If you were hoping Apple’s next iPhone and iPod touch app would be an iAd Gallery — as opposed to say iWork for iPhone! — you’re in for a treat because that’s exactly what they released today!

The iAd Gallery is a celebration of advertising, featuring iAd campaigns from some of the world’s best brands and their advertising agencies. The iAd Gallery gives you easy access to a selection of the fun and informative ads that have run in some of your favorite apps. Use the Browse feature to discover ads you haven’t seen, or to find those you want to see again. Even lets you tag your favorites to a Loved section that’s all your own.

US only. Anyone super excited about this app?

[Free - iTunes link]

When it comes to document editing and creation on the iPad, two solutions really stand out: Apple’s iWork Suite (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote) and DataViz’s Documents to Go app. Which is better? Well, I wish the decision was that easy.

Both apps (or set of apps in iWork’s case — you can buy each separately) allow you to edit and create documents, spreadsheets and presentations. iWork also has the advantage of using Apple’s iWork format and Office format as well and is beautifully designed. Documents to Go does a stellar job of rendering and editing Microsoft’s Office format. Let’s begin by looking at each app a little more in-depth. I will focus primarily on the differences of how each application handles their word processing since this is the number one reason people would use these apps and, you probably don’t want a mini-novel to read. There is an incredible amount to discuss with both iWork and Documents to Go, I cannot conceivably cover it all here. My goal is to give you a detailed enough overview to help you decided which app will work best for you.

iWork

Apple sells the iWork Suite of applications for $9.99 each. The individual apps are Pages (word processor), Numbers (spreadsheet) and Keynote (presentations). Pages looks amazing. Just the aesthetic alone let’s you know this isn’t “baby software”, but the real deal. When you start off by creating a new document, you are presented with several beautiful templates to get you started. For our purposes, we will look at a standard blank document. You have a standard document toolbar at the top of the screen. The Body button gives you a good set of default styles. To the right you have the traditional Bold, Italics and Underline buttons. Finally you have a tab-like icon that gives you the ability to enter a tab, line break, column or page break. Wow, that is some serious stuff there.

On the top of the screen you have an “i” button. This allows you to define a style, lists and indents, text alignment and line spacing. To the right is the picture icon that inserts pictures, tables, charts and shapes. Finally you have the wrench icon that essentially has your settings for Pages; Find, margins, watermarks and more can be found here.

Once you begin typing, you have a very familiar experience, it’s just like a desktop whether you have been using a Mac or a PC. Use the tab button to quickly indent. Use the ruler to adjust alignments or place tab stops. Regardless, the interface is simple yet powerful. Do you have a multiple page document? A new innovative feature uses the ability to tap and hold in the right margin. This will bring up a magnifying glass that shows you a thumbnail preview of your page. Drag your finger down and it will preview the other pages in your document. Release on the desired page and Pages will instantly open the previewed page for you; no clumsy flicking or endless scrolling needed.

When your document is done, you can email it, share via iWork.com, send it to iTunes, copy it to iDisk or copy it to WebDav. The most popular method is to email. It is important to note that Pages creates your document in the .pages format which is not compatible with any other word processing application other than iWork for Mac. So, when you email your document, you are given three choices: send it as a Pages, PDF or .Doc format. The .doc option is compatible with PCs and PDF is comparable with just about any computer platform, but is not natively editable. If you send in Pages and PDF formats you will be quite pleased with the results. If you create a complex document with graphics, columns, , etc. and send via .doc format, your results may differ. I typically only create boring APA (American Psychological Association) formatted documents, and when sent via .doc format, they render beautifully. The same goes with importing a document, from say, from email. Though Pages does a really good job of opening and editing .doc documents, it is not flawless and some formatting loss can happen. Apple has improved this process with each update, but it is still not perfect. However, this is one of Pages strong points, it actually supports more than one format. You can also easily upload and download documents from the “cloud” via the iDisk and WebDav options.

At the end of the day, iWork gives you a beautiful robust set of tools for not only word processing but for spreadsheet calculations and creating presentations as well. Many of the same features carry over such as sending in Microsoft-friendly formats and access your files from the cloud. Though these apps are not perfect, they offer advanced features, many of which have only been available on desktop applications, until now.

[Pages - $9.99 - iTunes link]

[Numbers - $9.99 - iTunes link]

[Keynote - $9.99 - iTunes link]

Documents to Go

I have used Documents to Go (Docs to Go) for years, ever since the Palm V days of old. These guys have been at it for a while and I was expecting big things from them on the iPad and for the most part, Docs to Go doesn’t disappoint. Docs to Go is a single app that supports a wide array of files for viewing and Office files for editing and sells for $16.99 or $9.99 in the App Store. The launch screen is divided into several sections; Local files, Desktop files, Online files, Recents, Search and Settings. Yes, Docs to Go has a very robust means to access your files and search them.

Once you open a file in the Word app, one feature I noticed immediately that I really liked is the ability to pinch and zoom the text to the appropritea size. The text wraps around in real-time which is cool. After deciding on the fone size you like, It’s off to write your text. You have the typical fanfare as iWork does with text formats, colors, paragraph alingments, etc. Docs to Go does not support more advanced features in it’s word processing app like real-time image arrangement as iWork does, but it gets the besics done well and cleanly. Two quibbles that I have is that Docs to Go was not developed with the iPad in mind, it is basically a big iPhone app, which is such a shame. Menus are designed for the iPhone, not the iPad. What do I mean? A good example is the placement of the formating buttons; they are along the bottom of the app. At first that may not sound like a bad idea, however, when you are typing, the keyboard appears and hides the buttons so you can’t format while you time. Is it a deal breaker? No, but annoying none-the-less.

For me, where Docs to Go really shines over the competition is its “Intact” technology. At work, I use Microsoft Word to create my documents. Admittedly, I sometimes use fancy formats, tables, images, etc. As I mentioned earlier, these may not render very well in Pages. With Docs to Go however, if the app doesn’t know what the object is on the document, it doesn’t even try to render it, instead it gives you a “?” placeholder that tells you “if you delete me, you will lose this feature when you sync back your document”. What a life saver! You can edit a document and not have to worry about loosing formating any more.

Other benefits of Docs to Go include the fact that it is a universal binary, so buy it once and you can use on the iPhone and iPad, not a bad deal at al. You can also sync via iTunes Sharing and Docs to Go’s own Wi-Fi sharing app for PC and Mac.

[Documents to Go Premium - $16.99 - iTunes link]

[Documents to Go - $9.99 - iTunes link

Conclusion

You can also find previous reviews of these apps, Here for Pages and Here for Docs to Go.

With Notability for iPad, Ginger Labs has a great app for note taking, especially if you are a student. Inevitably you will need to take notes on your iPad at some point, right? With so many other note taking apps out there, Notability also has some unique features that make them stand out from the rest. First, the basics.

Notability is setup by subject. You can create multiple subjects and put multiple notes in each subject. Sounds simple enough. However where Notability shines is the power of their notes. At first you will notice the standard fanfare that you come to expect from a note taking app. Folders (aka subjects), search, edit, email the note etc. However Notability can also sync to iTunes, Dropbox and print your notes.

The note taking experience is rather pleasant. Tap the compose button located on in the top right corner to begin. From here you can rename the default note name (Note 1 by default) to whatever you like. Tap return and you’re in business to complete your note. But what is this? Besides just typing text you can change the font, color, emphasis and size? You can insert not only images from the Photo app, but you can also insert a figure and web clip.

The figure option allows you to draw your own figure and insert it into your note. You can draw free hand, change the line thickness, draw squares, circles and more. Once embedded in the note you can easily edit the note, resize and reposition it. If you want to embed a webpage, you can do that too. Navigate to the webpage you want from within Notability and presto, it’s embedded too, just like the figure.

Beyond these cool features, there are subtle things as well such as the ability to tab/indent without having to do it manually and add numbered or lettered bullet points. You can even add an audio note (and geek out and change the frequency if you want!).

As awesome as these features are, they come at a small price. The performance of Notability is slow. Even opening a note with one word in it can take a few seconds. I know this may not seem like a lot, but if you are trying to quickly view multiple notes quickly, Notability has some challenges with this.

Overall, I like Notability and it’s cool features that make it stand out. The web clipping feature was particularly helpful. If you are a student, this is definitely worth a try if you haven’t found the must have note app for your workflow.

[$4.99- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Great value with awesome features
• Insert pictures, drawings and web clippings in your note
• Format your notes with rich text
• Export to different formats including email and Dropbox backup sync
• Developer is always adding new features

Cons

• Slow opening notes
• Some items are not clearly delineated such as rename note and body of note

Everyone has been eagerly awaiting Infinity Blade’s introduction to the App Store, and with it, a promised new era of iOS gaming. Listening to the hype around this game, one would think you would stop playing other games altogether. Does Infinity Blade live up to the hype? Let’s take a look at this game a little more in-depth to find out.

Infinity Blade is the first game for iOS that used the Unreal Engine 3 to bring to life the story of a lonesome hero bent on destroying the God King (for reason’s unknown other than, presumably, the God King is a bad dude); alas, your story begins.

You start off the game as our hero and his approach to the castle where the God King resides. To reach the God King, you will need to destroy many of his minions. They range in shape and size. After you defeat several minions, you reach the God King. If you defeat him, you have won. If you fail, you die and the journey or “bloodline” begins again with your son, avenging your death.

The time of this game is set in a castle with magic and knight folklore which will appeal to many people. The story for this game is not very deep, but with this game it is all about the gameplay and overall mechanics that make the title shine. Before you enter a battle you have an opportunity to scope the environment. This is a good thing as often you will find health, chests (they may contain an item) and bags of money. You can also see the properties of an enemy before you face them. This is useful because some enemies, especially once you get further in the game, are immune to certain attacks. So, prior to battle you can adjust your armor and weapons to the maximum benefit.

Once the battle begins, you have essentially three things you can do: block an attack, dodge an enemy attack by tapping the left or right corners of the screen or you can parry an attack by swiping in the same direction on screen as an incoming attack with your preferred weapon (sword, mace, axe, etc.) You can also use a special skill such as magic to perform a special attack. That’s it folks (well, occasionally you get an opening where you can stab your enemy).

So, though this may not seem incredibly deep on the surface, the controls are very satisfying; it is not simple to just arbitrarily parry and block, there is some skill and technique involved. If you block attacks, your shield becomes weaker and will eventually break, adding even more challenge since you can’t just block every incoming attack. There is a fair amount of variety in enemies too. They attack from different angles and are not standardized. Using magic strategically helps as well (heal your self, add additional hits to your shield, use an elemental attack against a weaker enemy) adding even more depth to the game. Some items even have magical endowments, a fire branded sword or a shield immune to ice attacks.

Overall, I enjoyed this game. Is it the most amazing game ever? Of course not, but it does offer a fun diversion and foretells the possibilities of gaming on iOS. There is currently enough content to keep you coming back for more. Dozens of weapons, helmets, shields, armor,etc. all have different attributes and is worth your time to master them. The most recent update added a max level for the player, a new enemy and additional items to buy and collect. Future updates will unlock even more of the castle, new monsters, multiplayer and more. If you have not downloaded this game yet, go do it now.

[$5.99- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Beautiful graphics
• Challenging gameplay with each new bloodline
• Game Center support
• Plenty of planned updates for the future (including Multiplayer)
• Universal App

Cons

• Framerate can be a little jerky- even on iPhone 4 and iPad
• Battles can get repetitive after a while (parry, parry, block, dodge, repeat)

This week I took at look at Peak Meetings HD for iPad and so far, I like what I see. I mean, meetings, meetings, meetings. There has to be a good way to capture meeting information on iPad, right? Sure you can just type your notes out, but wouldn’t be great if you could use templates for your meetings? How about have them in an organized format? Read on to find out!

When making a meeting, you can choose what type of meeting its going to be. Informational? Update? Problem Solving? What Peak Meetings attempts to do is to help you organize, prioritize and most of all, streamline your meeting notes. Peak Meetings does this by giving you some key sections that are customizable that vary based on the type of meeting you have. Let’s look at a basic meeting:

• Title
• Goals
• Agenda
• Notes
• Location
• Attendees
• Project

With Agenda type of meeting, these bullet points are divided even further into four sub-topics:

Topic- the title of what is to be discussed

Timing- how long this topic should last

Responsible- who is presenting this (gets populated from the Attendees section; more on that later)

Details- specifics for this topic to be discussed

Problems- why/what and ideal outcome

Options- pros and cons list

Solutions- needed and hurdles

Actions- responsible person, due date, details

After you have cataloged all of the above information, you can then write even more details in the notes section. Think if it as a way to summarize your meeting at a high level; the details are accounted for above.

Next you can enter in location information such as 4th floor, meeting room B. There is even a specific area to enter the access code for a conference call. To top it off, you can enter attendees for the meeting. Attendees are pulled in from your contacts or can be entered from scratch. Finally, all of this information is great but unless you can tie to a project, it is ultimately not worth it. So, you can add multiple projects as needed to your meeting.

Once you gave taken all of your meeting notes you can easily email them. This, my friends is where it all starts to come together. Remember when you added “attended” contacts to your meeting? Well, now when you email it, your attendees emails show in the compose email window! Very nice.

The next thing that you might be thinking is, “Gee Chad, I have weekly meetings where the agenda, etc. is always the same”. No worries my friends, you can easily select a meeting and duplicate it.

That sums up Peak Meetings HD for iPad. This app fits nicely in my workflow. For example, as many of you know, I love Evernote. Well, I also send a copy of the meeting via email to Evernote when I am done with the meeting. Now I have a consistent, nicely formatted meeting notes instantly searchable.

[$9.99 - iTunes Link]

Pros

• Great way to streamline you meetings!
• Customizable with types of meetings
• Universal app- bonus!
• Email your meetings from the Attendee list
• Duplicate common meetings

Cons

• Can’t create your own sections, but is very flexible to suite most needs
• No built-in backup or sync tool

Gowalla version 3 in now available in the App Store. This is the most significant update Gowalla has released for iPhone. So what are some of the new features?

For starters there is a completely new interface. At fist, I found it a little confusing, but I can navigate OK now. Beyond the interface overhaul, the most exciting new feature has to be notes. You can leave notes for your friends at a location. So, the next time they check in at your favorite restaurant, they will be notified that a note was left for them.

The notes feature is cool, but I would have liked to have seen it taken a step further and have public notes. As it is, you can add a Highlight, one of Gowalla’s newer features that was previously available on the Web.

Another new feature is the ability to link to FourSquare and Facebook for cross-posting. You can even see these checkins in the Gowalla app; sort of like a hub for location based checkins.

As many of you know, I am fan of Gowalla. I reviewed Gowalla for iPhone back in May, and I like what they have done in the new update, but there are a couple of things they have removed that leaves me scratching my head with wonder…

• Removal of your item collection- you can add to it, but cannot view it any more… very strange
• When you rotate Gowalla on iPhone, you no longer get the vicinity map

[Free- iTunes Link]

This week I got to try out the Griffin Elan Passport Case for iPad and I really like it! The Elan Passport is a leather flip case with a soft microsuede interior. When closed, the Elan Portfolio resembles a book. When you open it you have immediate access to the touchscreen on the right and the left has four slots for credit cards, business cards, etc. or other similarly shaped items and a sleeve to tuck additional paper into such as receipts and more.

The four slots on the left of the case easily accommodate a drivers license, credit card, Starbucks card, business cards or any other type of “card” you might want to place there. When a card is placed in the case sleeve, the card will stop with just enough room for you to remove it with your fingers. I always felt these items were very secure, and they would not easily fall out. The sleeve lies underneath the slots. It is roughly 4 inches deep and can accommodate some miscellaneous papers, but nothing the size of an 8.5 x 11 piece of paper unless it’s folded.

The iPad is protected on all sides as the device easily rests about a .25″ from each corner. The microsuede is a nice touch and breathes a quality finish. The iPad is held in place by four corner straps. On the right, the straps are sewn into the case. The two on the left are elastic and allows for easy placement and removal of the iPad. When the Elan Passport is closed, it is secured by a tab closure across the top. It does not lock, but it is securely held in place and is there to simply keep the cover from accidentally flipping open.

Overall I really like the Griffin Elan Passport Case for iPad. It’s light, looks good, low profile and does a good job of protecting iPad; a very professional case. It’s available now from the TiPb iPad Accessory Store.

Pros

• Compact
• Leather and microsuede
• A couple of pockets to stash receipts, etc.
• Good job protecting the deivce for accidental bumps

Cons

• Though secure, if dropped, the iPad could fly out and damage is possible
• Additional Card slots would nice, four is a bit limiting

When I saw John Carmack show off Rage on the iPhone a few months back, I was rather excited. The promise of real console-like graphics were in our grasp. Then, the game finally came out and I was initially blown away, but then…

Rage HD on iPad is set in a post-apocalyptic future. Typical of these types of games where you play a contestant out to earn money by defeating mutants. The game is set in a first-person shooter (FPS) perspective, but it is on rails. This means the game “moves” for you and you are only allowed to maneuver the cursor on screen at any given time. This is okay, as the games visuals are amazing and this style of game worked really well for Doom Resurrection on iPhone.

The screen is comprised of only a few buttons. The left side is meant solely to move the cursor, target enemies, etc. The right side has the action button (to shoot and pick up items like health, ammo, etc), dodge button (the enemy throws bricks at you), reload weapon and select weapon. If the touch screen modality does not work for you, there is a tilt option as well as lefty mode and other configurable choices such as inverted axis and more.

As you start a level, you immediately notice there are several bulls-eyes scattered among the levels. By shooting them, you increase your score. As enemy mutants appear, you target and shoot them. You can often get a one-shot fill if you time your shots appropriately; you get a special reticule when you in the correct area to pull it off.

As you maneuver your cursor around the screen trying to take out bulls-eyes and mutants, you will notice you can also pick up money, health and ammo bonuses; your cursor turns into a green hand. The ammo comes in particularly handy as I found I ran out of ammo a little too fast. The good news is that you have a pistol with unlimited ammo, but takes forever to reload. However, I have played entire levels with just the pistol with no problem. The additional weapons that you can find ammo for are the shotgun and automatic weapon.

The games graphics are really, really good. I mean, really good. It is a testament to iOS’s capabilities. No slowdown, plenty of particles flying at you and a ton of action. But this is where the problems begin for this game. It’s gorgeous. But that is all it’s got. You only have three levels of play, you fight the same enemies over and over. Rage HD is literally a $2.00 technology demo. It wouldn’t be so bad (since the game is clearly score based) if you had Game Center support to see where you rank on the leaderboards and add some challenges with achievements. Alas, none of these options exist.

I am impressed with id’s effort in this title to bring an amazing console experience to our beloved iOS devices. I am not impressed with the paltry three stages and lack of Game Center support. Should you get this game? It’s hard to tell. It is only $2.00, and will hardly break the bank. You will enjoy it till you beat the three levels and you will be left with the insatiable need for more. I am happy to have played it, but after 30 minutes (that is how long it takes to beat all of the levels) you are left with a very, very, very empty feeling.

[$1.99- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Amazing graphics
• Fun to play
• Varying levels of difficulty
• Different versions of the game for newer/older hardware
• Universal app for iPhone/iPad

Cons

• Only three levels
• Only two types of enemies (really only one type if you want to get picky)
• You are playing for what amounts to a tech demo
• No Game Center support (missing leader boards, achievements, etc)

The Otter Box Commuter Series for iPad may just be the ultimate in rugged cases. I know, that is a bold statement, but I am really that impressed. What separates this case from the competition is that is clearly engineered by people who like their iPads and want them protected. You get a low-profile case with a lot of extras. Like many iPad cases on the market, the Commuter is a three-layered system…

• Layer 1:  Self-adhering clear protective film (Cleaning cloth and installation card included)
• Layer 2:  Durable silicone mid-layer
• Layer 3:  One piece custom molded polycarbonate shell

Upon removing the case from its packaging, you are presented with a flip-out installation guide that includes your cleaning cloth, screen protector and applicator. After reading the instructions (yes, believe it or not there is a RIGHT way to put this thing on) I was ready to rock and roll. My first attempt failed as the bottom right corner did not properly get placed in the outer shell appropriately. No problem though, on attempt number two, I was successful.

Once you have placed the Commuter case on the iPad, it is very well protected. You have solid polycarbonate protection on the back, top, bottom and sides. There are grooves in the underlying silicone to prevent them from sliding out of place which is nice. In other models of this type, the silicone would sometimes move after putting the case together and would require some adjustment (I did not identify this as a problem till I put on this case).

You have access to all of your openings: Speaker on the bottom, volume rocker, mute switch (previously known as  rotation lock), power button and headphone jack. The headphone jack has additional protection via a silicone plug built into the case. On the bottom of the case there is a hole cut into the back that allows the Apple logo to proudly display.

Now, here is one of the more compelling reasons to get this case. Because of it’s design, it really isn’t meant to come off frequently. That is a bit of a disappointment to someone like me who uses the iPad Dock and the Keyboard Dock. Well, my prayers have been answered and the Commuter has a removable plate in the back that allows access to a dock! It is easily removed and placed back again. As a matter of fact, I am typing this review on my iPad in the Keyboard Dock with the Otter Box Commuter in place!

Overall, the Otter Box Commuter Series for iPad is a perfect on-the-go accessory for everyday handheld technology. It doesn’t get in the way (literally with the dock plate on the back) and you have piece of mind knowing that your iPad is safe and secure. It’s available from the TiPb iPad Accessory Store.

Pros

• Very well protected without compromise to style or bulkiness
• included, quality cleaning cloth and screen protector, plus applicator
• OMG YOU CAN DOCK YOUR IPAD WHILE IN THE CASE!

