appstore posts

The Screetch is a great game with a funny name. At its heart, it's a match three game; you want to match three of a kind for a certain round gem while you're constantly dropping them from above (Tetris style). The game's namesake is where things get slimy, though. The Screetch is constantly "infecting" gems that are dropped onto the board, and you can only clear it out by matching three gems and putting the slimy, oily dude into a flask.

It sounds complicated, but of course, it starts out simple and builds up from there. As the game progresses, the Screetch moves faster, requiring you to drop gems in the right places quickly. There are also lightning gems that will clear out whole lines of the board and quite a few levels to ramp up the difficulty as you play along. The Screetch element adds a fun, new twist to the standard match three gameplay, and the graphics are pretty well polished to boot.

The game is available on the App Store right now for US $2.99, and the addition of online league play and trophies extends the playability a little bit. If you're a fan of match three games or just want a fun thrill to pick up and play for a few minutes at a time, check it out.

Many developers and users of Apple's iOS devices bemoan the "walled garden" of the App Store approval process, but it appears that the company's measures have prevented mass data theft from iPhones, and iPads.

At the Black Hat security conference being held in Las Vegas this week, mobile security firm Lookout announced that an app distributed in Google's Android Market had collected private information from millions of users, then forwarded it to servers in China. Worse than that, the exact number of affected users isn't known, since the Android Market doesn't provide precise data. Estimates are that the app was downloaded anywhere from 1.1 million to 4.6 million times.

The app appeared to simply load free custom background wallpapers, but in fact collected a user's browsing history, text messages, the SIM card number, and even voice mail passwords, and then sent the data to a web site in Shenzen, China.

This is different from the recent AT&T website leak that could have let a hacker access 144,000 iPad 3G user email addresses, since in this case the data theft actually did happen, was being perpetrated by malicious hackers, involves much more personal information, and affected many more people.

So what's the difference between the security methodologies used by Google and Apple? Apple approves iOS apps only after they've gone through a strict (and frustrating to developers) process, while Google's Android Market simply warns the user that an app needs permission to perform certain functions during the installation. iOS apps must be signed by an Apple-created certificate, which means that malicious developers have a harder time distributing malware anonymously.

Lookout also noted that iOS remains virus-free, since third-party apps can only be distributed through Apple's heavily-moderated App Store, and the apps run in a sandbox environment where they can't affect the system. Lookout chief executive John Hering said that "he believes both Google and Apple are on top of policing their app stores." It's just those odd cases where apps don't do what they're advertised to do that can cause problems for users.

[via AppleInsider]

ClearCam has been around for a while, and I first took a look at it more than a year ago. It was a clever app that had two modes. One mode took a series of four pictures in rapid succession, and then it saved the best and sharpest one in your photo library; the other mode took six images together and stacked them in order to increase resolution and reduce noise. In practice, it meant that the old 3G 2MP camera became the rough equivalent of a 4MP camera.

The app had been pulled from the App Store for a while -- the SDK did not allow access to raw iPhone images (only compressed images), which meant it was impossible to run any enhancement algorithms on the data. The SDK now allows for access to those uncompressed images, iPhone cameras are better, and ClearCam has returned as a regular iPhone app. It runs on the 3GS and the iPhone 4, and it requires iOS 4.

The app is similar to the original version, although now it chooses the best shot out of three instead of four. For the stacking or enhanced mode, it still takes six images and then aligns and processes them.

Remember this video demonstrating Time, Inc.'s vision for a tablet-based version of Sports Illustrated (SI)? It preceded the iPad's release and got many fans excited for the future. The real thing isn't quite so impressive, but the demo demonstrates the publisher's enthusiasm for the emerging platform.

Unfortunately, that enthusiasm is turning into frustration.

All Things Digital is reporting on Time's trouble with getting a mutually-agreed upon subscription model past Apple. Writing for All things D, Peter Kafka notes that Time wanted to launch a subscription-based version of SI on the App Store, only to have it rejected by Apple.

Time would have users download the app from the store and then pay them directly for future issues. Apple didn't like the idea, and Time was forced to sell single copies of the magazine. Right now when you launch the app, you're presented with a number of issues that can be bought, in-app, one at a time. All of the magazines I've read on my iPad, like WIRED, Outside and Popular Science, use in-app purchases.

Here's another entry in our "Five Apps For" series, which identifies five iPhone/iPod touch apps that may be of particular interest to a specific individual or group. Enjoy!

Sure, the historical Buddha lived about 2,500 years ago, but aspects of contemporary Buddhism are just that -- modern and current. I found a slew of Buddhist apps in the store, and most can be divided into two categories: book-style references and lifestyle apps like meditation timers. It gets repetitive and digging through the heap to find the best took some work, but I've come up with a decent list.

If you're looking to add your iPhone or iPod touch to your practice, check out these five apps. No matter which school you subscribe to, you should find something useful (all prices are USD).

Equanimity ($4.99)

I just had to link at least one meditation timer, and this is the best one I could find. A key part of nearly any Buddhist's practice is sitting meditation. Since most modern practitioners (lay ones at least) can't afford to sit for most of the day, a timer is essential. You can certainly set a stopwatch or egg timer, but Equanimity makes it worthwhile to spend US$4.99 on a dedicated app (here's our full review).

