paced game that requires quick thinking, swift reflexes and a lot of acquired skill. The concept of making pie groups is extremely easy to understand and requires just two minutes to get used to. The UI is beautiful and just shows the detail that Iconfactory has put into this game. The gameplay is very engaging and depending on your skill level a single session could entertain you for quite a while. I tested the game on a few subjects and I had a hard time prying the iPhone out of their hands. 

One issue I had with the game is that you have to listen to the game audio while playing as it cuts out your iPod music. However, this is fixed in the upcoming 1.0.1 update so no point complaining! Actually, I’m really enjoying the tense and engaging soundtrack that’s plays during gameplay. Continue Reading »

Following the success of being the No. 1 most downloaded game in the App Store, Tapulous has just released two new games based off the concept of Tap Tap Revenge. Their previous commercial move with TTR was the very successful Nine Inch Nails edition. This time round, they have not only used more mainstream music, but they’ve also made a brand new engine to present itself.

Tap Tap Dance and Christmas with Weezer both use the Tap Tap Revenge 2.0 engine, which uses OpenGL to produce some really mindblowing effects. They’ve also included some new moves like tap and hold, multi-tap and different themes that you can choose from.

Tap Tap Dance is an all new music game for your iPhone or iPod Touch, featuring top hits from the biggest electronic artists in the world like Moby, Justice, Daft Punk, Tiesto, and more.

Christmas with Weezer shares the same next-generation gaming engine with Tap Tap Dance, but is especially made for the whole family to enjoy this holiday season, with a fun new Kids mode and a festive look and feel. Best of all, Weezer recorded six original covers of Christmas classics exclusively for this game, marking the first time a top band has recorded music just for an iPhone game.

We haven’t tested this game yet, but by the looks of the video, it sure looks awesome. Both, Tap Tap Dance [iTunes link] as well as Christmas with Weezer [iTunes link] come at a reasonable price of $4.99 at the App Store. Video after the jump. Continue Reading »

Early yesterday, vlingo, a voice app maker for the BlackBerry announced that they have brought the same voice technology to the iPhone. Naturally, everyone, including Gruber got all rattled up. Curiosity got the better of me and I decided to take this app for a spin.

I didn’t have much expectations for this voice app, as most voice recognition applications can’t understand my sloppy way of speaking. To add to that most voice applications (and Google explicitely mentions this) cater to the North American accent. So it’s very surprising that vlingo got everything I was saying from the time I started talking to it. Just like Google App it sends voice data back to the servers for processing, so there’s no voice training involved. 

vlingo presents a slick interface that feels just right for the iPhone. The darker tones really focus your attention on the push to speak button. Yes, unlike the Google App, which used unauthorised APIs to get the swing to ear and speak function, vlingo requires you to press a button. However, vlingo trumps Google App by means of the functionality it offers. vlingo has support for finding map locations, regular web searches, dialing phone numbers and posting to twitter and/or facebook. 

From the home screen you can speak instructions like “Twitter update… think I’ll have some tea” which automatically takes you to the twitter screen from where you can post a tweet. Unfortunately, the formatting of text is pathetic so you have to go in and capitalise those ‘i’s and add characters like questions marks if needed. The voice dial option is satisfactory. If it is sure of the number you spoke, it auto dials it, failing which it presents you with a list with the most probable number selected. 

Web searches work well enough for most generic terms (the word ‘vlingo’ however is very easily recognised), and you can choose between Yahoo and Google as your search engine. It did make mistakes, but I attribute that to my way of speaking which sometimes humans find difficult to understand. Maps however only searches for the location, the actual map will load up in the built in maps application. 

If voice based searching is your thing, then you can’t go wrong with vlingo. The app is fully featured, produces great overall results, and is free in the App Store. iPod Touch users will not be able to install this version so you might have to wait for an update to install it. However, I did find that the inline mic of the headset produced some bad results, so iPod Touch users might not like this app even if it does get an update.