Cons

• The silicone is a lint-magnet (note attached photos)
• What’s wrong with a little color? Only available in black

Ever wonder how to get your digital booklets into iBooks? All of us probably have some sort of digital booklet we received as part of an album in iTunes, right? To be honest, I never really viewed them because I would typically be on the go when the mood struck, not necessarily sitting on front of a computer.

Well, did you know you can “convert” your digital booklets in iTunes to make them viewable in iBooks? This is so easy, it should be illegal. We’ll show you how after the break!

• First, find the digital booklet in your iTunes library
• Next, right-click to get to the “Get Info” option and click it
• Next, click on the “Options” tab
• Last, change the “Media Kind” to “Book”

In your device menu, go to books and make sure your booklet is check-marked and sync. That’s it! If you want to place the digital booklet back into iTunes, just change the media type back to “Music” from the Books section in iTunes.

That’s it. You’re done! If you have any questions or know any addition cool iBooks tips, leave them in the comments below!

Tips of the day will range from beginner-level 101 to advanced-level ninjary. If you already know this tip, keep the link handy as a quick way to help a friend. If you have a tip of your own you’d like to suggest, add them to the comments or send them in to dailytips@tipb.com. (If it’s especially awesome and previously unknown to us, we’ll even give ya a reward…)

TaskPaper is a simple paper-like application that allows you to write out tasks in a list, strike them out when done and for good measure add some tags to keep things straight. This type of task management is almost the polar opposite of David Allen’s GTD methodology (see my GTD with Evernote post here).

Hog Bay Software has done a fantastic job of capturing a more simple task management system that is based on Mark Forester’s AutoFocus system. When you launch the app you have a nice “Welcome” document that teaches you the basics of interacting with TaskPaper. You can make notes, tasks and projects. So, I jumped right in and made two projects: AutoFocus Oct 2010 and AutoFocus Nov 2010. My goal being, every month I would create a new list of tasks. This is a great way to keep things in a concise list, other wise your list would grow to crazy proportions.

Next, you start making your tasks. According to AutoFocus, just begin listing everything that comes to mind. I made quite a list at first. With AutoFocus, you simply browse your list do “what feels right”. I know, it might be foreign to some, but as you browse the list, you really do know what needs to get done via your, what I call, internal constraint clock. To complete your task, swipe from left to right on the task and TaskPaper gives you a very satisfying strikethrough that includes an @done tag and date you completed it. As you move though the system you start to amass completed tasks intermixed with active tasks. This can be somewhat annoying if you have a really big list. To accommodate for this, TaskPaper allows you to Archive @done tasks and groups them at the bottom of the page so you can focus on your active tasks.

TaskPaper has two tags by default; @done and @today. The @today tag can help you pick 3 or so tasks that you want to get done today. You can create as many tags as you like, just add “@” and they work anywhere in the task. You can then filter via the @ button on the bottom toolbar. With your @done tasks out of the way, you can rearrange tasks as you see fit by tapping on the task and holding it. Then, simply drag to a new location. If you need to select multiple tasks, hold any button on the toolbar (say, the @ button) and simultaneously tap on the tasks you want to highlight.

You can easily navigate between projects and rename, delete, tag as you see fit. One thing folks might want to know is that if you do have separate real work projects, I recommend making a separate TaskPaper project for each and list out your tasks as needed. I know to many this may sound bizarre, but if you work on projects with a lot of small pieces without a lot of date constraints, the system works pretty well.

I really don’t have much to say as a take-away for TaskPaper. It is simple and does things well. The developer is promising DropBox integration in an upcoming update (similar to their other product PlainText). Occasionally I would tap on a task I did not want and it would disappear or something, but nothing a quick shake of the iPad/iPhone wouldn’t undo.

If you are looking for a simple task management system, look no further than TaskPaper, I really like it a lot and is close to becoming my daily-driver task management solution

[$9.99- iTune Link]

Pros

• Simple interface
• Uses concepts from AutoFocus
• Syncs across multiple devices
• Switching to DropBox in a future update
• Built-in search

Cons

• Interface can be a little “twitchy” when selecting items

Ever since the iBooks was announced, this is probably the single biggest issue an avid ebook reader will ultimately have to deal with: Kindle app or iBooks. What should you pick? Well, no one can tell you that for certain, but I hope to give you a little insight that might help you decide.

The fundamental difference between the two is the Kindle app has a very large ebook selection by comparison. 750,000 ebooks on Kindle and 60,000 books at iBooks launch (Apple has not released exact numbers). To me, this is the differentiating factor. Both applications support landscape view with two columns and a built-in dictionary as well as syncing of bookmarks, highlights and notes. Let’s look at some of the differences of each app beyond how many books they have.

(You can get our quick review of the Kindle app here and iBooks app here)

Kindle

The Kindle app is a free universal app so you can run it on any iOS device. You can tap the left or right of the screen to turn pages and tap the top right corner to bookmark a page. You have several levels of font sizes and colors to choose from to help create your reading experience as good as it can be. You can even sync your annotations to other devices that support Kindle, that includes any iOS device, Mac, PC, Android and BlackBerry as well as Amazon’s own Kindle.

There are a couple of innovative features that the Kindle has brought to the ebook table. First the Kindle app displays popular highlights in a book via underlined text while you read. You can easily see what other people have highlighted, quotes or whole passages. Second is data supplied by Shelfari. This content includes summary, character, spoilers and more; not a bad benefit. On the iPad, you can turn on a page turning feature similar to iBooks, but it is not has smooth or pays as much attention to detail as Apple’s iBooks. On iPad, you have to different ways to view your library; big icons that can use pinch to zoom to resize as needed or an alphabetical list. I like both options depending on my mood, but what is lacking is a manual arrange function; You only can sort by Recent, Author or Title.

Since Kindle books are in the cloud, there is no need to sync your book on any desktop. Simple navigate to the archive in Kindle and redownload your book and it will then sync your bookmarks and other annotations.

iBooks

These are all very nice touches iBooks. The look, feel and options are fantastic. However, content is king, just like available software for a platform and regretfully, iBooks falls flat on its face. 9 out of 10 books I search for on iBooks comes up empty. This is very disheartening. I remember in the early days of the Kindle, they only had a 100,000 ebooks or so and are now approaching one million. Sadly, iBooks is not even up to 100,00o yet. I have hopes that Apple will forge the relationships needed to foster a growing library.

Alas, at this time, Kindle really is the better choice for content and iBooks is a much better app. In the end, what s more important to you; books you can actually read, or a pretty application?

If your looking for a fun, simple racer with awesome graphics, then Reckless Racing HD might be for you. Playing this game reminds of RC Pro Am Racing on the original Nintendo, or NES. The premise is simple; beat other racers to win the championship.

The game is played with an overhead isometric view. There are several different control options, but I enjoy the default which is gas and break on the far right and left and right turn arrow on the left, the control is spot on too.

Starting off with the game you get a brief tutorial which also allows you to try out the different controls in real-time. Just tap the one you want to try while playing and you are good to go. Next, you can complete in a championship and more. There are three different classes to choose from; bronze, silver and gold. I personally had no challenge at all on bronze, so I bumped it up right to gold and had a blast. As you race there are obstacles to avoid, but the biggest challenge is just staying on the road! The game has you racing laps on dirt, gravel and paved roads and each feels succinctly different.

There are a few obstacles to watch out for while you race like cans, barrels and boxes. But what is great is that if you are a slick enough driver, you can discover nice shortcuts to help you through the level. The 8 tracks had me wanting a little more levels, though if you place first in the track you unlock the reverse course. I did find the three game modes (race, hot lap and delivery) to be fun as well.

The bonus with this game is with the multiplayer. You get 4 player racing online with Reckless Racing and it adds a whole other level racing with real people. You have leader boards and can save ghosts too. The only real issue I had with the multiplayer aspect is that you don’t know if people are in the middle of a race till you enter their game. If they are racing, you have to wait till the race is over to join. I wish there was a way to see what games were already racing so you could find a game that much easier, or a quick match might work too.

Overall Reckless Racing HD is a blast to play, but is just shy of total greatness due to a few nicks here and there. However, I am sure EA will have new levels and cars with downloadable content soon.

[$4.99- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Fun, fun game
• A variety of levels
• Online multiplayer

Cons

• Additional levels would be nice, the variety is good, but I feel I race the same levels over and over
• A few quirks with multiplayer

The Otter Box Commuter Case for iPhone 4 is a well constructed hard-shell case with a silicone layer underneath and screen protector. It provides a no-slip grip while keeping the thin iPhone 4 form factor we love.

Reviewing cases can be tough; there are a lot out there. I think it’s fair to say most cases I review are rather good. I haven’t really come across the “perfect” case yet, but I might be close with this one. Why? Well, it’s the perfect compromise between slim and protected and it’s by Otter Box, an industry leader in hardcore protective cases.

What makes this case unique among its competition is that the silicone is very well constructed. The the hard shell outer case and the silicone literally work in concert to protect every aspect of your iPhone 4. The silicone covers everything from the headphone jack port across the top of the device to the 30-pin connector slot on the bottom. Each is protected with a flip-out plug. What is so great is the headphone jack is protected without the sacrifice of blocking the second mic; it’s still uncovered. I am very impressed with Otter Box’s design work.

The hardshell is pretty solid. The only way I could envision it breaking is if it was frozen to -30 degrees then smashed with a hammer. I seriously feel very secure with it.

Here is something else I like about the case; by now you may know how much I like raised edges on cases for the iPhone, as it protects the screen if it is laid on its face. With the Otter Box, I feel I am getting an extra .5 or 1mm additional height and the hardshell meets the height of the silicone on the top, bottom and sides of the device. This means that if placed face first and any weight is placed on the device, it is still not likely to scratch. That is great design work and my kudos to Otter Box.

If you need your iPhone protected, look no further than the The Otter Box Commuter Case for iPhone 4 to have a good looking case while keeping it safe. Available now from the TiPb iPhone 4 Accessory Store.

Pros

• Awesome protection with little sacrifice for thinness
• Throughly protected, yet access to all ports, even the mic!
• Included screen protector
• Durable silicone skin
• Polycarbonate outer shell

Cons

• Though relatively easy to take on and off, not really meant to be removed
• Lint tends to stick to the silicone, but this is an issue with every silicone skin I have come across
• No color selections other than black
• Can’t place in dock with case on

As many of you may know, I am one of the productivity geeks here at TiPb. I am always looking to use tools to help me be more productive and save time. I have used most of the major task management platforms available for iPhone and iPad, but I have secretly longed to do it in Evernote.

There are many ways use GTD and Evernote and a quick Google search will usher many results. However, I have adopted and tweaked Jeff Kirvin’s GTD concept in Evernote. Let me explain how it works. Getting Things Done (GTD) is a methodology for complete task management. Evernote is suited well for this as it has folders, tags and custom searches; this is my setup.

First, I only use one notebook, that’s right, only one. I use the ingenious title of “My Notebook” for its title. From here I start to add tasks, articles, whatever- things I need to get done, into my the folder. From there I have an “All” tags category with literally hundreds of sub tags for just about anything I can think of from “Humor” to “Science Fiction”. Once I place a note in my notebook, I tag it with as many tags as I feel it needs. Next I determine if the note is actionable; if it is, do I need to do anything with it? If the answer is no, I don’t do anything and save the note making it instantly searchable later if I need it. If the answer yes, then I give it a Context. A Context is typically labeled with an “@” (ampersand) and can mean different things, but I equate it to location or state of mind. For example, I use @Home, @Computer to indicate a place to do something. I have contexts like @Internet, @Read and @Evernote that I use to tell me I need to read or write something, but that could really be anywhere. I typically assign the @Evernote or @Read context for schoolwork or articles I send to Evernote that I want to read later or for writing a blog post (like this one).

After I have assigned the context tag, I save the note. If you work on Projects, you can create those too (as a tag) and assign notes as appropriate. However, I use a method similar to Jeff in a sense that I borrow the methodology of the AutoFocus system by Mark Forester and simply pick what I feel is appropriate at the time. If something is date-sensitive, I will add a date to the title so I see the date first, then the action name. Others may add these items to their calendar.

Now at this point you are probably saying to yourself, “That’s great Chad, but how do I find something in this big bucket of notes?” Ah, that is where the power of Evernote comes alive.

You see, the secret with Evernote is the Custom Search. You can enter search criteria and Evernote will return the result. So, let’s go back and look at my action of @Evernote, Blog Post for GTD. When I complete this task, I add a !Complete tag to the note and remove the”@” context. This will allow me to see that is completed while removing the fact it is an action item. In Evernote there is number that appears next to the context. I use this number to determine the volume of actions I have in any given context. So, by removing the context from a completed note, I am able to keep the number limited to only items I need to get done while having the !Compelte tag allows me to track what I have done.

So If I want to create a search from completed tasks, that is east I use: tag:!Completed -tag:@. This will display every note that is done but that does not include a”@” context. If I want to see how many tasks I have compelted in the last week, I can use this: tag:!Completed -tag:@, created:week-1. This works really well. I use different variables of this logic to architect my Evernote custom searches to only display what I need. For example, if I want to find notes that I haven’t tagged (sometimes they slip through!) I created an “!Inbox” search. This criteria is simply -tag:. This tells Evernote to show me everything that doesn’t have a tag. I also use an !Active Tasks search to show me all actionable tasks with an “@” context. This search looks like this: tag:@. Since I don’t really use dates for my tasks, I also need a way to mark a task as something I want to do today. For this, I use !Today tag and create a custom search like this: tag:@* tag:!Today. The other benefit of these searches is that they sync from platform to platform. Mac, PC, iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry, Web, it appears everywhere. Also, you may be wondering why I am placing an exclamation (!) point in front of my custom searches. Evernote sorts searches, tags and folders by name so adding interesting characters such as an @, !, # and . elevate them to the top of the alphabetical list.

So far I am enjoying this system; its seems to be working well. Sometimes I feel tempted to go back to using OmniFocus or ToDo, but I am about two weeks in and I have little adjustments here and there for the custom searches trying to really nail what I need for retrieval. One of the other main benefits of using Evernote for GTD is that you can email items directly into Evernote. For example, you have some work emails you need to follow up on or some emails with useful attachments. You can send that email with attachments to Evernote for reference or action (attachments beyond images, audio, ink and PDFs require an Evernote Premium account, but it is totally worth it).

If you are looking to learn more about the system I have described, here is Jeff’ Kirvin’s original post as well as links to David Allen for GTD and Mark Forester for the AutoFocus system.

Evernote for iPhone and iPad is available in the App Store. [iTunes link]

If you are looking for a simple text editor with a clean, professional interface, PlainText might just be for you. Hog Bay Software has created a quaint little document app that goes out of it’s way to do simple editing. The main benefit this app has over the built-in Notes app is that you can define and create folders; the level of editing is the same.

The first thing you will notice about PlainText is its icon. It is the shape of a formatting mark on a typical word processor. Once you open Plain Text you see a list of documents on the left and the first available document open on the right. To begin typing, tap anywhere in the document to begin. If you want a full screen typing experience, there is a full screen icon in the lower right. Tap to make full screen, tap again to bring back the document list.

There are no formatting options in PlainText… it is just that, plain text. What does separate this app from say, the Notes app on iPad is the ability to add documents to folders. Tap the new folder icon and you can create as many folders as you would like. However, you should be aware that you can’t move a document from to a folder after the document it created; you must create the file in the folder you want. I am sure this will be an enhancement in an upcoming release.

The next question you are asking yourself is how do I get these notes to my iPhone, after all it’s a universal app. The easiest way to use Dropbox. You can set this up directly from Settings in the app and you are ready to rock. However, if you want to use another tool, try PadSync.

Overall I like the simple and great aesthetic nature of the application. There are just a couple of quibbles that are preventing it form stardom. One of the big ones for me is the inability to move files between folders. Perhaps it’s there and I am missing it, but I sure couldn’t find it. Additional features are planned (here is a list from the next beta as of this writing) and it has been submitted to the App Store. I would check the blog regularly for updates and suggestions.

[Free- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Free!
• Create folders
• Universal App

Cons

• Only syncs with DropBox (where is MobileMe?)
• Can use app PadSync http://ecamm.com/mac/padsync/ to get data from Mac to iPad
• Can’t move a document to an existing folder

Are you ready for the ultimate in iPhone first-person shooter games? If so, then sit back and enjoy Modern Combat 2: Black Pegasus. Gameloft has really, really, really shown it is in this to win and take advantage of the hardware on iPhone. This game is gorgeous, especially on the retina display. Ah, but let’s not dwell on the graphics for now, let’s jump into the game itself.

Black Pegasus is a sequel to Modern Combat. This game was good for its day, but Black Pegasus sets a new standard. The game starts off after the old one where you are part of a squad sent to take out the bad guys, protect civilians, etc. There really isn’t anything new there, so let’s talk about what is new. As I mentioned earlier, the graphics are awesome. I don’t mean just because they are retina display graphics, they are awesome because the new character models look very realistic and body movement is very smooth as characters move about the screen. You also have a blinding white screen when you are caught with a flash bang grenade and if you “bust” in a door you have slow motion for a few seconds to take out the bad guys, creating a sense of stunned enemies.

To control the game you have the standard fanfare of d-pad on the left and your attack, grenades, etc on the right. You have the crouch button on the bottom left and the zoom scope on the bottom right. When maneuvering your character it is quite responsive and when you zoom to scope view, the controls turn very sluggish. This is done on purpose, because if not, everyone would spend the whole game in zoom mode! The controls are solid, but still suffer for Gameloft’s persistent issue of keeping on the d-pad on the left as the control point and if your thumb moves off of it, you inadvertently end up controlling your view. Though not a game-stopper, it does happen on occasion- I will be in the middle of combat and all of a sudden be looking up at the sky or down at the ground. If Gameloft would simply change the whole left of the screen for movement, the problem would be solved.

There are lots of single player missions with great difficulty on the hard levels, but where this game really shines is in multiplayer. 10 players online and 4 types of games tend to keep me very busy. You have typical “deathmatch” where everyone is out for each other. Team deathmatch where two sides go after each other. Next is capture the flag where you capture the enemy flag and take it back to your base and last is bomb defuse where you have to protect a bomb from the other guys defusing it.

These multiplayer matches are crazy awesome. Fluid, look beautiful, solid Internet connections, etc., what could make it better? Points. That’s right, there is a ranking system. Every kill, headshot, assist, you name gets points. Typically every level unlocks something from a kill signature (it’s like a taunt) to new weapons or a skill like -20% on gun recoil and more. The only chink in the armor is that the online multiplayer is Wi-Fi only, so no 3G regretfully. Still, I can live with that as the single player missions are still a blast to play.

If you like first-person shooters, this is an absolute no-brainer purchase; it must be bought and it must be bought now. It is without a doubt the BEST game of this type on the App Store and I guarantee you will waste many hours fraggin’ your peeps online. Not sure? Watch my video up top and you will be convinced.

[$6.99- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Amazing graphics
• Great controls
• Very challenging single player campaign on the hard levels
• The absolute best multiplayer FPS experience on the App Store

Cons

• No Game Center support, uses Gameloft Live! )but it works really well!
• No 3G Multiplayer

This week I’m taking a look at iStudiez. A new school year is upon us and as I begin the journey of own Master’s degree I thought taking a look at one of the leading school and course management apps in the App Store was in order.

iStudiez is a very comprehensive course management application for the iPhone. This app literally does it all from cataloging semesters, courses and instructors to tasks and grades. So where do we begin? Let’s break the app down by section. So, first lets take a look at the Today section.

At the bottom of iStudiez you have four icons. The first icon is the Today icon. From here you get a summary of information you need to get done today. You have the option of turning on events from your iOS calendar, or feel free to leave it off. It displays all day events as well as regular times events. Simply tap on the event to get more information.

Next you have the Calendar icon. This is exactly as it sounds, a calendar for your courses and assignments. There is a toggle button up at the top of the screen that switches you from Schedule to viewing just your Assignments. This approach is quite nice as it allows you to see when your assignments are due and compare it with what your doing that day, week, etc to help you manage your time more efficiently. You can also add an assignment from here directly. Tap the plus icon located in the top right corner. Add the course, assignment name and details, due date and priority as well as push notification reminder and any partners you are working with to compete the assignment. Your partner information is pulled directly from your contacts list.

The next icon is your Assignments section. This is the place to view anything about what assignments you have, grades and completed courses. This section is divided into two areas; Current and Completed. Current lists your assignments by either Due Date, Course or Priority. Simply tap the choice you want and iStudiez will display and sort the results of your choosing. The completed section shows your completed course date and and course with your grade for that class.

The last section is the Planner icon. This area allows you to configure your Semesters, Holidays and Instructors. Your semesters can be be given a date range, nothing too exciting there. Next you can add your course and give it a color to help it stand out in the crowd. You can set your class as a regular class, single class or an exam. When you do this you also have the ability to set up that specific class’s schedule. You can pick the days of the week, its repeat schedule, instructor and location. You can enter the name, date and location for your exams as well. You can also enter in all of your instructor data from name, title, phone and email to office hours. You even get a comprehensive list of the classes that professor teaches based on what you have entered in your courses. Yes, tapping the phone number will launch the Phone app and email will compose and email; very convenient!

You have awesome control on how all of this data gets displayed in iStudiez. You can customize default phrases on your calendar such as “No classes today” and change that to “It’s a beach day!” for example. You can determine what information your calendar can specifically show. Turn off iOS calendar events if you want. Add a course color to differentiate between classes , assignments in the calendar; you have complete control. For me, a particularly useful option that is off by default is displaying week number.

There is not much else to say other than if you have an iOS device, buy this app immediately. It’s universal you can run it on an iOS device and the price is beyond reasonable at $2.99; the developer could easily charge more than that simply for the value in time savings that this app will give you.