Use it to time your sessions with both a prep period and cool down warnings. When you're finished, you can journal about your session and note the number of consecutive sessions you've logged and the total number of hours across weeks and months. Plus, there's no distracting "new-agey" audio to get between you and your practice.

Not ready to commit the five bucks? Here's a free lite version and even a browser-based version.

Click below for the next four apps.

Squareball is a weird one; it's probably best described as a platforming game, except that you move the platforms rather than the jumper. The main character is a little white ball (or square in this case -- the game has a retro blocky pixel aesthetic) that constantly floats from top to bottom on the screen, and you can slide (or tilt, according to whatever option you choose) the actual stage around the ball, moving it through various nooks and crannies while trying to "collect" colored blocks.

The concept is tough to explain, but once you see it in action, you'll understand right away. The goal is to move the stage at the right time in order to keep the ball bouncing around where you want it. It's actually really fun, despite the simplicity, and over the 20 various stages, there are some pretty clever puzzles. The game also has OpenFeint integration, and the 8-bit music is pretty catchy as well.

It's a good deal for only 99 cents. There's also a lite version to try out if you just want to see how it works. I can't see anyone really disliking the game, but it is fairly simple. Still, at just a buck, it's worth a purchase just to have it to pick up and play when you need a mindless little reflex game.

Campfire, from 37signals, is a web-based group chat tool that uses secure chat rooms to allow groups to collaborate from wherever they are. A little over a year ago, the developers at Overcommitted came out with an iPhone client for Campfire. That app, Ember, cost $9.99, and was an excellent tool for remotely joining a Campfire group and getting work done on the road.

Well, the app was so good that 37signals announced today that they've purchased the app from Overcommitted, renamed it to Campfire for iPhone, and they're giving it away for free in the App Store.

According to the 37signals blog, the company was so impressed with Ember that they approached Overcommitted about purchasing it, and the developer was happy with the idea. A deal was cut, a few changes were made to the app, the app made it through the Apple vetting process, and as of yesterday, Ember is known as Campfire for iPhone.

If your team uses Campfire for collaboration and file sharing, be sure to grab Campfire for iPhone as soon as possible. The app works on devices running iOS 3.1.3 or later, although it is not optimized for iPad.

[via Mashable]

Recently I was searching the App Store for meditation timers. It's quite distracting to glance at a clock while you're meditating, and conversely quite freeing to know that a chime will sound when you're done, so you can just concentrate and get to it.

Of course, it's simple to use the iPhone's clock app to set a timer, and I was content with that for a long time. Then I came across Equanimity and have abandoned the clock. With great features like a journal, preparation and cool-down modes and a progress tracker, Equanimity has become a part of my daily routine.

First of all, it avoids images of lotus flowers, sunsets and Buddha statues. While nice, I find them less-than-useful in this situation since the whole idea is to ignore the app. Instead, it provides the simplest white interface. To begin a session, flip the app over. Select a preparation time (I use 30 seconds) and a cool down time if you like. This simply chimes once to let you know that you've got a pre-determined amount of time -- say, 1 minute -- to go.

Once that's done, flip the app back over. A summary of your session is displayed (see above) along with a button that reads "Start Meditation." The gong sounds and you've begun. If you chose to glance at the app while you sit, you'll notice that the circle gradually fills with grey as time progresses.

Once you're done, you're prompted to write about the day's session in the journal. From there, you can turn the iPhone on its side to view some stats on your meditation history (see an example in the gallery below), like recent sittings, number of consecutive sessions, total practice hours and amount of meditation done per month. It reminds me of the way Gas Cubby displays stats when the app is in landscape orientation, which I like very much.

At US$4.99, it's a great timer with super extras. I recommend it highly. Now go sit!

Expenditure is another great-looking app found via the excellent Well-Placed Pixels blog. It's an expense tracker -- you can add transactions into the app with just a few taps (and even attach a photo, note, or category to each debit or credit), and then browse your collected budget. Obviously, you could use it to just see how much you're spending each month, but it can also be used for things like traveling (the app will automatically calculate currencies for you) or keeping track of business expenses. It's not a super full-featured business application, but it will do the basics smoothly and beautifully.

You can find it on the App Store for US$1.99, and as an iTunes commenter points out, using it will probably save you the $2 you spend on it. There is a lite version that only allows eight transactions (enough to see the app in action, though not enough to actually put it to use), so if you're not sure about spending a couple of bucks, you can check it out that way as well. Excellent app -- the functionality is a little limited (by design -- the developers just wanted a simple expense tracker), but the great aesthetic and design elements make up for the simplicity.

Over the past few days Boinx, the German developers of Boinx TV and other exciting products, have been teasing everyone with word of a new iPhone 4 app. Well, in a highly-publicized live event this morning (evening in Deutschland), the company announced a new app, You Gotta See This! (US$1.99). It's the first iPhone app for the company, so they introduced it to the world with a lot of fanfare.