[$2.99- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Robust course management app
• Integrates your iOS calendar with specific iStudiez data
• Universal app, BONUS!!!
• Helpful back-up via email feature
• A Lite version is available to try out

Cons

• Cannot sync data between iPhone/iPad or other iDevices (a sync solution is in the works)

This week I am looking at the Seidio Innocase II for iPhone 4. What makes this case great is that it is a two-part case that snaps about two thirds down. You slide the iPhone into the top, then slide the bottom on. The two pieces snap into place to provide a secure casing for iPhone 4.

The inside of the Innocase II is covered with a very soft, velvet like material to ensure that your beloved iPhone 4 receives no scratches when being pulled in and out of the case. Most cases have some sort of lining, but I have not seen too many like this. The lining is not meant for shock absorption, rather it’s purely there for protecting your investment from scratches, thanks Seido.

A couple things I have noticed about the case. The instructions state to “wiggle” the bottom of the case to remove it. However, I was unsuccessful at “wiggling” it (I mean, it is already flush against your iPhone 4 after all..). So, instead I used my inhuman strength to simply pull it off. This works for me, but did provide an initial shock when trying to remove it to dock my iPhone 4. Also, you probably know by now that whether it’s the iPhone or iPad, I like the glass edges protected on iPhone 4. The Innocase II does this no problem but to the extreme. I received a Fruit Ninja invite to place a multiplayer game on Game Center. After I accepted and started to play, I had problems slicing some fruit because I could not get my finger to touch the very edge of the iPhone 4 screen. Is this a deal breaker? Likely not, but something you should know before considering buying this case. Honestly, it probably won’t be an issue for most of our readers.

You can get the Innocase in a plethora of colors in our store; surely one to fit your style. I am sporting the green one and dig it. I feel this case protects well and is secure (it won’t fall off) and looks good with adding minimal thickness to the iPhone 4. You can pick up the Seidio Innocase II for iPhone 4 at the TiPb iPhone 4 Accessory Store.

Pros

• Solid protection for iPhone 4
• Aesthetically pleasing
• Easily removable for docking, etc.
• Multiple colors

Cons

• The ridges next to the screen are a little too high
• Case can be difficult to remove

I noticed Gourmet Live in the App Store for iPad and I thought I would give it a try. I have to admit, I have not been much of a foodie for most of my life. But, as I get older, it is just fun to create awesome meals for friends and family. Gourmet Live is different than other magazine-type apps on the App Store. For starters, the Magazine is online (only 1.9MB to download); you need an Internet connection to get to your content. The app seemed to download content in the background when you launch it, then makes all of it available for offline use. Slick, I like it.

The articles in Gourmet Live are well written and use excellent photography to bring the stories to life; they have really done a great job. You get your usual stories, etc. However at first I was stunned that there were no apparent recipes! How can this be, it’s Gourmet Magazine! Don’t worry, the recipes are there you just have to “earn” them by using Gourmet Live’s innovative rewards system. As you browse and share content via Twitter or Facebook, the app will occasionally give you a pop-up indicating you have unlocked a reward and it begins downloading that content. You can immediately view it or reference it later. As you read an article you can choose to change your font size (three sizes are available) and put an article into favorites for reference later. Overall, the app is responsive and fast, oh and did I mention it’s free? That’s right free. The funny thing is I have not seen a single ad so far.

Something else I have noticed that seems to be a trend that is about to happen on the iPad App scene. Gourmet Live is only viewable in portrait, no landscape here folks. I suppose this is not too much of an issue as there is a substantial amount of expense to reformat pages, etc for landscape as opposed to portrait. If this becomes the norm for this style of App I am ok with it as long as it is free, as in this case, or publishers begin to use a subscription option so I’m not paying $4.99 an issue WITH ads.

If this is the future of print magazines I for one, like it. Sure, you don’t have the high level of interaction as the Wired app for iPad, but what you do get is a straight forward viewing and content experience for those of us that like the simpler things and, oh yeah, good food.

[Free- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Free!
• Great content
• Innovative rewards system
• Small file size (this issue is 1.9MB)

Cons

• No landscape
• Content must download in background before viewing

Since a couple videos have started floating around on YouTube I figured it was about time I spoke up a little about my brief experience with the HP Slate. I had an opportunity to play with one about 3 months ago. HP apparently has a couple of these prototype devices they ship off to customers to tinker with and get feedback.

Now, my impressions have to be taken with a grain of salt since I am comparing a prototype, non-production device to the iPad, but I think certain truths will remain. For starters, the device is rather bulky, about 2-3 times thicker than the iPad. Once you get past the difference in physical thickness, your hands start to hurt, not because of the weight, but because the thing runs so hot your hands are burning after holding it for a few minutes.

Let’s talk features. I was curious to get the camera working. So, I looked for a physical hardware button to take a picture (because just about everyone other than Apple does that). Well, no photo button to be found. I was in the Windows 7 interface and could not find an camera app to launch. So I had to hunt for an alternative. HP has apparently built a custom skin for Windows 7 that gives the device a much more mobile feel with big buttons to launch apps and services. So, I launched that skin and found the camera app. The camera seemed to work well based on the fluorescently lite cubical environment, but hey, what can ya do. I now know why spy cam shots are always blurry and video is shaky.

I did not see the physical keyboard button when I had my time with the device, though I am sure it works fine. I did have the same difficult time scrolling (actually in this video, I don’t think he actually got it to scroll, but kept saying how fast it was. No comment there). Overall it was very lethargic and a challenge to use. Speaking of which, when in Windows 7 mode, it is impossible to do anything on screen as it is still using the mouse metaphor and there is a cursor on the screen; you don’t get the ease of use or speediness you get with iOS on iPad.

Again, these are my impressions of the prototype from a few months ago. Hardware changes, software changes and who knows what the final product will look like if it ever ships, but HP sure doesn’t appear like they are going to let this one go…

Here’s one of those videos from the ‘net, after the break.

Street Fighter IV for iPhone has been out for a little while now. Capcom just can’t sit still and they have released another update to the best fighter on iPhone. What makes this game so awesome? Let’s check it out.

Street Fighter IV is a faithful conversion to the arcade hit Street Fighter IV. Street Fighter has been around for years in many iterations and I am quite pleased with the iPhone version. Right out of the gate you are immediately blown away by the video opening. Very nicely done. Next you have an opportunity to tweak some settings, etc, but for now, let’s just jump right into the game. First words; wow. I mean, this game is absolutely gorgeous (even if it doesn’t currently take advantage of the retina display). The animation, scrolling foreground and background, this game is hot. But of course, a game can be pretty but if the controls are poor, forget about it. I am here to say that even the most seasoned and stubborn Street Fighter player will find some joy in the this game. Capcom has done a fantastic job of using the touch screen for controls.

When you boot up the game the first time, it asks you to configure the controls. You have complete dynamic control over where your buttons are located and how the d-pad looks. Without this, the game would not be as great as it is for some players. To be honest, I have gone back and forth with some of the control setups, but I always can get by on the defaults. If you are worried about control, don’t, it is just like any console version less a few buttons.

Due to the limited screen real estate, Capcom has given you only four buttons; punch, kick, SP and Focus. To execute a light, medium or strong attack, it is all about positioning and Capcom has nailed it. For example: if you crouch and attack with a kick, you get a medium crouched kick. If you forward crouch and press kick, you get a sweep kick. See, it’s not so bad is it?

You can choose from 12 of the world warriors with the latest additions being E. Honda and C. Viper. Every character has two colors available to choose from and currently you can download additional alternative colors for Chun-Li and Ryu for $0.99 each.

Even though this game has some omissions, namely the online multiplayer, I still play this game a couple times a week against the computer. For this reason alone, it clearly has value. 5.0 stars.

[$9.99- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Fantastic graphics
• Awesome controls
• Great selection of Street Fighter characters
• Wide array of individual player games (tourney, sparring, practice, dojo, etc)

Cons

• No retina display for iPhone/iPod Touch
• No online multiplayer
• Maybe a few more characters… where’s T-Hawk!

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars HD for iPad (GTA henceforth) is a great homage to its console brethren. Good story? Check. Good graphics? Check. Plenty of adult-themed action, adventure, and melodrama? Check. Check. Check.

You start off GTA on a flight back to the US, specifically Liberty City to transport your recently deceased Chinese Mafia Father’s sword to the new leader. However, as soon as you arrive you are kidnapped and left for dead. Without spoiling anymore of the story, that’s where you begin. I am not going to give away any more of what happens to you. Instead I am going to focus on the play mechanics, environments, etc.

GTA is structured in an isometric 3/4 view topdown action game. You are centered above Huang Lee’s (the main character) head and move him around via a virtual d-pad on the bottom left of the screen. You can sometimes get turned around quite easily, so you can center the camera behind your character by double-tapping the d-pad. On the left of the screen you have your action buttons. These buttons are dynamic depending on what you are doing. You basically have some core functions; jump-kick, leap (over an obstacle such as a fence) and punch. If you acquire a weapon, the punch button is replaced with the weapon of choice. However, switching weapons is a little painful; you have to go to the pause menu located in the upper left and tap the weapon you want. This can remove you from the action in the middle of a fire-fight and is a bit disappointing.

The story is driven by mini-quests typically given to you by your uncle early in the game. You go to his house, some dialog ensues and you are then sent on your way. Examples might be to meet a family friend and escort them to a location, take out a rival gang and more. To do this you have to take advantage of your environment such as car-jacking anything from trucks to motorcycles to boats in the harbor.

The environment is absolutely huge. To help you get around you are given a GPS with map to get you to any destination. This is a very necessary tool. I couldn’t tell you how big the city is in virtual miles, but it is quite large and with a lot of variety. You have everything in Liberty city including different burrows ala New York City style. You can go where you want, take people out for cash, play mini games all while time moves in accelerated time. Day goes to night and so on. The night effects are particularly nice as car, street and building lights all have neat effects on the environment which is quite impressive.

I think it’s a fair statement that though there have been a few iterations of the game, the iPad version resigns supreme if for only having the larger screen. I absolutely love the gameplay and the fun uses of the touch screen from throwing out trash in a dumpster to manually having to hot-wire a car. Is the game groundbreaking? No, especially compared to other consoles. Is it fun? Oh yeah.

[$9.99- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Great graphics- details, light effect, shadows, etc
• Pedestrian back-talk
• Robust mobile iteration of the consoles legacy
• Easy to play with the iPad screen

Cons

• Inconvenient means to switch weapons
• Vehicle controls can be frustrating at times

It’s a miracle! Developers, the new iOS 4.2 beta 1 is now available for iPhone, iPod Touch and the iPad. We have been skeptical in the past as to when Apple would release iOS 4.2, but now we have a clear road map leading up to a November release. Of course, we could cross our fingers and get it early November… Apple… please?

Here is a quick summary of some of the changes:

• Wireless printing, so we can shoot docs from our iOS device to a receptive paper printer. (Not word on compatibility requirements yet though).
• AirPlay, which takes AirTunes to another level with streaming video and pictures, and should let us beam content from iPhone or iPod touch to the new Apple TV. (Perfect to take a movie to friends or family).
• Find text on web page, finally. In Safari, easily search for and highlight specific words and phrases.

[via AppAdvice]

iTunes 10 is here, we’ve been using it for a while, and now we’ve got a complete walkthrough for iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch users. If you’re new to iTunes 10, especially if you’re new to iOS devices, we’ll help you get up and running quickly. If you’re already an expert, well here’s a guide you can send your new user friends and family. Let’s get started, after the break.

If you haven’t downloaded iTunes 10, you can do so from Apple.com. Once it’s installed, plug in your iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad to get started.

Summary/Info

The Summary section is helpful for checking on updates for your iOS device and restoring it if you run into problems. You can also configure some preferences such as syncing automatically when you plug-in your device. If you use a service like Apple’s MobileMe, you won’t have to do much on the Info section, but if you don’t sync over the air, you can choose/manage what to sync over here such as Contacts, Calendar and Bookmarks.

New Color Bars

When you plug in your iOS device you will notice a colored bar at the very bottom labeled “Capacity”. This bar is not a new feature to iTunes 10, but it is a tweaked one. It is divided into colors showing you what you have stored on your device by Audio, Video, Photos, Apps, Books, Other and Free space. If you click in the colored space it will cycle you through few options. Click it once and it will list you how many items you have in each respective category. Next it will break down the data into volume such as days and hours. Last, the display will show you the storage taken up by each category. Depending where you begin clicking this sequence may be in a different order, but it is still quite useful.

Managing Apps

iTunes 10 brings a couple of welcome changes to how iOS devices manage apps- especially if you have an iPhone/iPod Touch and an iPad. On the Apps section of iTunes on your device you have a filter that is probably default sorted by Kind. This places the iPhone and iPod Touch apps at the top and iPad apps at the bottom. You have more filters such as Name and Category, but the really useful choice is “iPad Only”. This selection only displays iPad apps for your iPad. Regretfully, iTunes does not save this filtered selection and the next time you plug in your iOS device, it gets reset to Kind.

You also have a check box at the bottom of the screen that allows you to automatically install new apps. This option works great for me, but not my wife. With this checkbox checked, she gets every app I have downloaded installed on her device. An easy way around this is to go to the preview screen to the right in iTunes and select the last screen. This is typically where new apps will go (unless you have a lot of gapping spaces on your home screen). You can delete the app by hovering over it and clicking the X in the top left corner of the app. You can also remove any other app while you are at it. Be careful though, most apps don’t store their info in the cloud yet, so if you delete it, the data might go with it too.

If you have an .ipa file (Apple’s app format) you can drag and drop those files to the Apps section in iTunes located in the upper left.

File Sharing

Do you have an app such as Apple iWork Pages that you would like to get some documents installed? Piece of cake. Scroll to the bottom of the Apps section in iTunes for your app device and you will see the Apps and Document area. Click on the app you want and you will see an available list of documents currently synced to that app. If you want to add more documents, click the Add… button, browse to the document(s) and click Choose. If you want to save a document from the selected application, select it and click Save to… to place it on a folder on your computer. Here is an easy tip; of you want to save multiple files from an app or all of them, click the first document then hold the Shift key and click the last document. This selects all of them. Now you can save all of the documents to your computer. You can also Ctrl (PC) and the Apple Key (Mac) to select just the apps you want when clicking on them.

Music

Getting music on your iPhone/iPod Touch or iPad has never been easier. You can choose to sync your entire music library (it won’t fit on my device… my library is too big). Or pick your favorite Artists, Genres, Playlists an Albums.

Do you have a lot of music videos? I do, but I don’t want to sync all of my videos; that can take up precious space. To still get music videos on your  iOS device but not all of them, create a playlist in iTunes and drag the music videos you want onto it. Make sure the Include Music Videos checkbox is checked and you are ready to Rock and Roll, so to speak.

Movies/TV Shows/Podcasts/iTunes U

These sections all work relatively the same way. Select played or unplayed content to sync or a playlist. You can even choose more robust choices like the most recent episode that has been downloaded but not played. Yikes, but it is useful so you don’t get redundant content on your device.

Books

Photos

If you use iPhoto or Aperture you can sync those events and projects to your iOS device. On the iPhone 4 and iPod Touch with Retina Displays pictures looks very good. They are also fun to view on the iPad with its huge display. If you really like someone, you can even use the Faces feature and sync over just specific people; that is just too cool. If you own a PC you can sync directly from a folder.

Ping

Ah, the only really “new” feature in iTunes 10 for iOS devices (except for iPad running 3.2, gotta wait till 4.2 folks) is Ping, Apple’s new social network for music. You can access Ping directly from iTunes via the Ping button from the desktop and iPhone/iPod Touch.

I really enjoy Ping. You can follow other artists, like and post songs and albums. Strangely you can only do this with music, not Audiobooks or Podcasts. I am betting in the future you will be able to.

Conclusion

I have seen Final Freeway in the App Store for a while and just glanced by. When looking at apps to review this week I felt a little nostalgic and thought I would give this little gem a spin. The result? Well, if you enjoy old-school arcade racing, if you remember when Out Run was the arcade game, then Final Freeway is for you!

Off the bat, the game is dead simple. Start off by going to Options and you can change your control type from accelerometer to to touch steering. I really prefer the accelerometer steering and once you turn on horizon tilt it gets a lot better.

Jumping into a game starts with two choices: Normal or Expert. Be warned, this game gets tough as more traffic and the time limit starts to hinder your progress. Next you have three choices for music. Unfortunately you can’t select iPod music at this time (the developer says they are working hard on a substantial update, we shall see what this brings). From here, the race begins!

Controls are precise and responsive as you fly really fast around the tracks. You have a few different control layouts in options for gas, break, etc. From here it is time to beat the clock and avoid the traffic. When you reach a check point, the game continues, but you do not have any branching paths, you continue through six total levels for the high score.

I had a lot of fun with this game. Since the levels are relatively short and with fast task switching, it makes for an excellent pick up and play game when you have the time. Sure there is a big “Cons” list below, but for $.99 this is a must have app for any classic racing fan; no regrets.

[$.99- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Classic racing action
• Similar to the arcade classic “Out Run”
• Fast frame rate- almost too fast!
• Retina display support for iPhone 4
• Universal app for iPhone and iPad
• Pick back up and play with iOS4

Cons

• No “tree” to show level progression
• Only three music tracks
• No iPod music option
• Only one car to choose from
• No Internet scoring fro global high scores (Plus+ or OpenFeint for example)

There is a lot of debate out there about Twitter’s new official universal binary app for iPhone/iPad. The iPad update brings an all new interface to the iPad. What’s new? What’s great? What’s not so great? Let’s start at the beginning…

Interface

Twitter for iPad brings a new and unique redesign to the Twitter experience that we know and love on the iPhone. Immediately after signing into the application I noticed something that looked, well, odd. The screen was split about 40/60 in portrait mode. Most other Twitter applications I have used took the full screen in portrait. So, I began my usual scrolling through the timeline and all seemed well and good. The familiar release to refresh was there and everything.

Next I proceeded to tap a tweet. Boom. This is where my Twitter world turned upside down. Next thing I know there is a flurry of screen animations and I am presented with a tweet partially overlapping the timeline! What’s going on here?

What Twitter and company have done is create a snazzy way to view your tweets. This is how it works:

• Tap a tweet with no replies- You see the tweet as well as the user profile of the user
• Tap a tweet with replies- You see the conversation
• Tap a tweet with a link- Take you directly to the webpage

Compose/Replies/Direct Messages

When composing direct messages, again you don’t have the username lookup function so composing can be troublesome. You can use the standard Twitter syntax of course, but to be honest I have become dependent on many of the conveniences Twitter applications provide, such as this.

Lists

There are some other things to discuss like options, Instapaper support and more, but the key things I feel people care about is what is the experience like. I really enjoy the experience. it is fresh and fun. In this reviewers opinion it does for Twitter what Reeder did for RSS. However, there are plenty of folks who are not as much of a fan (including our own Rene Ritchie, he just wants to swipe those panels away!).

Should you download Twitter for iPad? Most definitely, afterall it’s free. I think that it breaks new ground and I enjoy what Twitter is trying to do. Will you like it? That is the question.

[Free- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Easy account switching
• Selected tweets stay on screen
• Peek at a profile (pinching)
• Two finger scroll in timeline to view replies

Cons

• When composing, no saved hashtags
• Tweet “breaks” don’t scroll to oldest tweet first
• Missing features
  • No user list management
  • No Username Search
  • No export to address book
  • No Saved hastags

Facebook connect for Ping made a very brief appearance during Steve Jobs’ iTunes 10 demo and some early users were able to catch (and use) it to find friends on Apple’s new social music network. However, a short time later the Facebook integration was missing. What happened?

As it turns out, Apple was indeed having talks with Facebook to integrate the services on an unspecified level. We have to assume the ability to search and find friends as an absolute minimum requirement for the paring of the two companies (though wouldn’t it be great if Apple created its own client that integrated with Facebook and iTunes? Hey, one can dream).

Where Steve apparently ran into trouble was with Facebook having concerns over the volume of users using Ping as Facebook feared it could cause performance issues (hmm.. see 1 million Ping users in 48 hours) and asked for, in Steve’s words:

“Onerous terms that we could not agree to.”

[via All Things D]

Do you like old-school shooters? If so, Dodonpachi Resurrection is the game for you! Cave has brought out another awesome shooter on the iPhone (the first being Espgaluda II).

There are two game modes in DoDonPachi. The first is iPhone mode which is a great way to jump in and play. It uses a hit variable to determine the strength of your weapons (the slider is indicated in the top right) and has an interactive hypermode to unleash the ultimate destruction on your enemies. The other mode is Arcade. This mode has you pick the fighter style you want and requires a bit more strategy while playing since you don’t have the freedom you have in iPhone mode. You can also configure how much screen is displayed while playing (I am partial to large so I see as much of the screen as I can) as well as button placement for attacking enemy ships.

You start the game as you do in any shooter of this type as a lonesome ship against an onslaught enemy armada bent on destruction. Fortunately, you have technology on your side and you are packing enough firepower to send the enemy back where they came from. One of the things I like about iPhone mode is that when you die, you automatically drop a bomb and become invincible for a short while. Little details like this make the game more accessible to the casual shooter fan. However, Arcade mode is where it’s at if you need a true challenge. Of course the OpenFeint integration keeps it old school allowing you to compete with friends and strangers for the highest score possible.

I was looking forward to this game’s release and especially having the sharp graphics that are in on the iPhone 4′s retina display. Sadly, this is not the case. So as awesome as this game is, it ends up being a tad fuzzy on the iPhone 4 but looks great on the latest generation of iPod Touch devices and iPhone 3GS. Make no mistake that the graphics are great and there is no slowdown. All of the ships and terrain have tons of detail and move effortlessly around the screen.

I can’t recommend this game enough for shooter fans. It is hands down the best offering in the App Store. I am hopeful that Cave will create iPad specific versions of their games for the masses to take advantage of the full screen real estate that device has to offer. For now, you can’t go wrong with this title. I am still giddy about it.

[$8.99- iTunes Link]

Pros

• More bullets than you can shake a stick at!
• OpenFient leaderboards and achievements
• Works great on iPad. Looks awesome!
• Fun and frantic
• No noticeable slow-down

Cons

• No retina support
• Only works well on current-gen devices
• Larger file size (around 500MB)

I have to admit, I am not much of a Sudoku player. Not because I don’t like it, but because I am horrendously slow at it and I always feel inadequate playing since my wife is about twice as fast as me solving puzzles on even a much higher difficulty. However, I sucked up my gumption and thought I would give Finger Arts latest release a try.

Sudoku 2 HD Pro is simple enough. Tapping play will start you off with successive difficulty levels which will only be unlocked after beating the previous difficulty twice. Fortunately, there is a super easy mode called “Flash”.

I won’t go over the play mechanics of Sudoku, instead let’s elaborate what Sudoku 2 HD Pro does to enhance the game on iPad. After your game starts you have numbers on the bottom (portrait) or on the sides (landscape). To place a number on screen, tap the space you wish to place the number to and then tap the number. Once placed, other numbers on the sudoku board will have a green highlight to them. This helps you by pointing out other numbers so you can isolate where to play your next number. You can do this for any number at any time, you don’t have to place a number, instead simply tap any number in the field and it will highlight the same number tiles in green.

If you are not sure what number to play, you can use the convenient drawing tool to place the numbers you think might be needed on a particular tile on the board. To do this, tap the empty tile on the board then the drawing icon. Next, just tap the number(s) you want in the space and you are done. The game will even remove all obsolete notes in a tile once the correct tile is placed. If you get stuck, you can also tap the hint button. You are allowed three hints per game. The hint will highlight the suggested corresponding next move (you are also allowed three mistakes that don’t count against your score. The devs feel this is the appropriate number to include accidental screen taps).

Once you register for OpenFeint you can start playing games and saving your high scores online, but you still have some options to choose from. First You have your typical volume and music volume levels. Next you have game specific options to turn off the auto green tile select for like numbers. This is an incredibly useful option that can help you spot patterns more easily. I would only turn this off if you are a gluten for punishment.

The OpenFeint integration is really a nice added bonus to the game. Typically Sudoku games are individual but this adds a layer of social-ness to the game. You can see who has the highest score (this is calculated by the number you are placing… errr, it’s a really fancy formula) and it also keeps track of your runs (a run is an uninterrupted sequence of games own) and achievements!

I really like Sudoku Pro 2 and will be playing it for months to come. Perhaps one day I will even break the 10,000 point barrier, but likely not the current point leader with a whopping 105,622 point lead…

[$2.99- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Simple, easy, fun Sudoku!
• Online Leaderboards
• Can change tiles/look
• Screen rotation
• Hint system
• Resumes if you quit

Cons

• More tile/background customization options
• No iPod music background controls from within the app

This week I am looking at the Incipio Silicrylic Case for iPad. This is a two-part case not unlike the Case-Mate Hybrid Touch Case where you have a silicone inside layer and a hard outside layer. The goal being to provide extra durable shock protection.

As you would expect you have the typical openings in the case for the 30-pin connector, speaker, headphone jack and rotation lock. The power and volume controls are covered by silicone, but still function. I found putting on the case was a little easier than other models of this case type offering the same style and function. However, it also has the same weakness; the top and bottom portions of the silicone layer are not very secure and can easily be moved or nudged with little effort. Of course this is because it is difficult to add any rigidity to the silicone case covering the connecting port and speaker, but there has to be a way…

I did find the case to be quite protective and even covered the edges onto the screen to protect any accidental iPad face-plants. As a side bonus, the Incipio Silicrylic Case does come with a screen protector for iPad and a wipe cloth. These are nice additions that you don’t receive with other cases and in my mind sets them above the competition in this regard. The Incipio Silicrylic Case for iPad is available in four color combinations: Black/Black, White/Grey, Confetti/Charcoal, Lime/Charcoal for $47.95 in the TiPb iPad accessory store.

Pros

• Durable
• Easy to take on/off
• Nice color selection

Cons

• Does not fit in Apple Dock
• Top and bottom of case are still “loose”

Highborn is a turn-based strategy game for iPad set in a fantasy environment with paladins, wizards and warriors. What sets Highborn apart for the mix of other worthy turn-based games is it’s humor and asynchronous multiplayer gameplay.

You start the game off with “Archie” your wise-cracking paladin. The game uses humor to its advantage to drive the story and successfully at that. You select your unit whether it’s Archie, soldiers or archers and move them around the board to capture buildings and defeat the bay guys. You can tap on any character (good or bad) to see their movement range and attack range. Next you tap the location you would like your unit to move to. Then you can attack if next to an enemy or launch a distance attack if you are in range. Regretfully, once you have made a move (without ending your turn) you can not undo your move. This is frustrating, but you quickly learn to plan your moves out more carefully.

Capturing buildings and rune stones are a major part of Highborn. Towers typically attack you with catapults, buildings with arrows and so on. Most buildings come with a benefit too, once you capture them (which involves a battle) you earn something to help you in your battles. A monastery gives you a healer, a tower gives you a wizard and a farm building might give you angry farmers with pitchforks!

Each level in Highborn is individual, meaning that as you progress in the game, you don’t necessarily carry your army with you. You sometimes get a bonus character to use during the level too. I was a little disappointed by this as it would be more fun to amass an army as you progress through the levels to some ultimate cataclysmic standoff! Sadly that is not the case here.

Multiplayer is a great addition to Highborn. Log into your OpenFeint account and you can play asynchronously like with Words with Friends or Scrabble. This is a blast, but the challenge is that you can only challenge friends to a game if they use OpenFeint. Granted, if they have the game they likely will, but it would be nice to be able to invite a player based on username or some other identifier.

There a few shortcomings with Highborn, but not don’t let them distract you from the light-hearted fun turn-based strategy game. If you and a friend own it, multiplayer is awesome.

[$2.99- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Variety of terrain and enemies to fight
• Game gets progressively harder to build your skills
• Saves game if you need to quit
• Animated battles (can turn off in options)

Cons

• Simple graphics
• Can’t undo a turn

This week I am looking at the Case-Mate Hybrid Tough case for iPad. This is actually a good case considering its goal; solid protection while staying reasonably thin.

The case is unique in that it has two layers. The first layer is a silicone skin that covers the iPad and all of its buttons. It also covers the lip on top of the glass screen. The other layer is a hard plastic shell that snaps on place on the bottom of the iPad, on top of the silicone. The concept here is that it provides dust free protection while giving you a little cushion for bumps. The combination of the bottom shell and silicone protect the bottom and sides of iPad.

The only exposed areas (besides the glass, of course) are the speaker and 30-pin connector on the bottom and the rotation lock switch on the right side of iPad. There is minimal but reasonable thickness added to the device between the two layers, but I feel it is acceptable based on what the case is doing to protect your investment.

The only real issue I had with this case was removing it when I needed to attach an accessory like the dock or the keyboard dock. You have to remove it very carefully as the case is meant to fit very, very securely in order t prevent any lint build up. If you never have a need to attach iPad to these types of accessories, then there is no concern.

The Case-Mate Hybrid Tough case for iPad is what it says in the name; two layers of protective goodness and tough. It’s available now for $47.95 from the TiPb iPad accessory store.

Pros

• Solid protection
• Access to all ports
• Dust-proof protection of the iPad controls
• Two available colors- gray and lime green

Cons

• Can be a challenge to remove
• Does not fit in Apple Dock
• Top and bottom of case are still “loose”

With this weeks sale of Square-Enix games in honor of Chaos Rings release, I thought it fit to review Crystal Defenders for iPad. This is a very fun strategy/tower defense game: hardcore players apply only.

Crystal Defenders has you assume the role of master strategist as you place your units on a map to destroy the oncoming 30 waves of monsters trying to steal your crystals. Before you begin a game, you have to choose which game style you want. There are three to choose from: W1, W2 and W3. W1 is the easiest and simplest. The maps are not difficult and you do not have any power crystals (more on that later). W2 brings in the use of power crystals during gameplay and more challenging levels. W3 is the ultimate challenge. New monsters, units and very challenging maps.

The game revolves around Gil, which is your money/source for everything in the game. You use Gil to place units on the board and to upgrade them. The waves of monsters are cued up on the left of your screen and your units on the right. Before each wave of enemy monster you can place as many units as you would like onscreen till you use all of your Gil. Then, with the tap of the screen the oncoming horde commences towards the level exit and you have to cross your fingers that your units can defend your crystals. The good news; even during a wave you can still place and upgrade your units and if needed pause the action in the middle of a wave. If you become impatient, you can speedup the action 4X so waves complete very quickly.

You have a wide variety of units and monsters. There is the standard solider fanfare as well as archers, mages, thieves, hunters, etc. All of these types of units are necessary as monsters have varying levels of HP, resistance to physical, magical or air attacks and movement.

Once you progress past the W1 levels, the W2 levels give the add strategy of power crystals. There are three crystals in your arsenal: red to increase damage, blue to increase distance and yellow to increase speed. It is imperative to place these crystals next to your most important units to give them an edge. Just like other units, the power crystals can be upgraded, but at a much higher Gil cost than your units. You also have the ability to cast what are called Espers. Espers are creatures that can cast a spell for a wave, like increase all unit damage for that wave; Espers come in really handy.

If you think you have what it takes, then this is the ultimate in Tower Defense games. Three levels of varying difficulty and challenges, deep strategy (it’s the only way to win) and creatures and characters from the Final Fantasy universe make this a must have game for the enthusiast.

[$3.99- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Great fun!
• Bright, colorful graphics
• Familiar characters from the Final Fantasy universe

Cons

• Very difficult
• Simple graphics might shy players away

Like Star Wars? Like tower defense games? Then you might want to take a look at THQs recent release Star Wars: Battle for Hoth for iPhone. 

The game premise is that of all tower defense games; prevent your enemy (in this case the Imperial Empire) from reaching the other said of the map. As you play the game you get a fairly diverse set of units to deploy in defending Hoth. But, before I get into that, let’s look at play mechanics first. 

You start Battle for Hoth with some simple ground troop units and a shovel. The shovel allows you to alter the landscape of the level and force units to move a certain route. This is a great tool in later levels as you can really funnel the Empire to their doom. When you place your units and they destroy a wave of Imperials, you are rewarded with a green wrench icon you have to touch to collect. This gives you points to build or upgrade units. You have to be fast though if you wait too long the wrench will change color to orange then red, decreasing the point value. Wait too long, and your points are gone forever.

As you play through the 15 levels you unlock more types of units including; seated blaster units, radar lasers, turrets, snow speeders, x-wings, shield generators and ion cannons. Some of the more complex units like the ion cannon, shield generators and turrets require an energy generator placed next to them. The energy generator is required to power those units. If you upgrade a unit (say the shield generator) without upgrading the energy unit, you run the risk of losing power to that unit so you always have to keep it in check. 

You can upgrade your existing units to make them more powerful and sell them as needed. I found the most fun in the game building up units under the safety of the shield generator and then taking out AT-ATs with relative ease once my units were upgraded to the maximum.

When writing this review, I have to admit I had some distaste for this game. Simple and not a lot of variety in what appeared to be a shameless use of an awesome gaming license. However, after I made my video review above, I am having a bit of a change of heart. I think I am trying to make Battle of Hoth more than it is;  a simple Star Wars-themed tower defense game to kill a view minutes in your day while standing in line to get groceries. Should you get it? If you are a Star Wars fan I think you will enjoy. If not, I would pass. 

[$2.99- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Fast gameplay
• Fun in small chunks
• Fast forward the game action
• Familiar Star Wars universe
• Units behave as they should

Cons

• Original game music is not the Star Wars music we love
• Easy is too easy
• Lacking variety of Star Wars units and ships

I was excited to see that Let’s Golf 2 just appeared in the App Store! I am not a golfer in real life, but I enjoy a good golf game every once in a while. Let’s jump right in and see what this new version has to offer.

Let’s Golf 2 is not meant as a real golf simulation like a Tiger Woods Golf. Instead, you are greeted with cute, often funny characters in outlandish environments that are beautiful and colorful. This does not mean that the levels are easy, in fact they become quite challenging later in the game (how can that be a par 4, impossible!)

There are several new characters to select. But in the beginning of the game, you one have two to choose from; Vincent and Jane. As you progress through the levels, you unlock a lot of customizations including clothes, hair, golf balls and clubs. A fun addition is the new Skill for each character. I am using Jade for example and her power is “Power of Charm”. This move is useful when putting as no matter how hard you hit the ball when putting, you can use her power to stop it anywhere on the green. The character powers, once used, have to replenish over time and can’t be used again and again without replenishing; use your characters power wisely.

Single Player has a few different modes to choose from; Instant Play where you play across three random holes from a variety of courses. Career where you complete against other virtual players for the trophy. Challenge where you play a series of “challenges” and score the highest points. Free Hole where you can setup the course you would like to play. As you play courses you earn points and medals that go towards unlocking courses and character customizations as well as increasing your character’s abilities.

Multiplayer uses Gameloft Live for online play, but you can also play locally with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Once online you can create or join a room and view the leaderboard. The game is a blast online as you complete in matches against a competitor from around the world.

Gameplay in Let’s Golf 2 is really straight forward. You can tap on the course map on the left of the screen to view where the ball is going and tap left or right on the screen to adjust or use the zoom controls to pan away form the action for a big picture of the course. You have the option of changing your clubs as well, but I have found for the most part the AI does a good enough job that I don’t have to change clubs too often, I can typically control the outcome of my swing by adjusting the strength I am swinging. Swinging your club is accomplished by tapping the golf ball on the right to start swinging and then tapping it again to center the swing for angle and strength. One feature that is missing is some sort of advanced club swinging mechanic. These swinging moves are typically accomplished by swiping your finger in a direction and letting go at the strength you want. Alas, this feature is not available that I have been able to find it.

I really enjoy Let’s Golf 2, but there is one issue that really bugs me. The framerate/accuracy of your club swings is not spot on. Depending on the course I often find that I have to touch the swinging meter ahead of when I plan to swing in order to assure accuracy. This is really frustrating sometimes as golf is a game that focuses on the smaller number of strokes in a game and I often find that through no mistake of my own, I miss a swing or calculate the incorrect swinging strength because of this flaw.

Don’t let my previous statement sway you from getting this game. Granted, the timing of some swings can be frustrating but the online play coupled with many characters and unlockables makes for a fantastic golf game.

[$4.99- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Colorful graphics
• Diverse courses
• Unlockable characters
• Unlockable character customizations
• Online and local wireless play
• Many different types of golf games to play

Cons

• Framerate can be slow at times
• Easy to miscalculate swing due to input latency

I have just finished my stint with the Incipio Feather Ultra Thin Case for iPhone 4 (hence-forth “Feather”, that title is just way too long). What can I say? I like! The really thin nature of the case and the grip it provides is really nice. Plus, there are some extra benefits too. Keep reading to see all you get with this awesome case.

The first thing you will notice when you open the packaging for this case is that you get more than just a case, you also receive two surface protectors and a cleaning cloth. This is a very nice value for the price of this case ($23.95). The case itself is, as described, light and thin. It adds minimal thickness to the iPhone 4 and has a nice grip too it. I often refer to this as “grippy” plastic. Not slippery, but adds enough traction to be useful and stick in your pocket. The cut of the case is very precise. The back is completely covered except the camera and flash exposed. The case is very flush against the back with no real room for lint to enter. The sides flush as well. In fact, once you slip on the case, it can be a challenge to take it off. This, is a good thing.

The only issue with this case is that it does not protect the screen at all. For example, Apple’s bumper case extends past the glass to prevent any accidental scratches, etc. So, to remedy this and make the case as thin as possible, Incipio kindly includes two surface protectors. To make it easy for you, they even include an applicator for the surface protector. The side of the case only extends to cover the height of the silver antenna, so there is still about a millimeter or so of glass exposed. Even with a screen protector, it is possible that the glass could crack if hit at the proper angle.

This is easily one of the best cases for the iPhone 4 if you like this style of case. It isn’t rubber, but plastic, grips well and keeps the device thin and comes with two surface protectors. This case not only looks awesome, but protects in conjunction with the included protectors. Oh, and if you want colors, there are a whopping 12 colors to choose from.

You can find the Incipio Feather Ultra Thin Case for iPhone 4 at the TiPb iPhone 4 accessory store.

Pros

• Really light and thin
• Solid protection
• Grippy feel
• Lots of colors

Cons

• Case offers no frontal protection (includes surface protectors though)

Can Gameloft deliver with their sequel to Hero of Sparta? I think the answer is a resounding yes. Though not perfect, Hero of Sparta II (HOS2) delivers pure action and colorful graphics on Apple’s noble iPhone and iPod Touch.

HOS2 is an action game spun in the Greek mythological era of the Gods and Goddesses. You play the warrior Argos. I won’t get into his story here, but in this game you are sent on a path of redemption. You return to Earth after spending some buddy time with Hades and immediately the action starts. The controls are different than its predecessor. The main diffidence is that Argos can now jump. This adds a much needed play mechanic to HOS2. In the weapon department, you start off with the basic shield and sword. After every level or so, you start to collect a variety of different and useful weapons including: wings that can be used to glide and attack, a helmet that give Argos the ability hurls fireballs, and my favorite the claws which give you God of War like attacks against your enemies.

The levels are mostly linear, but on occasion you can find a hidden area that has extra gems. You can collect red balls that can be used to increase the attack and magical attack of each weapon. Blue gems to replenish magic and green gems to gain back health. You can also collect additional gems that can be added to your weapon of choice to gain attack/magic bonuses like a +2 to attack, for example.

Pulling off attacks is fun. You have an attack button that when pressed successively, gives you a combo attack on your enemy. However, you can add a modifier to your attack by swiping up, down, left and right. If you use the down motion it will typically cause a “shield break” maneuver with your selected weapon to destroy a shield or some other object. Using the up swipe will launch your enemy in the air for you to unless even more combos.

I am very pleased with the variety of levels in HOS2. You have a lot of different interactive events from running acorss a crumbling bridge to swinging with the claw weapon like a vine to climbing towers. The enemies in HOS2 are not as great. I found that I was constantly fighting the same 3-4 enemies every time with an occasional 5th monster added just for variety. A new enemy feature which is enjoyable is “taking control” of the enemy. For example, the Minator can be controlled by following a series of button presses on screen. You can then control the Minator and attack the baddies. Regretfully, there is not much of a boss battle. There is a boss at the end of every level in HOS2, but you rarely actually attack them. Instead, you typically dodge their attacks or dodge environmental variables. This is somewhat disappointing, but there is plenty of action when fighting during the levels.

The graphics have really be stepped up in this release. There is an insane amount of detail close up with a wide variety of color and textures; make no doubt, HOS2 is very pretty and impressive. However, all of this comes at a controversial cost in this reviewers opinion; framerate. HOS2 moves nicely if you are in a relatively enclosed area with a couple of enemies, but this is rarely the case. You are typically fighting 5 or more bad guys at once in an open area and this is where the framrate begins to suffer. I estimate this game runs at an average of 15-20 frames per second. This can become frustrating when trying to string combos together,etc. I can only hope that Gameloft will update this app soon. Gameloft did an awesome update to GT Motoracing Academy to the pleasure of many fans and I hope that they do the same here.

Overall, HOS2 is a must buy for any action fan. If you are looking for the silky smooth framerate of say, N.O.V.A, look elsewhere. If you want a solid, fun action game that pays homage to God of War, then this is the game for you.

[$6.99- iTunes Link]

Pros

Cons

By now you probably know that I am big into productivity apps and I am always looking for the next big thing. I use a lot of task management apps on the iPad, and there are some great ones for sure. However, I have just come across the ultimate task management app for your iPad; OmniFocus. This is, without a doubt the best app for utilizing David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” (GTD) methodology. What makes this app stand out so much are three things: good design, Forecast and Review. But, I am probably getting ahead of myself. Let’s start at the beginning. Note, a lot of the features I am going to discuss are not unique to OmniFocus, but I think it is fair to describe them so you know what is contained in GTD and can get a better grasp for how it is used. For this review I literally rebuilt my tasks in the app form scratch except for the made-up Inbox screenshot below. I had to do that since I am already organized

Gather your stuff

Organize

On the OmiFocus sidebar located on the right of the screen in landscape or the overlap menu in portrait contains the link for creating projects. Once you tap it, you are presented with a screen that displays what projects you have. If you don’t have any, tap the plus sign in the top right. A project can have a few different types: Sequential, Parallel and Single. Sequential means that the project you are about to start follows the typical finish-start task relationship in project management. So, back to my previous painting the house example, you must finish buying the paint before you start to paint the house. Parallel means that the tasks do not have to have a specific order. For example, I have bills due this month, it doesn’t matter when I pay them as long as they are paid by the 30th. Last we have Single. Single is used if there really is a single task to your project, or, how  I use it, a general grouping of unrelated tasks that fall under a bigger more general umbrella like “Personal” or “Work”. Hmm, let’s talk about those bigger umbrellas now.

Once you have projects outlined you can group them together into logical areas of your life. Tap the plus button in the top left and choose folder. Some examples of my folders include: Personal, TiPb and a couple of work-related folders- that’s it. Every project, every task in my life can be put into projects within these folders.

Now, to maximize your time completing tasks within your projects, you can use what are called Contexts. Think of a context as a way to virtually group your tasks into a place or method of communicating. For example, I have an errands context I assign to tasks that I need to do while I am out shopping. I have an email context for when, if I am doing email, I can get those specific tasks completed and so on. But what is the best part about contexts in OmniFocus? You can create location- based contexts! For example, I create a location context for Starbucks (where I do most of my writing). I assign that context to tasks I need to get done when I am at Starbucks. When I arrive, I tap on that context and using the iPad’s location services, it finds my location and tell me relevant tasks that I have selected that need to be done in this location. Another example might be creating a context for different office locations at work. I need to speak to certain people at a location. I assign that location context to a task and OmniFocus only shows me contexts for that location.