The app requires an iPhone 4. Why? Because it uses the internal gyroscope of the device to automatically take photos while you're moving the camera around you. It then assembles the photos into one of six collage themes in near real-time. You don't need to worry about aligning edges of photos; the app knows the orientation of the iPhone 4 during the moment when each photo is being captured, so it takes care of the alignment for you.

Boinx developers came up with the idea of You Gotta See This! after WWDC 2010, where they realized that regular panorama apps weren't interesting enough to really show someone else what you were looking at. I downloaded the app during the announcement and put it to use immediately taking the photo at the top of the post. Of course, it's just my overgrown back yard, but it's pretty cool for a first try.

This type of photography is called "panography," and the Boinx team found artistic inspiration in the work of David Hockney, an artist who worked with photocollages. Hockney is also known for his portraits painted with Brushes on iPhone and iPad.

Gameloft isn't the only company having a sale this week -- Capcom has also put most of its iPhone titles on sale for Comic-Con: You can pick up the great Phoenix Wright for just $2.99, Ghosts 'n' Goblins, Dark Void Zero and Mega Man 2 for just 99 cents, or Street Fighter IV for $6.99.

Good set of deals to choose from there. I think that big EA sale a while back set a precedent for price drops like this -- a nice discount on a game quite a few people have been waiting to play can definitely send it catapulting into the top lists on the App Store. Phoenix Wright is definitely worth $3 if you've never played it before, so that title specifically should really benefit from a sale like this.

We posted about the Redeye mini a while back -- it's an IR dongle that hooks up to the audio port on the iPhone to let you control any IR device (your TV, DVD, or whatever else you've got) with the touchscreen on your phone. You need a free app from the App Store to use the dongle and it doesn't look like much, but ZDnet actually says it works great, controlling multiple devices with ease. You can also set up various activity settings on the remote, and then customize buttons to do whatever you want to do.

So it looks like this is a very workable solution if you're interested in using your iPhone as a remote, especially compared to something much more expensive. At just US$49 (though of course you'll need an iPhone), this easily beats most other touchscreen remotes. Thinkflood is taking orders on the dongle right now.

Ngmoco has released the followup to its popular We Rule game on the Canadian App Store. We Farm is, as you can see above, very similar to We Rule, with the main difference being that the game is set on a farm rather than in a medieval fantasy world. You'll be able to raise animals, plant vegetables, build up a barnyard, and of course, trade and share with friends to earn experience. We Rule originally launched in Canada back in February (Ngmoco likes to use America's neighbors to the north as a testing ground before releasing their apps worldwide), and then it was released to everyone in March, so we can probably expect the same time frame for We Farm.

Will it be as big a hit as We Rule was? It's hard to tell; the gameplay is certainly proven already, but one of the draws of We Rule was that it wasn't just a FarmVille clone, and obviously, this seems to be borrowing at least the setting from Zynga's popular title. Of course, another reason that We Rule was so popular was because it had the iPhone all to itself, and now FarmVille is up and running.

We'll see, though. Ngmoco has certainly shown that it's constantly learning about how to find success on the App Store; I'm sure the company has taken lessons from We Rule and GodFinger, not to mention that their development method allows for plenty of quick updates and changes if things don't work out right away. It's been fascinating to watch Ngmoco's experiment, and We Farm (along with We City, another adaptation planned for release soon) is their next step.

Following on the heels of the iTunes 9.2.1 update that was released yesterday, Apple has updated the iBooks app to version 1.1.1, which includes "substantial performance improvements when reading PDFs." While the new version of iBooks still lacks some lovin' for PDFs that e-books get (in-text Dictionary lookup, notes, etc.), this version makes swiping through PDFs smoother than before. Other improvements to iBooks 1.1.1 include:

• The ability to double-tap an image within a book in order to view it in greater detail.
• The ability to experience books that include audio and video.
• Look up definitions to English words inside books without a specified language.
• An answer to an issue that may have caused some book downloads to not complete.
• The addition of many stability and performance improvements.

The free update for both the iPad and iPhone/iPod touch apps is available now in the App Store.

Like me, maybe you're not big into Japanese literature other than some graphic novels. When I read this story, I had no idea who Ryu Murakami was until I read that his list of works includes Audition. Audition, in case you don't know, was adapted to film by Takashi Miike; it's one of the most uncomfortable and graphic horror movies that I've ever seen, ... but I digress.

Murakami's latest work, titled A Singing Whale, is set to make its debut solely on the iPad; it will involve no other publishers at all. It will appear on the Japanese App Store at around US $17, and thirty percent of that purchase price will go to Apple. The rest will go to Murakami, composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, and the software company that is making the book.

You may be asking why a composer is included in this list. This deal isn't about Murakami sticking it to publishers (or, at least, it's not all about that). Like a few of the other titles that we've already seen on the App Store (like Alice in Wonderland, for example), this title will have a multimedia aspect to it. So, it's not necessarily something that could even work with traditional publication.

I just hope that A Singing Whale isn't in the same vein as Audition, or that multimedia experience will be very, very nightmare inducing. Just thinking about it makes my Achilles tendon hurt.