At this point things might start to sound a little overwhelming. I mean, you have a billion tasks with a million projects, even with contexts and due dates, how do you keep it all in order? That is where OmniFocus really shines. Where other task management apps end, the power of OmniFocus really shows it’s stuff.

First, you can filter your projects and tasks by seeing only what is the very next action (task) in each project to be completed, see what tasks are available across projects (even items that are on Hold, more on that in a minute), what active tasks are remaining and all of your tasks. You can easily focus on specific projects by tapping and holding on the title. It magically makes the other projects go away so you can focus on the project or task at hand. Using the same method, you can quickly expand all or collapse all to make viewing even easier.

Forecast and Reviews

Review allows you to literally review your projects on a weekly basis. You can change this interval to another time, but I think one week works well. This is so incredibly useful. It acts like a reminder, but without nagging. You can review your project, add tasks, adjust due dates and more knowing that in a week, it will be time to review these projects again. Of course this is something you should be doing anyway, but building it into the app was pure genius.  You can do more than just marking  a project complete. You can change the status of the project to Active (which is the default), On Hold (if you don’t know when you will complete it or need more information), Completed (Yeah, it’s done. Think if it like you are archiving the completed project) and Dropped (Canceled).

Syncing and conclusion

I did not cover every aspect of OmniFocus here (yes, there is more…) but I think you have a good indication of what it does and how well it does it. Oh, and did I mention it’s pretty with a cool app icon? Those are great bonuses, but this is clearly leaps and bounds ahead of what else is out there and our patience for this app release has truly been rewarded; thanks OmniFocus. It would be nice if there was a lite version of this app as the $39.99 price might be too steep from some. However, if you use the GTD methodology, then you are probably already hooked.

[$39.99- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Beautiful, intuitive design
• Workflow to add tasks is painless
• Multiple organization options
• Different sync options

Cons

• Expensive
• No way to sync to the web via a website (like Toodledo)
• No lite version is available for users to try before buying

Plunderland is Apple’s App of the Week this week. Does it deserve it? Yes and no. Developer JohnnyTwoShoes has made a solid effort to bring pillaging across the sea in the hands of eager gamers.

The premise of Plunderland is you are a ghost with pirates that sail across the sea to attack and sink enemy ships, pillage tribes people and take money from their monuments then make it to the next port. Sounds fun? Well, get used to it because that is what you do over, and over, and over again with little variety. Call me a stinker, but I don’t see the allure with this game.

Sure, the water physics are nice. You tilt the iPhone left or right to make your boat move in that direction. When there is a storm, etc, the water behaves in a more erratic manor, making maneuvering more difficult. Once you are on the high seas, you come across your enemy; the British warships. You have a couple ways to take them out. First is to use your ships cannon. You have a nifty way of angling the cannon to shoot your targets, just move your finger along the bottom and you will get a reticule via a line that helps your aiming. Release your finger and you fire your cannonballs. Second, you can use the enemies cannonballs against themselves. Before the enemy launches an attack, the cannon will puff smoke, that is your cue to ready your finger and deflect the cannonball back upon the enemy ship and with luck, split it in two!

I know, I make it sound exhilarating, and it is the first two or three times you do it. Sadly, Plunderland does little to keep your attention. Future attacks add blimps and more, but the fun is gone by that point. The attacking villagers is a simple “tap, tap. tap” on the totems to get money and fling some villagers around in an effort to extract some more dough. Again… zzzz…

There is nice upgrade system though, you can upgrade your ship, cannons and bowsprits by earning said money above. The game has excellent promise. The controls, physics and graphical style all lend them selves to a success. However, the bland  I really, really wanted to like this game, being highlighted on Apple’s App Store, but alas, mateys, I just can’t bring myself to recommend this lack-luster treasure.

[$2.99- iTunes Link]

UPDATE: I had a delightful Twitter chat with the developers. I explained that I had played 50% thorough the game and became unchallenged with the levels and objectives. They understood and are looking at a way to unlock the more exciting and complex levels earlier for more “hardcore” gamers. I also said that when I find the time to complete the game 100%, I would update this review to include my findings. I am hopeful that by the time I do this, they will have some new content available. You can follow the developer on Twitter here.

Pros

• Great graphics
• Solid frame-rate
• Good physics engine
• Upgrade system

Cons

• Very, very, very repetitive
• Takes a while to become a challenge (the end of the second chapter)

Pottery HD is a unique virtual clay pottery app that can really only be done on the iPad. It shows what an enterprising developer can do with a large multitouch interface. This game is fun and relaxing.

When the game first launches, I was caught a little off guard as I had no idea what to do. You have a “Create” button and that is it. So, I started to create, experimenting with the controls. You can make the clay taller and shorter, wider and thinner. That’s about it. So, I made a pot and fired it up in the kiln. When it was done, it gave me an option to sell it. I thought to myself, “Who is going to buy it?”. As it turns out, no one regretfully as it is all virtual. Once I sold my pottery I earned some virtual money. At the main menu a new feature appeared, “Shop”. Now I had access to paints and brushes. I had a new feature appear as well, “Inbox”. So it appears that as you play the game you are given different objectives; unique pieces of pottery to make. You can reference the photo given to you and once you make it, you can send it off to the virtual requestor. You can play Pottery HD independent of the virtual quests and just have fun adding lots of different pottery creations to your collection. If you like, you can even share these creations with friends via email.

I have had a lot of fun with this game, however, I left it me wanting so much more. For example, I would like a way to regulate the spinning of the pottery wheel; it stays at a constant speed. Also, you can’t add or remove clay either. It would be great to add globs of clay to truly make your pottery any size you want, but instead, you are limited by the vertical size of the screen. The biggest enhancement I would like to see is the ability to share online. The marketplace is limited to a virtual settings, you can’t see other users creations. This is such a wasted opportunity in my opinion.

Overall I really enjoyed Pottery HD, but it’s glaring lack of features and options lend me to recommending only for the most casual of users.

[$4.99- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Pottery looks beautiful
• Sensation of actually making pottery
• the Inbox adds hours of creative fun if you are stumped on what to make

Cons

• Not completely fleshed out with features (missing ability to control clay wheel rotation)
• No Internet- based way to trade with others

This week I am taking a look at the Incipio Executive Folio black leather case for iPad. This case not only looks good but is super thin. There are no pockets in the case other than the area to slip in your iPad. The flap secures with a tab of leather that tucks into a leather loop.

The fact that this case uses real leather is nice; no “pleather” here. You can smell it as soon as you take the case out of the packaging. The inside is a very soft suede. I feel very safe sliding my iPad in and out of it. Since it is so soft, it slides in smoothly too. Sometimes with these types of cases the iPad won’t slide in smoothly and can get stuck on a corner, etc. I have not found that to be the situation here.

The only concern I have with this case is that the leather tab that closes the external flap is only sewn on in two places. It feel that over time, it might easily tear. My case has not torn, but if you watch the video, I show you what I mean.

Overall, this is a slim case that will protect your iPad from daily bumps and grinds. There is not any real padding for falls, but it seems to had handled the daily abuse I was able to give it just fine.

The Incipio Executive Folio black leather case for iPad is available now from the TiPb iPad accessory store.

Pros

• Slim
• Genuine leather
• Soft suede interior

Cons

• I feel over time the latch may tear

Gameloft’s NOVA has just received one awesome update; high-res retina display support and the ability to use the gyroscope (looks like Gun Range proved useful after all) for iPhone 4. First let’s talk graphics…

This game looks absolutely amazing. Color. Crispness. It’s all there. No aliasing problems, things just look great. Now for the not so great news, the Gyroscope.

I have been playing with the NOVA update for the last couple of days and for the life of me, I can’t seem to feel comfortable using the gyroscope in conjunction with the traditional controls. Sure, the gyroscope is precise. Sure you can pivot in a circle and the game will rotate with you. But when it comes to playing in a firefight with aliens, it is hard to be using the traditional controls to pan while using the gyroscope to aim. Perhaps I just don’t have the reflexes of my youth, but I found the experience frustrating. Thankfully you can turn the gyroscope controls off.

This was just my experience, how are you liking the update? Let us know in the comments!

Video after the break.

[$4.99- iTunes link]

Having played Spider on the iPhone, I was really excited to see what Spider: Bryce Manor HD had to offer for the iPad. As with most iPhone to iPad games, the experience is much better having the increased screen real estate. Let’s take a look at the game.

Movement is accomplished by tapping and holding the direction on the screen you wish to walk. You can leap great distances by swiping your finger in the direction you want to go. You can spin webs by tapping the spider, then swiping the direction you want; that will spin a section of a silk web. You need to interlace at least three pieces of silk to make a web.

How do you defeat your enemies? Well, you have a couple of different ways. Your enemies consist of several different types of annoying bugs. Some are simple to capture, others can be very frustrating (such as the mosquito that dodges your every move). You capture insects by spinning silk. You have a silk meter in the bottom left. When you launch to make a web, you use one piece of silk. Silk is replenished x2 when you capture and consume your prey. So, it may take 3 pieces of silk to make a web, but if  you only capture one insect, you are down one piece of silk. The goal is to capture as many insects in a web as possible to rack up silk and points. If you run out of silk, you have just a little bit of time before it’s game-over; you will need to consume prey before the timer runs out!

Insects can be killed differently depending on the enemy, for example, wasps can’t be captured in a web, you have to leap at them and crush them against a surface. Moths can be tricked to swarm together by triggering a light and dragon flies and be knocked dizzy and pushed into a web for consumption.

Spider HD has 38 levels to keep you busy and many levels have “secrets” to unlock. There is also a fun multiplayer mode and once you beat the game you have additional game modes to play such as a time attack mode and more.

I really enjoyed Spider HD and with the iPad’s larger screen, it is even more fun to play. This is one of those must-buys on iPad if you like this style of game.

[$4.99- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Unique game
• Beautiful graphics
• Lots of levels
• Challenging gameplay

Cons

• Sometimes I find the leaping precision to be off, but it could be me
• Some levels are really short

Once in a while there is a game that comes out that is simple, fun, addictive and priced for the masses. Ladies and gentleman I give you StarDunk!

StarDunk is brought to us by the fine folks at Gozilab that made iMoki. The premise behind StarDunk is to make baskets (as in basketball) with a ball and complete globally against other players. You have two basic game modes; offline and online. Offline is where you hone your skills and when ready you are ready, compete online.

The ball is positioned on the right side of the screen (there is a lefty mode) with the basket on the left. There is a limited guide that repositions itself on screen as you move your finger across for aiming of the ball. When you release, the ball shoots. There is more to the game than just making baskets. There are four vertical bars directly behind the basket, like a backboard. If you hit one before the ball goes in, it lights up. When all four are lit, you turn the bonus on. Bonuses range from a temporarily wider basket to three balls shooting at once for maximum scoring.

Each match lasts for a couple of minutes and to add to the drama, the last basket is in slow motion. After the match you are ranked on the specific contest you played as well as your global ranking. You can also view your scores against your own countrymen and friends on the Plus+ network.

I have a lot of fun with this title. I find no real flaws. It is a blast to play and is one of the ultimate pick-up and play titles.

[$0.99- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Quick fun
• Global multiplayer
• Plus+ integration
• Great techno music to keep the blood flowin’

Cons

• None!

My latest favorite iPhone game is Fruit Ninja. The premise of Fruit Ninja is simple; slice fruit, don’t miss any and don’t slice a bomb by mistake. Sound easy? Think again grasshopper! After beginning a game, fruit flies up from the bottom of the screen. You use your finger (or fingers) to slice the fruit. If a fruit falls back off the screen without being sliced, you receive an X. Three X’s and it’s game over. To make things interesting, bombs are thrown into the mix as well. So, not only are you trying to slice a lot of fruit coming at you and not missing any, you have bombs that shoot up as well. The challenge is, if you slice the bomb, it’s instant game-over.

When it comes to difficulty with this game, it is a nice and smooth curve. The issue is that once you get good at it, it would be nice to start at a higher difficulty. However, Fruit Ninja always starts you back at the beginning. Your efforts are not at a loss though, the game has plenty of achievements via Open Feint and unlockables. Different colored swords and backgrounds can be unlocked if you have the dedication and skill of a true ninja.

Fruit Ninja also has two different play modes. First is Classic. This is the primary play mode I have described above. Score points by slicing fruit while avoiding the bombs. Zen mode is fun and fast. There are no bombs, but you have a time limit to slice as many fruits as you can. This is not hard, what is hard to is to slice with combos to rack up more points. Check out the Open Feint leaderboards and you will see what I am talking about.

I can’t say enough about this game. It has great art direction, animation and fun. When you lose, it even gives you facts about fruit. This is a near-perfect game, I love it!

[$0.99- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Fun gameplay
• Great graphics
• Unlockable content

Cons

• No option to start at a higher difficulty

My latest productivity app this week? Penultimate for iPad. There are several competing “free hand” note taking apps on our favorite tablet device. After our recent TiPb at Work Post, I thought I would see if Penultimate tries to separate itself from other note apps on the iPad. Is being simple with just enough  of a “feature” to get the job done enough?

Penultimate starts you off with a single notebook. That notebook serves as a tutorial to show you how to use Penultimate. The example notebook is excellent as it “teaches” you everything you need to know about the app. The basic setup is this; you can have virtually unlimited notes in your notebook. You tap the bottom right corner to go to the next page and the bottom left corner to go to the previous page. You have a pen, eraser and a clear page button at the bottom as well. On the main screen you can create your own notebook, email or delete notebooks as need, you can even rename them by tapping the name located below the notebook.

Writing in Penultimate is a pure joy. As you draw or write with your fingers, the developers have given the virtual ink a very distinct look, almost like calligraphy. The ink is thick in some areas and thinner in others. If you want to adjust the thickness or color of your ink, simply tap and hold the pen icon at the bottom of the page to make your changes.

You can create new notebooks with the tap of a button located in the top left hand corner. The top right hand corner gives you additional settings. The style of paper be changed from graph to lined for example, you can reposition the tools (pen, eraser, etc.) to the top of the page and even email the entire notebook or just the page you are on via email. Penultimate converts the notebooks to PDFs for emailing.

I like Penultimate for what it does; it is a simple no-frills note taking tool. I find there to be a couple of irritations however. In landscape view, you are given a cropped view of the page and you can flick the right side of the screen to scroll towards the top and bottom. I feel there has to be a better way to implement this, or, give me completely different functionality in landscape. The other issue is that there is no way to zoom to give yourself more space; the notebook is it’s real size and there is no zooming. I would have liked to have seen a pinch-zoom function that increased the size of your note area. Ah, perhaps in a future release. Regardless, Penultimate is a beautiful fun and easy note taking tool that most of use can find a  use for in our busy lives.

[$2.99- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Simple
• Beautiful design
• Ink looks great
• Animation is smooth

Cons

• Landscape view is awkward to use
• No pinch to zoom functionality

Ngmoco has just brought out the ultimate game/tech-demo (to show your friends) for the iPhone 4 – Eliminate GunRange. It’s a virtual gun range game where you use real weapons to shoot targets. The concept is not entirely engrossing as there are plenty of other top-notch shooting games out there (ngmoco’s own Eliminate comes to mind). What makes this game fun and special is that it is the first game to take full use of the new iPhone 4 gyroscope. How does it work? Continue reading to find out!

The game starts out simple enough; you are presented with a single weapon, an M60. There are numerous other weapons to choose from, but you have to score well to unlock additional weapons with credits. After you select your weapon, you then can begin the ” Challenges” for your selected weapon. When the level begins you have a pre- determined set of targets to destroy. That is where the fun begins.

The enjoyment factor of GunRange does not stem from the fact that you are destroying targets, it comes form the amazing control offered by the iPhone 4 gyroscope. It literally “feels” like you are holding the weapon in your hands and where ever you aim your iPhone, the cursor hovers over the target. This level of control is unprecedented in previous iPhone efforts till now. It is simply a tease of what is to come.

What could be hum-drum central, ngmoco has attempted to make levels as interesting as possible, however there are only three ranges. For example, the first level is a basic shooting range. As you progress you being to shoot targets outside in a different locale. What makes the level and challenge enticing is that targets appear “off screen” and you have to use the gyroscope to quickly turn left and right. Speaking of turning left and right, you don’t have to rotate your whole body like Steve Jobs did in his WWDC 2010 keynote. Rather, I was able to successfully turn by simply lowering one side or the other to turn. This is also effective in racing games too, I have found.

For $.99 this is an easy pick up title. Will it keep you engaged for months to come, unlikely. But is it fun and cool to show off? Definitely.

[$0.99- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Awesome use of the iPhone 4 gyroscope Graphics are sharp and look good on the retina display
• Multiple guns and shooting ranges

Cons

• A bit repetitive
• Only three gun ranges, more variety would have been nice

This week I had a chance to look at the black FlexGrip case for the iPad by Griffin, available in black, blue, purple and white. The FlexGrip manages to protect and look good. It’s made from silicon, but the slick kind. The case it self is not slippery, but rather it does not stick to surfaces. This is good if you place your iPad in a bag and want to access it easily but bad if you want it to grip on a surface.

I used the case for a couple of weeks putting it in and out of my backpack, laid it on tables, watched content on it, etc.  The only issue I had with the case is that the edge flashings do not grip the iPad’s glass tightly. This is an issue for me as I seem to collect lint where ever I go. I found myself having to occasionally clean out the lint particles. Also, it is important to note that if you use the iPad dock like I do, it does not fit in the dock with the case on.

Ultimately I liked Griffin FlexGrip for iPad. Just be aware of the looser flashings and that it is the slip not sticky silicone.

The Griffin FlexGrip for iPad is currently available for $28.95 from the TiPb iPad accessory store.

Pros

• Durable
• Protective
• Stylish

Cons

• Edge flashing are not flush against iPad’s glass

This week I am taking a look at Air Display by Avatron Software. You may have heard of Avatron as they make the great Air Sharing apps for iPhone and iPad. This app works like an external display for your Mac desktop or laptop (good news PC owners, it will work on a PC soon!).

To get started, you need to download the desktop app from Avatron’s website. The desktop app works like a display driver for an external monitor. Once installed, you will need to pair your iPad and Mac together. You can set the Air Display app to appear in the Apple menu bar across the top of the screen for easy access.

Once activated, open the app on the iPad. You get the typical background wallpaper that you have set for your external monitors. If you choose, you can even change the wallpaper for the iPad when displaying as a monitor. One of the first things I recommend doing is going into your Apple System Preferences and arranging the iPad monitor the way you want. Right side, left side, etc. I also took the extra effort to have the iPad’s placement reflect proper placement on the Monitor Arrangement screen too. This way when you drag your cursor to the iPad, it represents its real-time location. One more thing when it comes to monitor setup on the Mac, if you use Spaces, the iPad shows up as an individual display on each separate space- nice.

Once configured, using Air Display is a breeze; drag content to the iPad and release, it’s that simple. Due to the iPad’s size, apps that are best used on the display are things like iChat, Skype, etc. Also, since the monitor is projected via Wi-Fi, the monitor refresh is poor. So, as you move windows or objects around, they tend to be a little jerky. I would not use this monitor for anything that involves animation for this reason.

If you find your desktop just isn’t big enough and using Spaces on your Mac can’t get the job done, Air Display is an excellent way to use your iPad when it is just chillin’ next to your Mac.

[$9.99- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Excellent external mini-monitor
• Great for Chats or Skype
• Shows as an additional monitor in Spaces on the Mac
• Works as advertised

Cons

• Movement is slow and jerky
• Can’t use effectively for anything that requires animation

Normally, this would not necessarily be too exciting, except I just got done testing this release. I am very excited to report that I was able to log in to my remote desktop, then check mail and other apps. Put the iPhone to sleep, come back minutes later and open LogMeIn Ignition and… my desktop was still there!

They’re no doubt using iOS 4 multitasking’s task completion feature (the same one that lets uploads finish in the background). It won’t let you keep the connection open forever — more like 10 minutes — but it’s still fantastic and I can’t recommend this app enough. This is very exciting to see developers adopting iOS 4 so quickly and in a useful manor.

Oh, and here is a tip. If you keep LogMeIn “running” in the background for a while, and want to make sure you don’t get a timeout error when you return to the app, check the setting on the client machine. It needs to be more than iOS 4′s 10 minute task completion limit (the default on mine was 20 min.)

[$29.99- iTunes Link]

With the iPhone 4 now available, many people want to use that gorgeous retina display to begin reading books on the go via iBooks. We have looked at iBooks on the iPhone 3GS and on the iPad. How does iBooks compare on the iPhone 4?

The good news is that with the increased speed of the A4 processor in iPhone 4 and the retina display, your reading experience is fast and beautiful with iBooks. Let’s look at the processor impact first. Many of us eagerly updated our iPhone 3G and 3GS devices when the iOS4 updated became available and quickly downloaded iBooks from the App Store. Sadly, the performance on of iBooks on 3G devices was, to say the least, very disappointing. So much so that some of our readers uninstalled it immediately and rendered it useless. Others, like myself, had a good experience with iBooks on the iPhone 3GS. Not as zippy as iBooks on iPad, but definitely doable. I even encountered an issue where my impatience led me to believe that iBooks did not rotate into landscape. However, at the end of the day it looked good and performance was adequate.

Now the iPhone 4 steps into the scene. In my use of the app over the last 5 days since the device launch, it runs almost up to par with it’s big tablet brother. There is still the initial screen to load the library, but after loading, books open responsively and PDF performance is great. I was able to open many PDFs with large images and file sizes with little problem. Of course, as file size increases, performance may decrease. I don’t knock this as a downside since opening large PDF’s can take a toll on desktop machines.

Next is the retina display. Does it make a difference? For me, the major benefit of the retina display is zooming in on text. In iBooks, you can’t zoom on text in real-time, just enlarge the font. Granted, there are absolutely no jaggies, but does it improve my overall reading experience? I would say yes, but it is not a deal breaker. Where the retina display really shines is viewing PDFs- they are stunning. Zoom in as far as you like and the text looks fantastic. The artwork can too, based on the quality of the PDF. Anything you can do to make the viewing experience more pleasant in a mobile device with a screen size like the iPhone is a bonus. Yes the retina display makes a marginal difference when reading iBooks, but by no means is it a deal-breaker. iBooks on iPhone 4 for PDFs, now that is awesome.  If you are reading iBooks on the 3GS, I feel you have a comparable screen-reading experience- even on the 3G for most things, but the PDFs are heads and shoulders above what theses other device can offer.

Syncing between devices is a breeze. I have an active iPad, 3GS and iPhone 4. After installing the app on your device and you open it for the first time, it asks you if you want to sync. After choosing yes, the device stealthily syncs in the background, you don’t have to hit a button or anything. A spinning “gear” appears in the top right corner by the Wi-Fi and signal icons indicating it is doing its work. It takes just seconds for it to sync and you receive the bookmarks, notes, etc from what you have entered in a iBook and is synced to all devices when you open iBooks on that device.

iBooks for iPhone 4 is extremely polished (well except for a minor bug I encountered. It is captured in the video and screens) and the bookshelf looks amazing with all of the book artwork on the retina display. Text looks good too, though not as amazing as you might think unless you are reading PDFs. Performance is zippy and I think Apple is doing great for their first endeavor for ebooks. Now where is my desktop version?

[Free- iTunes Link]

Pros

• App looks beautiful with the retina display
• Very responsive with the new faster A4 processor
• Colors really stand out
• PDF Text looks amazing

Cons

• Can’t export notes
• Can’t copy text
• Occasional bug/error “Failed to load book because the requested resource is missing”

This week I am looking at QuickOffice HD for iPad. In my ongoing pursuit of productivity apps, I am very pleased with what is coming out of the development community for iPad. Does QuickOffice HD raise the bar again? Let’s dive right in and take a look.

Getting documents into QuickOffice HD is a relative snap. First you have the familiar ability to sync from iTunes. Just add your documents and when you sync, they appear in the app. However, the more useful feature is the ability to sync to the cloud. QuickOffice supports the basic usual suspects: MobileMe iDisk- both public and private, Google Docs, Dropbox and Box.net. You enter in your login credentials and QuickOffice will sync the folders to your iPad, but not the content. The folder content will give a preview but only load when you access the document. Once accessed, it stored locally. You can also open and save documents from email and that is always a bonus.

Folder navigation is very similar to the Macintosh Finder column view. It is my preferred view on the Mac, so I was very pleased with this and it was instantly familiar to me. You can create new folders with a simple tap of the plus icon and deleting and email documents is a breeze, just tap and hold the document and drag and drop it on the respective email and delete icons on the bottom of the screen.

To open a document you can tap on the name or rename it by tapping the blue arrow indicative in iOS for more information. Navigation within documents is easy and innovative. For example in a document you can pinch out to zoom and you are presented with all of the pages. You can then quickly flick to the end of your document. However, a great alternative is to tap and old on the right side of the screen. You can then slide your finger down and are presented a preview of each page in the document via the Mac OS X dock- style preview with magnification; very, very nice. For the spreadsheet application, pinching also zooms and you are given very convenient  selection handles for selecting cells. I prefer the feature over what some competitors offer. There is also nice built-in safety feature; the app auto saves your work every minute. So if you forget to save and close the app, your are safe.

Creating documents and spreadsheets is easy and fun. All of the basic formatting options are available. Bold, colors, fonts, underline, alignment, formats, etc. For any sort of lite editing, this application will fit your needs. However there is one glaring omission: a presentation document. That’s right, QuickOffice HD does not support PowerPoint or any other presentation application document format. This is such a shame as it is very close to being my favorite document creation and editing tool on the iPad. However, not having this support is a a serious hit for me in productivity and the competition has a leg up here. However, Quick Office does so many things right, I find myself going back and forth between iWork for iPad, Documents to Go for iPad and QuickOffice HD depending on what I have to do. Competition is good and all of these apps does something better then the other.

[$9.99- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Takes advantage of iPad’s screen real estate
• Innovative scrolling methods
• Easy interface to understand and use
• Opens many other documents, but in view-only

Cons

• Missing PowerPoint functionality
• Not a lot of advanced features

Finally, iBooks for iPhone arrives! I have been enjoying iBooks on my iPad for some time now. With iBooks for iPhone many more people can enjoy portable reading with their phones. How does iBooks measure up? Keep reading to find out!

After updating to iOS4 for iPhone 3GS I promptly downloaded iBooks. Apple has done a fantastic job with the application and it translates very nicely to the small screen. Let’s start off with actually getting a book on your device. When you first launch the app, it asks if you want it to sync with other devices to keep bookmarks, notes, etc. in sync. Next, you are presented with a blank bookshelf. The promised Winnie the Pooh book is free, but you have to get it yourself. So to do that, I tapped the store icon and the app rotated in 3D very smoothly to reveal the iBooks store. From here you can find any Featured books, the New York Times Charts, Search and review your purchases.

Tap a book you are interested in and and you can download a sample (the samples typically contain at least one whole chapter, but sometimes more) or purchase the book. So, I went to the search option and looked up Winnie the Pooh. After finding the book, I tapped the “Free” button, the store flipped back to reveal my bookshelf, or Library, and it proceeded to download. About 10 seconds later I had Winnie the Pooh on my iPhone.

To begin reading just tap the book and you are taken to the first page. To go back to the Library, tap the icon in the top left. To view the Table of Contents and Bookmarks, tap the icon next to that. Simply tapping the left to right side of the page turns it. You can’t scroll up or down; that’s not very book-like. You can tap and hold on any text to bring up a few different tools. Some of the more useful ones are Highlight, Dictionary and Note. You can tap highlight and iBooks applies a highlight to the text. Tap again and you can add a note or change the note color.

If tapping the side of the page doesn’t excite you, the page can be manually turned by tapping and holding the bottom right corner and turning the page like a real book. The effect is gorgeous and it really is impressive. At the top of the page you have more choices beyond returning to the Library or the Table of Contents. You can adjust font size, change the font, adjust brightness (especially helpful at night) and a new feature- sepia color. This is particularly nice as it dulls down the very bright background and makes it a little easier on the eyes. Next, you can search within the iBook, but it doesn’t stop there. You can also search in Google and Wikipedia right from the search page! When done reading, you can tap the top right corner of any page and place a bookmark. All bookmarks, notes and highlights are accessible from the Table of Contents page.

Another new feature that Apple added with this release of iBooks is the ability to read PDFs. You can add PDFs a couple of ways. First, you can add a PDF in email to iBooks directly from the mail app. Second you can add PDFs to the Books section in iTunes and sync them over. Once a PDF is added, you see a PDF button next to Book on the top of the Library. Tap the PDF button to look at your PDFs and they are beautifully rendered. Scroll your finger along the bottom to view the different pages or Tap the Table of Contents button to get a zoomed out view of all PDF pages. Search, bookmarks, etc., work with PDFs as well.

They only real chink I can find in iBooks armor is there is no option for landscape in iBooks or PDF view. This is disappointing since on the iPad app, you get a two page view. I understand this may not be possible with the screen real estate, but just like the web, sometimes landscape is preferred. Many apologies. I was impatient waiting for my 3GS to rotate. Many thanks to the commenters on this post for pointing this out.

This is a must-buy free app for Apple. You have access to more than romance novels. Technical references abound and can come in really handy when you need them and viewing PDFs is very convenient. If you would like to know more about iBooks for iPad, check out our earlier review.

[Free- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Beautiful layout
• Fast
• Wonderfully animated
• Great tools for navigation
• Easy to use

Cons

• No landscapeI was too impatient with my device for it to rotate
• Can’t export notes
• Can’t copy text

Phoenix Wright is Capcom’s latest game for the iPhone. It’s a port of a port (GameBoy to Nintendo DS to iOS) that still retains it’s fun factor through the years and is a great addition to any iOS gamer. The concept behind Phoenix Wright is simple; you are a new a attorney and you have taken on your first criminal case as a defense attorney for your best friend from high school, Larry Butz, and he is accused of murder!

The main game play takes place in the court room. Just like any court case, you are given evidence that you can reference at any time from the court record. And you WILL need to reference it as your clients future depends on it.

Your first case deals with Larry’s girlfriend’s murder. The witness pins Larry as the killer… but is he? This is where the fun begins. It is up to you to prove his innocence. In the courtroom you listen to the witness testimony and try to find holes in it based on the evidence you have in your possession. Regretfully, I can’t give away too much more without spoiling the story… There are additional levels though and each one gets more and more challenging, you even move out of the courtroom to gather evidence yourself.

As fun as the game is, the writing is geared towards a younger audience. Even though the subject matter is adult, it often uses “childish humor” to get points across at times. Though I shrug this off, it may bother some adult gamers, kids will love it. But I do admit, I chuckled from time to time. It is important to note that this game is not 3D but instead kind of like one of those old Choose Your Own Adventure books. The game is based primarily on reading and critical thinking skills and lends itself as a quick pick up and play game, but you will be spending some quality time with it. The good news is that you can save anytime and it usually places you right at the spot you were last at in the story.

In the end I found Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney very enjoyable and fun. Was it challenging? Yes. Was the crude humor at times? Yes. Will I play it again? Most definitely.

[$4.99- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Great story design
• Deep level of interaction
• Critical thinking skills are needed!

Cons

• Childish humor at times
• Simple graphics
• Can be too hard depending on audience

If you’re looking for a sturdy and transparent skin, the XGear Shield case for iPad for $29.95 may be the case for you.

The XGear Shield is made from dual-compound materials that creates a shock absorbing bumper on the edges. Translation: it has thick edges that fit securely to the iPad that can reduce damage to the corners if bumped. Though not completely transparent, XGear Shield has more of a frosted backing that and not only looks good but totally protects the back and sides of iPad and gives you complete piece of mind from scratches.

There are two things that I really like about this case. The first is how secure it is. There are some cases that fit, but the edges and corners are loose. While this may make for easy removal, I fear it can get caught on something and slip off of the iPad. This is not the case with the XGear Shield. The edges are actually a challenge to put on and remove so you know the case isn’t going anywhere. On the downside, it doesn’t allow for docking with the iPad dock. All of the openings are there, but the power button has given me some challenges. Turning on is easy though by tapping the home button instead.

Video and photos after the break!

Pros

• Protects edges and back of iPad
• Very sturdy Accessibility to all ports
• Fits securely around the iPad’s edges

Cons

• Does not work with iPad dock
• Power button can be a challenge to press
• No color options

I am always looking for tools to help me be more productive. I am very excited over discovering MindNode. MindNode is a suite of mind mapping products across multiple Apple platforms that allows you to brainstorm or mind map out thoughts and ideas. MindNode is available as a universal app for iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad as well as a free and paid version for the Mac. Today I will be looking at the iPad version, but functionality is the same across apps.

You start off with a simple node. That node can be an idea or thought, perhaps an object. You can rename the node to what ever you like. From here, you can add another node by tapping the plus icon. You can really start to branch out quickly too. You can branch from the main node, any children nodes, or just make a new node from scratch. If you find your ideas are taking over on a particular node, you can detach it and make it a new node.

To help differentiate nodes and thoughts, you can change colors of the connector lines and the node itself. You can even setup the colors that will be used and what order they appear if you like. If you need to move around a node, simply drag the title to a new location, or you can cut, copy or paste by double-tapping on the node. To help keep your mind maps organized, MindNode gives you the ability to search within your document and look at a list of all of the existing nodes and their parent-child relationships in your document.

Sharing documents is a snap in MindNode. You have several options at your disposal:

• Mail to MindNode
• Freemind
• png
• Text Outline
• OPML Outline

• WiFi sharing with MindNode Pro only
• Websharing, provides URL, port and user name/password

[$5.99- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Very easy to use
• Excellent export options
• Complete control over color and positioning

Cons

• More robust customizations (shadows, shapes, etc)

Chaos Rings is the ultimate RPG thus far on the iPhone. Square Enix has done a fabulous job bringing the console RPG experience we have come to love on to our beloved Apple devices.

Our story begins with several pairings of unlikely partners thrust into a battle they do not wish to fight in a tower competing for rings. Starting the game you are given two choices for characters. Both teams include two people and you are always a party of two. When beginning, you are given a choice of two pairs and both have a similar story but different dialog. Each team has a stronger “fighter” type of character and the other is more of a support/magic character.

As the story evolves, you roam around the world presented to you in tiers. You often have a choice of what tier you would like. This way, you can always go back to an earlier level and gain more experiment for your characters (recommended) or continue on and enjoy the progressively harder battles.

The battle system in Chaos Rings is fun and does not seem to ever get old. Every battle allows you a few different attack options. You can defend, attack solo or as a pair. Defend is obvious, but solo and pair start to get interesting. If you choose solo, each character attacks individually and all attacks and damage are their own. If you decide to attack as a pair, you have a more combined powerful attack, but if attacked, both characters take damage. Of course you have the usual itms to revive fallen comrades, but instead of magic you collect “genes”. Genes are basically spells that you collect randomly after defeating an enemy. After a battle your HPs are restored but not your magic points for genes. You have to exit the level or use an item to restore.

In between battling monsters you have to solve the occasional puzzle. This typically involves collecting crystals or moving blocks in a particular order within a certain number of moves. These puzzles can become frustrating as many are required to progress through a level. However, persistence usually pays off.

Once you make it back to the lobby level, there is a merchant to buy sand sell items. As always this comes in handy to sell stuff you don’t need and buy stuff you do. The good news for a portable game of this nature is that you can save anywhere. Whew, it sure makes life easier.

But how does it look? I would equate it to Final Fantasy VIII on the PlayStation. Better textures and more polygons, but generally, that is the look in feel which is fine by me. The monsters are big and animated and lots of diversity in color and textures.

Should you get this game? If you even remotely like RPGs, this is a 100%’ must-buy, no-brainer. Good story, fantastic gameplay and graphics, it is a dream for any RPG fan. Check the video and screens after the break!

[$12.99- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Great gameplay
• Good story
• Awesome graphics
• SquareEnix quality we love
• Hidden dungeons

Cons

• Battle system could be deeper
• I can’t wait for the iPad version!

Summary of the new features include:

• Safari Reader
• Even Greater Support for HTML 5
• Better Performance
• Bing Search
• Safari Extentions

How about our readers? Are you seeing a speed difference? If you find a site that can take advantage or Reader, post it in the comments!

You can download Safari 5 here.

***UPDATE: In order for Reader to appear, you literally have to click on an article on a website. For example, click on this article in its entirety and the Reader button will appear in the smart address bar.

As a user of Dataviz’s Documents to Go product for years, I was ecstatic for the iPhone release and now even more so for the universal binary for iPad. Documents to Go is a mobile office productivity suite that allows you to create and edit Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint formatted documents and file types on your iPad.

Let’s first look at how we can access our documents, there are a few different ways. First, you can create documents on the iPad. Next, you can sync with your desktop (PC or Mac). You can install a free desktop sync tool. This allows you to pick a folder on your computer and sync those documents to the iPad, or use the built-in iTunes sync if that is your preference. Last but not least you can connect to a few different web services in the “cloud” and edit your documents and save it right back to the cloud. Documents to Go supports these services:

• Google Docs
• Box.net
• Dropbox
• iDisk
• Public Disk (iDisk)
• Sugar Sync

Editing your document is a breeze (see included screen shots for examples). For the most part, documents rendered properly with minimal formatting impact due to DataViz’s In-Tact technology. Instead of Documents to Go guessing what a feature/format is, it tells you if it is unsupported and advises you that if delete it, the feature will be gone from the original document. I feel this is a fair compromise between the desktop and mobile versions of a document; it doesn’t even try to guess if it is unrecognized. The bottom of the screen gives you all of the tools you need in portrait or landscape including formats, spacing, inserts, bookmarks, slide types, formulas, indents, tabs and more. Need to send an email with attachments? You can do that directly from within the app too, you can even pick your outbound email account and it will accept and attach multiple files.

For all of the great things Documents to Go does well, there are some shortcomings, though not deal-breakers, I feel you should be aware of. First, you can’t access email attachments. Some programs out there allow you to access files in your email via IMAP directly from within the app. This feature is missing. It looks like it is only supported on the iPhone, but seems to be missing on the iPad. When searching outside of a document you have an option to search you entire folder hierarchy or downloaded files only- but not their contents; that is a missed opportunity.

Documents to Go is a stable release with much needed support on the iPad in a few areas. For the average user I feel this app is absolutely fantastic, but for an enterprise user, there are a few features that are missing. I really can’t recommend this app enough, but the lack of enterprise support makes me lower the score as I think the majority of users that would benefit from this are road warriors that need access to their work documents when visiting a customer. Sure they could sync before leaving the office, but that negates the value of syncing to the cloud.

If you want a very good robust document creation/editing tool look no further than Documents to Go. Looking for an enterprise solution that will sync your documents over-the-air? Keep looking. Video and screens after the break!

[$14.99- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Create and edit Word, Excel and PowerPoint
• Several cloud based services for syncing
• Excellent format compatibility
• Multiple desktop syncing options
• iPhone OS document handling

Cons

• No enterprise network drive access
• No attachment syncing with email

Sam Fisher is back in Splinter Cell Conviction for iPhone and iPod Touch. Having played the original way back when on the Xbox, it was interesting see how the game has matured years later on the iPhone. The game has morphed into more of a run n’ gun type of game. Yes, you still have to try to be stealthy, but not like the games of old. If you feel like it, just walk right in and start shooting. I actually like this as it gives you a choice in play style; covert or action.

Sam is out for revenge to find out who has killed his daughter; basically, he doesn’t care who or what gets in his way to uncover the truth. The game spans 13 levels in 8 different locations and with this mobile iteration of the franchise you get some new gameplay mechanics. First, you are given icons next to cover you can run to. Simply tap the in screen action icon and Sam will run and cover to that location. You can do this successively assuming there is an “icon” to run to.

Next, you get a nifty after shadow that appears on screen to indicate where the enemy thinks you are, or your last known location to them. This adds a fantastic play mechanic that is horribly underutilized. It would have been great to throw small objects or something and cause the enemy to head towards that location. Instead it is used only when you are detected and enemies will head to that area.

You are also given the ability, albeit only in certain situations, to target multiple enemies to take them out with a single button press. Regretfully, you can’t use this any time you want, only in certain situations. This is the biggest downside to Splinter Cell Conviction, its restrictiveness. The game plays well, look gorgeous and is fun, but is hampered by the inability to use some of these cool play mechanics on the users terms. It is this flaw that prevents this title from being the near perfect game it so wants to be.

Should you get Splinter Cell Conviction? Good question. If you are a casual gamer looking for a little stealth action, then yes, you can’t go wrong. If you are a hardcore gamer, the limitations might prove a little frustrating. For me, I like it and will continue to play it, but I will always be wishing I has complete control over Sam. Check the video and screens after the break!

[$9.99- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Fantastic graphics
• Smooth frame rate
• Excellent control
• Innovative gameplay (i.e. Sam’s last location shadows
• Auto-sneak by enemy
• Select multiple targets
• Level replay
• Unique on-rails level for iPhone

Cons

• Extremely linear
• Close quarters combat can be challenging to accurately target enemies
• Game is not difficult, even on highest setting
• Aiming can sometimes be “sloppy”

The ultimate in interactive elements has arrived in the form of The Elements for iPad. I was a little late getting to this app seeing as how it came out at the iPad launch, but I am really soaking up what the Elements has to offer now. It’s is basically an interactive book made by the folks at Periodic Table. They make printed books, etc for the education market around the world. This is their first foray into the iPad/iPhone and I have to tell you; wow. I wish they had this stuff when I was a kid.

The way The Elements works is you have a complete listing of the periodic table of elements in front of you. These objects are not just photos of the elements, but actual 3D renders that move. Tap on an element and it takes you to that element’s custom page of discovery.

The element page consists of a big render of the element or an example of it’s use on the left of the screen and all the information you could want to know on the right including the atomic radius, structure, weight, density and more of the element. WolframAlpha provides additional information and proves to be an awesome resource.

The bottom right corner gives you additional navigational tools. Tap the right arrow to bring up more information about the element along with even more 3D renders of the the element or it’s uses. You can spin/rotate all of the element examples in real-time; there are over 500 renders in this app. You also get a detailed history and story about each element to give even more insight. Of course just having interactive 3D renders aren’t enough. No, double tap a render and you are presented with a fullscreen object. Tap the double circle icon and you can view the object stereoscopically. Focus your eyes, you can see a “real” 3D render of the object. Of course, some of us just can’t do that. So The Elements gives you a convenient link to order the special 3D glass for $4.95. That is rather cool. I can imagine students sharing the glasses to examine all of the elements in this way and it is really exciting to see the future of interactive education for students.

Alas, there is always another side to the story and regretfully this app has crashes constantly even with the most recent update. I so am looking forward to a few more updates to make it ultra-stable.

The newly formed company TouchPress is responsible for creating The Elements and are on a mission to make more books like this one. What is on my wish list? The human body and the universe, I can’t wait.

[$13.99- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Fantastic view of the elements in our world
• Unparalleled level of involvement and depth for this subject matter
• Background on the element and its uses
• Wolfram Alpha integration

• Hefty size, almost 2GB
• Crashes constantly

Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction is now available in the App Store for $9.99. Stealth action has finally made it to the iPhone. I have not had too much time with the title, but it looks and controls great.

The game has Sam Fisher is back in his first foray on the iPhone. Controls are standard fanfare, virtual joystick on the left and action buttons that change dynamically based on the situation on the right. The duck and cover mechanics are fun and there are lots of new mechanics such as a white shadow that appears indicating Sam’s last known position to the enemy. This comes in very handy for strategically dodging the bad guys. The views are sweet and frame-rate is good. I will be reviewing this game soon, but for now, enjoy a couple screenshots from early in the game and the official trailer after the break!

[$9.99- iTunes Link]

At over 5ooMB, Wired’s iPad app arrives in the App Store and yes, the future of magazine reading appears to arrive with it!

Last November we gave a sneek-peek at Wired’s concept for a magazine on a tablet. That demo was in Adobe’s Flash. The new version is 100% Flash free and is beautiful.

Navigating the magazine is a breeze; tap on the screen and you are given overlayed navigation tools. The bottom scrolls through pages and the top has two options- zoom out and a vertical list of articles in the issue.

There is plenty of interactive content too. Videos from the upcoming Toy Story movie and 3D real-time models of Mars and a Lego Lamborghini. With this awesome content and interactivity comes a price; $4.99 an issue. Is it worth it? Let us know in comments! Check screenshots after the break!

[$4.99- iTunes Link]

Groupon for iPhone is an App Store front end for the free Groupon service that acts like a buying group in your city. You can get a wide selection of things at a discount from massages to baseball tickets.

You can go to the website to view what the daily deal is, or just launch the iPhone app. The app allows you to select a city, place an order, view your Groupons, expirations and more.

This is how it works. Groupon coordinates deals with vendors in your area. When a certain number of people “buy” the Groupon, the deal is on and everyone is charged. If the limit for the deal is not met, no one gets charged.

The Groupon app is divided into three sections: Today’s Deal, My Groupons and Settings. Today’s Deal shows you all of the information about the daily deal. You see the cost, how many bids are needed for the deal to happen and let’s you know when the deal is “on” too. It gives details on how much you are saving and what’s in the “fine print”. Fine print includes the expiration information, blackout dates, etc. If you have decided that this is a Goupon you want, click the Buy button. You are not charged until the quota for this deal is met; nice.

The My Groupon section is to review what Groupons you have and get a history of your purchases. Location and expiration information of your Groupons are kept here as well.

The last section is settings and currently the only option is to enable a passcode lock for the app.

[Free- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Great way to save in your town
• No billing till “Deal is On”
• Can use the web or iPhone app
• Refer friends, earn a one-time $10 credit
• Can buy gift cards to use towards Groupon purchases
• You can follow Groupon in your city via Twiter

Cons

• Needs more cities

OmniGraffle for iPad is a great application for creating workflow diagrams, organizational charts and more. At work I use Microsoft’s Visio to create workflow diagrams pertaining to software implementations. I now have almost the exact same functionality in my iPad.

The layout is very similar to Apple’s own iWork suite for iPad (and OmniGroup’s other iPad offering, OmniGraphSketcher) in that you swipe between open documents and can easily create or delete documents from the same screen. If you have used OmniGraffle on the Mac or Visio on Windows you will be instantly familiar with the interface once you have created a document. The top right corner has all of your stencils, drawing tools and properties of the objects you are working with. In the top left you have control over layers for your diagram. For this review, I am going to cover the simpler aspects of OmniGraffle so you understand at a high level what it does. Advanced users will revel in the other aspects.

To begin drawing, open the stencil group your want and drag an object to the grid. This can be done in portrait or landscape. From there you have almost limitless choices: color, line thickness, rotation, curve edges, shadows and so on. After placing a few objects in your drawing you can connect them with the connector stencils. Again, drag to the drawing and connect. The properties for lines are the same as other objects but you can add different types of arrows and even branch the arrows out. OmniGraffle for iPad can also use third party stencils, but no guarantees. These stencils should be added via iTunes.

So now you have several objects in your drawing and you want to change the properties of all of them, perhaps change the fill color. How do you accomplish this? Very, very, very easily. All you have to do is tap and hold the first object, then tap subsequent objects. Any object you touch will become a group for editing. You can then apply any changes you like to those objects; colors, line thickness or style, just about anything. It is awesome to have this power at your fingertips and it is a shame OmniGroup does not have templates available for the user to edit since changing properties are so easy to do. OmniGroup has suggested they may add templates in future release of the app.

It is important to note that OmniGraffle gives you excellent placement tools and control over your drawing. You can add, edit or duplicate layers in your drawing and activate snap to grid so you can precisely position every object placed.

The single biggest drawback for this wonderful application is that unless you already use the Mac version of OmniGraffle, it is difficult to share with other types of applications. Exporting options include: send .graffle in email, send email PDF, copy as image and send to photos. There is not an XML or Visio export at this time unfortunately.

I could go on about all of the fantastic features of OmniGraffle and for a 1.0 product launch with iPad and I very excited for the future of this application for the iPad. OmniGroup says that they have a lot of plans to enhance this app and they are coming soon. The short development time did not lend itself for adding a lot of features at launch (though I still think they did an amazing job) For business, this has to be one of my favorite applications.

[$49.99- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Has extensive help
• Portrait or landscape
• Guides to place objects
• Snap to grid or smart guides
• Innovative tab to hold features
• Complete control of shapes, canvas and more
• Rectangle and free hand drawing tools
• Layout tools
• Several stencils to choose from
• Lock items on canvas and send items back or to the front
• Tap and hold multiple objects

Cons

• Limited exporting options
• No templates

The Motorola EQ5 Wireless Speaker for iPhone 3G/3GS  and iPod Touch is one awesome Bluetooth stereo speaker setup. Looking for a good speakerphone? Need an excellent portable speaker with surprisingly good sound? This might be for you! It is currently available in the TiPb Accessory store for $99.95.

I have been searching for the perfect complement to my iPhone; an external speaker that sounds great, small, portable and asks like a phone. What did I find? The Motorola EQ5 (part of the Moto Rokr brand) portable stereo Bluetooth system. You might remember I reviewed the Blueant stereo speaker in the past; I really liked it and the missing piece for me was the ability to have great sounding stereo sound. Guess what? I have found it in the Moto EQ5. Read after the break to learn more!

The Moto EQ5 is small and light. Its Dimensions are 4.6 x 2.55 x 0.59 inches; totally pocket-worthy if need be (it is almost the same size as the iPhone actually). The face of the device has the usual suspects including volume up/down and play/skip controls. The bottom of the device has a rubber grip around the edges and a built-in kickstand to prop the device to a convenient 45 degree angle. The On/Off switch is on the bottom a USB port on the left for charging and 3.5 jack for connecting to non-Bluetooth players. Oh, and let’s not forget the bass ports on both sides for some sweet sounds…

I have carried this speaker with me everywhere; the car, my desk, kitchen, you name it. This device is really useful. Imagine taking a speaker base and making it portable. That is what you get with the Moto EQ5. The sound is fantastic. Not being an audiophile, I can’t find room for complaint, but some more discerning audio listeners may. For what the device is, you can’t go wrong.

Of course there is the bonus of the device being wireless, and you also can answer and make phone calls with the Moto EQ5 as well. The device uses the same noise-reduction and echo-cancellation technology as found in other Motorola headsets. The battery life on this device has been stellar. I was MIA for a couple of weeks, returned to my Moto EQ5 and it worked for another 6 hours before needing a recharge.

I am really trying hard to find any distinguishable take-away from this device, but it is almost perfect from every perspective. This has to be one of my favorite iPhone accessories of all time; I absolutely love it.

Survival horror thriller Zombie Infection for iPhone has to be Gameloft’s highest production game to date. The graphics and voice acting are top notch and the cinematic style is engrossing.

Zombie Invasion starts off with you landing in a small town, that — wait for it — has been overrun by zombies! The first level is basically a tutorial showing you the moves for your character. You can shoot and stomp on crates to find goodies such as ammunition and medical supplies. You can move while aiming (albeit very slowly) and you can dismember the zombies by shooting their legs, arms and heads; what more can you ask for?

As you progress through the 12 levels in the game you unlock them to replay at any time. This is great since Zombie Infection has a trophy achievement system. You can go back though levels and practice/earn achievements. There are some fun ones too, for example if you shoot off both legs of a zombie, you get an achievement for that. It is this type of mechanic that makes me come back for more.

To add a little variety to the game, you can also play as one of two characters; Ex-soldier Damien Sharpe and reporter Alex Rayne. The names are cheesy, yes, but the gameplay and fun factor is not. I love this game and I am thankful that Gameloft is bringing these types of games to iPhone; it makes one really compelling alternative to other platforms for mobile gaming. Check the video and pictures after the break!

Pros

• Great graphics
• Good voice acting
• Solid controls
• Two different characters to play
• Compelling story
• Level select after you complete a level
• Trophies
• Online leaderboards
• 12 Levels
• Unlockable Survival mode

Cons

• No quick turn
• I can’t think of anything else… this game is HOT!!!

Appigo’s Todo for iPad complements their existing Todo for iPhone app very well and if you already use Todo for iPhone, you will be quite pleased with the iPad version. If not, you’ll certainly appreciate Todo for iPad on its own merits.

One of the first things you will notice is the aesthetic; Appigo went for a traditional three ring binder look and feel. You can change the color of the binder, paper and rings in the settings menu. Appigo promises more themes in a future update.

Outside of looking pretty, Todo gets the job done just like its iPhone cousin. You can create a your standard task, project, checklist, contact or website. If you are a Getting Things Done (GTD) user, you will be happy to know that @contexts as well as tags are supported. Holding the iPad in landscape gives you full view of all your task information. On the left side you have your lists, Inbox, Starred and Focus list. Let’s discuss this in a little more detail.

Inbox is where tasks go that you have not assigned to a list yet. They just kind of hang out there till you move them, they can stay there, it is all up to your own workflow. Starred tasks are a way to flag a task. I use this functionality to star any items I want to do today, regardless of due date. Focus list allows you to create a dynamic list based on filters. Maybe you want to only see tasks with a due date of one week from now. You can do this with the Focus list.

If you are like me, you have a bunch of tasks you have given an arbitrary due date to, and inevitably that date slips. You can very quickly and easily move these items to another list, simply reschedule or reassign to a context in bulk with Todo.

For me the biggest benefit with Todo is online synchronization. Sure you can sync via Wi-Fi from your desktop with iCal, but for me it has to be the ability to sync with the excellent free service Toodledo [link]. I have used all of the other major task apps that sync and currently they all sync via the desktop through Wi-Fi. This can be very frustrating for me. During the day I may add a task only on the iPhone, complete a task on the iPad, but there is no way to merge them together till I get home. By Appigo partnering with Toodledo, I get free over-the-air (OTA) syncing and web-based management of my tasks from any web browser when I am not near my iPhone or iPad.

I find few faults with this application and I am so glad it is finally available. The functionality and price cannot be beaten. Checkout the video and pictures below!

[$4.99- iTunes link].

Pros

• Beautiful
• Themes
• OTA syncing
• Bulk editing for time and lists
• Different types of tasks (project, contact, etc.)
• GTD contacts and tags
• Search tasks

Cons

• Slow startup time
• List colors don’t sync from device to device

Gowalla for iPhone is a social app from some fine folks in Austin, TX that allows you to check-in to locations, see where your friends are checking-in, collect items and complete trips. For those of you not familiar with the whole “check-in” craze, the idea is you travel around town, land at a “spot” such as the movie theater, gas station or restaurant, and then tap the Check-in button. When you do this a couple things happen:

You can…

• Post to Twitter and Facebook
• Add a photo
• Add a quick post
• Leave an item

There are some great social aspects to Gowalla, but let’s first talk about items. After installing Gowalla on the iPhone, you receive three items. You can keep and cheris these items in a vault, never to be used, or you can swap for other items at Spots when you check in. You are also randomly given items when you check into locations. I found myself without an item for a few weeks, but fear not, I received two items randomly twice in a day! Other then exchanging an item at a Spot, you can leave an item at that location if now one has. This will give you “founder” status.

What I particularly love about Gowalla compared to it’s competition, is that it is not focused on mayorships or point leaderboards. I tend to think I go a out a fair amount and explore the city with my family, but there are some people that go out even more than I do and I will never catch up to them in points. Gowalla’s main attraction for me is the item collection feature.

For those adventurous types, there are trips. Trips are not built into the iPhone but are on the website. When you follow these trips, you earn a special badge. For example, I will be visiting Chicago and I am going to try to complete the Chicago trip.

To find friends to share with, Gowalla gives you some tools to can scan your address book, Facebook, Twitter, and Gmail, and you can always find by name.

All of this is rendered with beautiful icons and graphics that really allows you to enjoy the experience of the application. The only major detractor for me is that the application is still a little slow, but boy is it pretty…

Gowalla is available now in the App Store for free [Free- iTunes Link]

Pros

• Wonderful artistry
• Check-in
• Trips
• View leaderboard
• Directions
• Save items to your vault

Cons

• Cannot edit Spots on the iPhone
• Slow loading

Gowalla for iPad is a social app from some fine folks in Austin, TX that allows you to check-in to locations, see where your friends are checking-in, collect items and complete trips. Gowalla for iPad is available now in the App Store for free [Free- iTunes Link]

Gowalla is the newest entry into the whole “check-in” craze. Why check-in? With Gowalla the main goals are to see where your friends are and to collect items. However, this process is mainly reserved for the iPhone app. The iPad version of Gowalla provides beautiful access to view your activities (where you and your friends have checked-in), see what spots are in your area (spots are places to check-in) and your Passport (a summary of where you have checked in, stamps, pins and items collected.

This app is an excellent companion app to its iPhone cousin. The large screen really gives you great access to view where your friends are in real-time across the world. You can pinch and zoom from your city to the whole world in a breeze. You can learn more about a location or friend by tapping on their name on the map. Spots also dynamically appear when the map is moved to a new location, very slick.

One of the nice advantages of Gowalla compared to its competition is that Gowalla’s main focus is not becoming a Mayor’ but rather on collecting items left behind by other users. When you check-in with Gowalla you have an opportunity to swap an item you have with an item you are checking-in at. If it is a new location, there may not be an item but you can leave an item behind for another user and you then become the founder for that location.

If you are up for a challenge you can complete a Trip in Gowalla. Trips consist of checking into a series of locations in a city. Once complete, you get a trip badge to add to your collection. If you don’t have trips in your city, you can create your own and submit it to Gowalla. Regretfully, trips are not accessible at this time in the iPad app.

Gowalla renders all of this with beautiful icons and graphics that really allows you to enjoy the experience of the application. It is important to remember that this really is not meant to replace the iPhone version of Gowalla, at least in its current state, but to enhance your experience with Gowalla. There is a substantial amount of functionality missing from this application and we look forward to what Gowalla will bring in future versions. Check out the video and pics below!

Pros

• Wonderful artistry
• Get directions to a spot
• Check-in
• View leaderboard
• Save items to your vault
• Awesome companion app to the iPhone version

Cons

• Trips are not viewable
• Cannot edit Spots
• Cannot create trips

OmniGraphSketcher for iPad [$14.99- iTunes Link] is one of Omni Group’s latest editions to the iPad. Like the Mac app of the same name, it’s a quick and easy graphing or plotting tool that allows for realtime creation of charts and graphs. And on the iPad, it’s all done with multitouch.

You can plot out your own data points and format them any way you want. You can change color, axis points, size, shape, arrows… you get the idea. You can even copy and paste data from a multicolumn document such as Excel or Numbers and create a simple graph quickly.

I found this app to be useful in meetings or anywhere, really, that you need to illustrate some sort of graph (see the YouTube video at the end of this post to get an idea). If you already use iPad, then this is a great arsenal to have for any sort of data analyst, manager or sales person. Show up at a customer site with a busy spreadsheet? Does the customer look confused? You can very quickly plot out a graph to show them why their sales may be down or up.

Finally, OmniGraphSketcher allows you to read OmniSketcher files in email and allows you to export as a PDF via email or as an image to your Saved Photos album.

Overall I am impressed with OmniGraphSketcher. It eerily appears very similar to Apple’s own iWork suite for iPad and you can see where the groundwork has begun to standardize these types of apps on iPad. I vote two thumbs up for OmniGraphSketcher.

Check after the break for a video and pictures!

Having a virtually full-fledged word processor like Apple’s Pages iWork app [$9.99- iTunes Link] on the iPad is a big deal. There has been a lot of discussion, however, about how Pages would work on the iPad. How do I transfer/ sync documents? How will my formatting be effected?

I had to use Pages to do some document editing for a house flyer for our home (we are in the process of selling). I figured what a great opportunity to give Pages a spin. First, I had to get the document on the iPad. Email or iTunes? The Pages file was 12MB so I opted to transfer it via iTunes. The process was simple; I selected the Pages app from the bottom of the Apps tab with my iPad attached to my iMac. I clicked the add files button and chose my Pages file. I synced the iPad and my house flyer appeared in the document list in pages.

After importing the house flyer into Pages, I was not greeted with any formatting warnings (to be fair I have imported Microsoft Word documents and did receive warnings. It was hit and miss; some documents looked identical, others, not so much) and I began editing immediately. But, there was one problem…

I did not know where anything was or how it worked! So, I had to start to play. Where do I change my fonts besides a style? How to I change a graphic to wrap through text and not around it? These were all challenges that with time, I was able to figure out. I would estimate it took a good 30 minutes to fully comprehend how things worked and use the app. Tabs, columns, watermarks, images and graphics can all be added to a document with relative ease.

Using Pages to create and edit my document was… pure joy. Touching your document was fun, and after the initial learning curve, it was easy. Your created documents not only look good, but you have complete control over their flow which is more than ANY other mobile app of this type can offer.

With my editing done, it was time to get my document back to my iMac desktop. So, I had couple of options. I could email, but the file is still to big. I could send as a PDF, but I want to continue to edit the file. I could send it to iWork.com. But, I don’t want the hassle. What do I do? Well, there is an export option as well. You can export the file as a Pages, PDF or Word Document. Once this is done, the document is available to be saved from iTunes on the same tab I used to uploaded it from my iMac. Now it gives me a choice to save to my iMac when I dock my iPad.

Now I have to admit that iWork.com may ultimately be a better solution for accessing edited documents in larger quantities. If I had to transfer several documents it would be tedious doing it through iTunes, but still doable. However, accessing iWork.com on the iPad allows you to download the pages file right there and begin editing. When done, sending to iWork.com is just as easy.

This app is not entirely made from unicorn tears however. I did encounter issues with Pages crashing and being sluggish at times, regardless of the document size. I can easily cut Apple slack on this since it is a 1.0 product. I have confidence Apple will release updates for stability and functionality just like its desktop big brother. Still, don’t let these little nuances dissuade you; make no mistake that this is an unparalleled best-in-class app from the user interface to it’s core functionality.

If you have an iPad and need to create or edit documents, this is a must buy.

Bento for iPad [$4.99- iTunes Link] is a fantastic database option for users of Filemaker’s Bento for Mac. It is a fast and simple database application for capturing just about anything from invoices to party planning to recipes.

I have been using Bento for Mac and iPhone for a while now. I was very excited to get the iPad version. Bento looks great. There are elegant themes that make Bento appear like a leather- bound book or clipboard. You can create a database on the fly from one of the supplied templates and sync it back to your Mac and iPhone. If you want, you can even make a database from scratch right on the iPad. When creating your database you have a choice of several fields including checkbox, choice, number, text and several more. Adding these fields to your new database couldn’t be easier; click the pencil icon and drag the field to the workspace. Once placed on the screen, choose that fields properties. One of the more impressive features I found was the ability to add a Media field and insert a picture directly from Saved Photos on the iPad. There is a nice shadow effect behind the image and it looks really good.

Overall I am very pleased with the iPad version of Bento. The one feature that I would really like to see would be the ability to either export or send via email a record from Bento; there is currently no option to export data from Bento for iPad.

If you have an iPad and need to have a database with you, you will love Bento. Anyone from parents managing their kids schedule to a small business can use the portability and power Bento has to offer. For only $4.99, you are getting a huge value.  If you aren’t the creative type, you can always download templates from Bento’s Template Exchange.

Check out the Video and Gallery after the break!

If you’ve been using LogMeIn Ignition for iPhone, prepare to be blown away by the iPad version. LogMeIn Ignition for iPad [$29.99- iTunes Link]has essentially the same functionality as the iPhone, but is much faster.

LogMeIn is a free service (with paid options depending on what you want) that works on a Mac or PC. It allows you to remotely control another computer. LogMeIn Ignition brings that functionality to iPhone and iPad. You have full right and left-click support as well as most all of the other useful key functions such as your “F” keys and arrows keys. If performance is an issue, you have complete control from the settings screen to change resolution and color quality. I tend to use Compressed; it is a step above Black and White and allows for a faster refresh. You can also change how you navigate on screen. You have two choices: screen moves or mouse moves. I lean towards screen moves as that gives me the most speed when navigating. Pinch to zoom works like a charm and is blazingly fast.

Ready for the bonus? LogMeIn Ignition is a Universal app, so you buy once and you can use it on iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. For those that need a little extra power in their remote sessions, LogMeIn offers their Pro2 account which allows for even more flexibility such as copy/paste desktop sharing and remote printing between sessions. If you aren’t sure which works best for you, there is a handy comparison chart.

I can’t recommend LogMeIn Ignition enough. It’s come in very handy when having to access my home computer.. and even my Mother-In-Law’s PC for help. There are several VNC type of clients out there, but this one is fast, zero setup (compared to a VNC configuration) and has plans to meet your needs.

Check out the Video and Gallery after the break!

Real Racing HD [$9.99- iTunes Link] is a blast to play on the iPad. I have enjoyed the iPhone iteration for some time and I was really looking forward to the iPad version. Thankfully the game is still a blast to play, looks good and has a few new features to keep you interested in this version.

First of the changes is the resolution. The graphics and frame rate are really smooth. The immersive feel of the in- car view is fantastic. This game does have a different feel now on the larger screen and I like it. You can now add your own skin to your car via the Camera Role. This is a great way to customize the cars in the game if you get bored with what is available. Firemint even has a website with skins to download. To install a skin, just save to the Camera Role or use an existing image. You can then apply the picture to a car, giving it a new look.

The other new feature with this version of Real Racing is the ability to save/ load ghost car data. In Time Trial mode you can save your race after you finish. You are then added to the leaderboards. You can view or race against others in your bracket . You can’t at this time race against higher ranked players. Firemint says they are listening to feedback and may implement this in a future update.

For a first effort out of the gate, I really am enjoying Real Racing HD and I am looking forward to see how the development will improve on this already awesome game. Gallery and video after the break!

YouTube link

I am a huge fan of Evernote [Free- iTunes Link]. I knew they were working on an iPad version of their software, but I had no idea what to expect. Needless to say I am pleased with their design decisions and love the completely new layout for iPad.

Evernote for iPad gives you several new and fun ways to view and organize your notes. First, you can view them by thumbnail or details. I think thumbnails work best with pictures. I tend to have more text notes, so details works best for me. It gives me the name, etc. of the note at hand.

I love the way Evernote organizes notebooks and tags; the notes appear stacked on each other just like the Photos album. You can’t pinch to peek and open (though that would be cool) instead you simply tap to open the notebook or tags you want. You can also sort by name or by count. There is now a separate area of view notes by place too, you can even use location services to find notes by your current location. Take audio and picture notes? Now you can do both in one note on the iPad app. This is a very nice addition.

If you are an existing Evernote user, you are in luck — the app is universal. Download it once and use it on iPhone, iPod touch and iPad.

Gallery and video after the break!

YouTube link

Picking up the iPad I was tasked with deciding the most useful accessory for the iPad. For me, that accessory was the iPad Dock. I just couldn’t fathom the iPad just laying on my desk, I needed a place to set my iPad as well as take advantage of the other features it allowed me to display.

The dock comes by itself, no USB cable or charger; you just get the basics. The footprint is larger than the iPhone dock since the iPad is substantially heavier. The bottom of the dock has the typical “sticky” finish so it does not budge from its place. I would estimate the angle of the dock to be approximately 60 degrees so it is not exactly upright, but close. The back of the dock has the standard 30-pin connector. You can use the USB cable and charger included with the iPad to plug into the wall or computer for charging. You also have a Line Out to plug into a stereo tuner.

Once you have placed the iPad securely in the dock, it has the familiar green charging battery graphic. If enabled in Settings, you have the new picture frame button that turns the iPad into a beautiful digital photo showcase with animated slideshows.

If you don’t want your iPad just laying on your desk, you can’t go wrong with the iPad Dock. Oh, and don’t forget, the dock just might come in handy when you start typing with the Apple Bluetooth keyboard…

Pictures and video after the break!

YouTube link

You can now browse the App Store directly from within Facebook via Apple’s newest Facebook application. Virtue has partnered with Apple to create this page hot on the heels of their other Facebook page for iTunes.

There are a few tabs to chose from; the proverbial Wall and Info, but then it starts to get interesting. You have a Featured tab that shows you the week’s spotlighted applications. A Games tab lets you filter by any game genre. Search and Share, of course, lets you search for any app. Once you find the application you are looking for, you can launch into iTunes Preview and straight into the iTunes Store to get it (and post it to your profile, of course).

The latter is what I am excited about because now I can share my recent app favorites with them.

Check for some more screenshots after the break!

In the box you receive the form-fit Case-Mate Vroom (color of your choice including black, red purple and yellow) and a screen protector. It seems that Case-Mate wants to ensure that your iPhone receives plenty of protection it’s great they include a screen protector. The case slips on quite easily while allowing access to all aspects of your iPhone. The sleep button and volume controls are the only components that are covered, but still easy to press; every other part is partially exposed for easy access.

The case design is reminiscent of tire tread, hence the “Vroom” name. This case excels in two areas; grip and accessibility. First let’s look at grip. This case has stupendous grip if placed on the dashboard, desk or in the hand. The solid rubber form factor coupled with the “tread” on the case makes for excellent style and usefulness.

Second, if you want to dock your iPhone, the case easily slips off. You don’t have to worry about breaking the case trying to take it off (I have come across some cases that are so hard to put on or off I wonder if I will break it with my inhuman strength). So what is the down side? The case easily slip off for some. I have not encountered any problems personally, but if you are looking for a case that is affixed tightly to your phone, this is not it. It certainly protects the phone, but it is meant to be removed without a problem. I even gave the case to my wife for a test run. She placed it in her purse and let it jostle around for a while and the case did not fall off. My concerns were not validated, but still, I think it is something to make note of if you plan on purchasing this case. One other note, since it grips so well, it also grips a lot of lint, especially if you keep it in your pocket. However, since the case is easily removable, you can wash the case off with ease, no problem.

I have to say that this case design is one of my favorites for this style. It does not add a lot of thickness to the case and it looks good especially with the color options available. At such an accessible price, you can get a couple! Check the video and pictures below.

One of my favorite apps from my days using Palm OS was BugMe! Back in the day, it offered functionality that the Palm OS did not have in its Memo/Notes applications. You can pick up BugMe in the app store for a deal [$0.99 - iTunes Link]. Let’s take a look at what BugMe! For iPhone has to offer.

BugMe! is setup to have a cork board-like interface where you can stick your notes and rearrange them in any order you like.  From the launch screen you can view and rearrange your notes as you want by tapping and holding. You can tap the “New Note” button to create a new note. Once created, you have several options available to you:

• Ink or eraser
• Change ink thickness
• Change note color and add an image to the note
• Share note (email, Twitter, Home Screen, Photo Album)
• Alarm

Another nice feature is the ability to set custom alarms with push notifications. This can come in really handy if you jot down a quick note and need to be reminded later.

I  like this 1.x release of BugMe!. It is simple and fun, but lacks some features such as resizable notes (ya just can’t fit in a lot of the release given, even with a smaller ink size) and options to not size-to-fit images you place on a note. Other than that, if you are looking for a simple ink note app for your iPhone, BugMe! fits the bill! Lots of pictures after the break!

Once you downloaded and opened an issue, you are presented with a table of contents. Tap the section you want to read. Depending on the section there are links to pictures, video and font size. Rotate your device to landscape and you are given a virtual representation of the print issue. You can use the slider on the bottom to navigate. I really like this feature, you get the best of both worlds; portrait for an optimized iPhone view and rotate for magazine view.

I am impressed with this effort on the iPhone and I am looking forward to an iPad version. Check after the break for more pics!

The AT&T Navigator app and TomTom are my two favorite GPS solutions; TomTom just took the lead with this most recent update.

One of the benefits of the AT&T Navigator app was the ability to search real-time and navigate to a location via the web. Now, TomTom is bringing us that functionality via Google Local Search, and more! Here is a list of changes in the most rescent update, 1.3:

• Real-Time traffic- The best traffic information available today (an additional $19.99)
• Google Local Search- Access the latest listings from within TomTom
• The Latest Maps- The most accurate map
• Music Fading- Instead of music pausing, it fades when navigation is spoken
• Automatic Day/Night Mode- TomTom now calculates the sunrise and sunset and changes the map accordingly
• Add Locations- From other apps and websites

Rayman has to escape the evil clutches of pirates that have taken over your world. Rayman plays in a 3D environment running, jumping and shooting energy to take down foes and restore peace to the world.

From the little time I have played with the title, the graphics and frame-rate are great, as well as the music. Controls are fine but could benefit from a sliding directional pad as I often found my thumb moving out of control range.  However, I am getting used to it. If you are looking for some old-school 3D action platforming, check out Rayman 2 and let us know what you think!

Brothers in Arms 2: Global Front has is now available in the App store [$7.99 - iTunes link]. This is the sequel to 2008′s Brothers in Arms: Hour of Heroes, one of the first 3D shooters on the iPhone. The above screen shot was taken in-game and it looks amazing. There is a smooth framerate and uses Gameloft’s successful control schemes for FPSs. This is a big improvement over the first game in the series and has been well worth the wait. Some highlights include:

Battle across 5 locations: Pacific, Normandy, North Africa, Germany, Sicily.

Challenge up to 5 friends on five multiplayer maps online

Pilot 3 vehicles including the tank, off-road vehicle or glider, or gun down enemies from the vehicle or tank turret

A wide range of realistic weapons: machine guns, bazookas, sniper rifles, flamethrowers and more.

Compelling cinematic moments with more interaction between you and your squad members

Stunning graphics and authentic settings inspired by real life battlefields from WWII.

Pro HDR [$1.99 -iTunes link] is a fantastic little app that brings “>high dynamic range photography to your iPhone. The way it works is simple; Pro HDR asks you to take a photo of a “dark” part of what you are taking a photograph of, then do the same for the “light” part. Next, the app takes the two images, aligns, straightens and blends them automatically to give you a final result; it is quite clever. You also have the ability to save the photo when done, email it and adjust the subject’s brightness, contrast, saturation and warmth.

If file size is important to you, you can change whether to save as full size or a lower resolution for your library or for email. Oh, and one more thing, you can take images from your library, you don’t need to take the pictures in real-time.

I was very pleased with the results of this $1.99 app and I am sure you will too. It is a lot easier than doing it yourself! To see some great examples of what this app can do, check out their gallery.

This is how it works: You install the Zumo client on your PC or Mac. Once installed it can automatically look for your music and photo libraries. You can also add your own files and folders to sync too.

Once your data has synced to the cloud, it is accessible on your iPhone over EDGE, 3G or Wi-Fi. One nice feature I particularly like is when playing music, it displays the album art of your song; this is really a nice touch. Your data is also accessible via a web browser too when the iPhone isn’t enough. To learn more about ZumoDrive, click here. [Free- iTunes link]

For those of use that have been patiently waiting for the arrival of Gameloft’s NOVA, the day has arrived! This game looks to be the ultimate FPS for the iPhone with an unrivaled multiplayer experience. I have only had time to quickly run through the tutorial level, but so far, so good; I am hooked.

The game borrows heavily from Microsoft’s Halo franchise to create a world where the space marines fight against an alien invasion. With a solid single player campaign, online and local multiplayer (the YouTube video above shows some of the awesome multiplayer action)and leaderboards, this is a game I will be playing for a while; and just in time for the weekend! What do you think of the game? [$6.99 - iTunes link]

I know many of you have been eager to see some footage of NOVA after our preview the other day. Touch Arcade got some hands-on playtime with NOVA and all I can say in a word is: AWESOME. The gameplay is described to be very similar to Modern Combat: Sandstorm (which was listed in TiPb’s Top 5 First-Person Shooters). Controls and even difficulty will be similar except this will be a much more run n’ gun style of game over Sandstorm’s more realistic and strategic approach. NOVA will also sport Online 4 player matches too. I sure hope this plays well, the jury is out at this time.

The game is supposed to launch before holiday 2009, so we should see it very shortly. One can only hope it has been submitted to the App Store and is awaiting approval.

[via Touch Arcade]

We saw a preview of Gameloft’s N.O.V.A back at WWDC 2009 for iPhone/iPod Touch. Even then it looked suspiciously like Halo. But now, there can be no doubt in saying that Halo “unofficially” makes its way to iPhone. This teaser trailer shows a lot of video reminiscent of Microsoft’s Halo franchise. The last 50-seconds of the trailer shows actual gameplay, let’s just say that the players involved look a lot like Master Chief a military soldier and The Covenant some aliens in an intergalactic battle.

Microsoft has to take critical eye to this game as the similarities are TOO close for comfort. But, at the end of the day, I am just excited to get a Halo-like experience on my iPhone; I’m not complaining. Thank you Gameloft.

Today’s TiPb Top 5 will be directed towards our iPhone and iPod touch wielding readers who love First-Person Shooting (FPS) games. Just like our other TiPb’s top 5 must-have posts, all of these applications are available in the App Store. For the full overview, follow us after the break!

Wolfenstein 3D Platinum

Wanna kick it old, old school? Wolfenstein 3D (Wolf3D) started it all. What is great about this version of the game is that you get A LOT of levels. You get episodes 1-6 plus the Spear of Destiny add-on pack for a total of more than 60 levels. Wolf3D has customizable controls and a super-fast framerate. This is a great version of the original and a bargain price. [$1.99 - iTunes Link]

• Old school fun
• Customizable controls
• So many levels!
• Fast and smooth gameplay

DOOM Classic

Ah, DOOM — one of my all time favorites. The iPhone version is top-notch. Fast and fun. The controls have been tweaked a little more than with Wolf3D, but are similar. If you can play one, you will be instantly at home with the other. DOOM takes the Wolf3D premise and adds a grand 3D element to it. Mars is invaded by devils from hell and it is up to you to eradicate them over 36 levels. Future updates in include Doom 2 with in-app purchasing! Doom as multiplayer support over local Wi-Fi, but sadly, no online deathmatches are planned at this time. [$6.99 - iTunes Link]

• Just the way I remember it
• Customizable controls
• Fast gameplay
• Totally fun!

Eliminate Pro

One of the most anticipated apps for the App Store, Eliminate has arrived! This illustrates what mobile online multiplayer can be about. This game revolves around playing matches and winning; that simple. The catch is having “energy” when you play. If you win a match (or actually play a match) with energy you earn credits. Credits are used to buy weapons, armor and stats. After your energy is depleted, you can buy more with in-app purchasing, or wait 90 minutes (the time keeps changing as ngmoco:) finds the right balance) for a partial energy recharge. You can play over the Internet with Wi-Fi or 3G. A new map is on its way, but no word on voice chat. [$Free - iTunes Link]

• Internet multiplayer
• Upgradable weapons and armor
• Friend lists
• Private matches with friends

Call of Duty: World at War: Zombies

This game was a surprise that came out of nowhere! Like shooting zombies WWII Nazi-style? Well, look no further than Call of Duty: Zombies. You are in a room with boarded entrances. Zombies are closing in on every side. What do you do? destroy them of course! You can buy different weapons and choose from a few different control styles. This game gets tough fast, but in the end is hampered by a less-than-accurate control scheme. I have faith this will be fixed in a future update. You can play single player or multiplayer locally. Sadly there is only one map right now, but more are coming soon! [$9.99 - iTunes Link]

• Top-notch graphics
• Erie atmosphere make playing it stressful!
• Continuous onslaught of zombies to kill
• Local multiplayer

Modern Combat: Sandstorm

Looking for a FPS with a good challenge? Sandstorm will give it to ya! This is not a run n’ gun game, you have to use strategy defeat the relentless AI. This game has great controls and graphics. You can crouch, zoom, carry two different weapons plus grenades; all intuitively with fun. You are placed in the Middle East set to take down the bad guys. What is the big news about this game? There is an online update coming out before Christmas 2009 that will add  Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch modes! This looks to be an amazing addition onto an already solid single player title! [$4.99 - iTunes Link]

• Great control scheme with lots of functionality
• 10 different missions
• Great visuals  and story
• Very challenging compared to other FPSs on the App Store

Conclusion

Winner: Eliminate Pro

When TiPb posted on Mplayit, being a huge iPhone and Facebook fan, I decided to take a closer look and here’s what I found — Mplayit takes browsing and buying iPhone apps to a whole new level. Mplayit is an application on facebook, or a website on your iPhone, that allows you to find apps, read a description, rating and an iTunes link to download them. Sound familiar? There’s more, Mplayit not only does these things well, but also gives you YouTube videos of apps and ways to share the app. In facebook you can share on your wall or send a message. There are also links to share via Twitter or email. On the iPhone, you can share via the mail app.

Apps can also be added to Mplayit’s “collections” feature. Simply click the add to my collection link on your favorite app. Mplayit will also “learn” over time what apps to recommend to you based on what you add to your collection. You can search for apps by typing the name in the search box, or you can choose to look at apps based on category.

I am very excited about this new way to browse apps for your iPhone. The added value of video and wide array of sharing options along with collections make this one compelling alternative to the iTunes app store.

Have friends that don’t have an iPhone? That’s ok, word on the street says that Mplayit will be launching soon on BlackBerry and Android platforms. Check out the screenshots below for examples of the desktop app and iPhone webpage. You can read more about Mplayit on their corporate site, or on Twitter.

I had an opportunity to check out the Jabra BT2080 [$39.95 - TiPb Store link] and not only is this headset reasonably priced, but has some nice functionality too! You can check it out in the in the . Now, let’s check out why makes this headset nice!

Bluetooth headsets are a dime a dozen these days; the market is literally flooded with them. So, when given the chance to look at the Jabra BT2080, I reluctantly gave it a go. I mean, a headset is a headset right? Well, for the most part yes, but there are some things that separate this headset from the rest of the crowd. For starters, it has a dedicated On/Off button. Most headsets don’t have this feature. Instead they rely on the user holding down the talk button for 5 or more seconds. On the BT2080, you hold the power button for 2 seconds (you don’t want to accidentally turn it off after all). Next you have your standard volume controls. The volume can be controlled from the headset or the iPhone. I mention this because iPhone software 3.0 and later has rather sketchy bluetooth support and I have found some features in headsets to not work. Rest assured, everything on this headset works with the iPhone. To answer a call and end a call you can press the call button on the outside of the headset. Want to dial the last number? Double click the call button.

How do you tell if the headset is connected to a device to if the power is running low? On most headsets you have a single light that blinks or changes colors to indicate all of this information. On the BT2080, you have two dedicated lights; one for bluetooth (connected) and one for power. To turn the lights on, click the call button once quickly and they light up. Very convenient.

So, lastly let’s discuss how the headset fits and how comfortable it is and how it sounds. The good news? Well, there is no bad news! That is right, the headset is lite and gives a few fitting options; it comes with three different sizes of ear-gel inserts and two sizes of ear loops. In my opinion, once you find the ear gel that works for you, it stays in place thus eliminating the need to use the loop. Since the headset is lite, it is comfortable to wear over time. When it comes to call clarity, it sounded good, especially with the ear gel as it did not let any external sound in. As for background noise such as the window down while driving, I did not run into any real issues; people on the other line could hear me. Oh, and one more thing, there was also a good range for the headset to be away from your body without static interfering.

So, I liked this headset and was presently surprised. It is lite, has some nice functions, sounds good and is very reasonably priced. It works for me!

For those of us looking for that pinnacle action RPG for the iPhone, Ravensword: The Fallen King [$6.99 - iTunes]has been released. This game looks absolutely fantastic! I have only played this game for a few minutes (enough to leave the inn and wander the town. I will have a more thorough update later) but the controls are great and there are lots of options to tweak the performance based on your hardware.

The character and environment detail is some of the best I have seen on the iPhone. The game is similar to other games such as Oblivion in this genre. There are NPCs to interact with and several weapons and items to use. There has not been a game quite like this so far on the iPhone, so it will be exciting to see its reception in the App Store. I for one, know what I will be playing this weekend!

Oh yeah — Looks like in the near future that OnLive thing might just take off and lucky iPhone users will be able to play along with their PC gaming friends. However, many roadblocks still exist. Steve Pearlman OnLive’s CEO Says:

I’m afraid we are not announcing a date for availability of OnLive on particular cell phones just yet. We have further development to do, and we need approvals from some cell phone makers before we can release OnLive to the public. So, for now, OnLive on a cell phone is only a technology demo. But, for those of you who have been asking about OnLive on cell phones, the answer is yes, it is coming. And, it is REALLY cool.

The OnLive service will begin in Winter 2009, however they are currently looking for beta testers. You can sign up here.

[via Engadget Mobile]

Today’s TiPb Top 5 will be directed towards our iPhone and iPod touch wielding readers who love racing games, and It’s a follow up to last years TiPb Grand Prix. Just like our other TiPb’s top 5 must-have posts, all of these applications are available in the App Store. For the full overview, follow us after the break!

Real Racing

I am biased, this is without a doubt, my favorite iPhone racing game. If you like simulation-style handling in your racing games, you will love this game. There are no real cars (other than the Volkswagon GTI) or courses. However, the attention to detail in-car and on the track is the best you will see on the iPhone. Now, with a new lower price [$4.99 - iTunes Link], you can’t go wrong with Real Racing!

• 4 classes
• 12 tracks
• Local Multiplayer
• Video replays on YouTube

Asphalt 5

Looking for a deep arcade racer on the iPhone? Look no further than Asphalt 5! There are plenty of “real” cars to choose from and lots of tracks. You can earn the ability to customize the look of your car too. The action is fast and pure arcade. The graphics have a “glow” to them, literally but are still good. Looking for an adrenalin rush, this is it! [$6.99 - iTunes Link]

• Over 30 real-world cars
• 12 tracks
• 8 different racing events
• Local Multiplayer

Rally Master Pro 3D

If you like the challenge of rally racing, then this is the only rally game to get in the app store! Plenty of cars and over 27 varied tracks! The controls seemed a little sluggish to be using the accelerometer, but I got used to them. Your car takes real-world damage as you drive (in one instance my hood flew off!) and you can repair your car in-between races. The weather simulation is great in the game too; rain and snow, and a voice navigator, it’s all there! [$4.99 - iTunes Link]

• Variety of game modes
• 27 varied tracks
• Weather enhancements
• Online leaderboards

Need for Speed Undercover

NFSU was one of the first games to have “next-gen”graphics on the iPhone. These graphics still hold true today! There are some fun innovations to like a slo-mo bullet time and auto-acceleration. You have some nice customization features for your car from spoilers to ground effects, not to mention color and vinyl. There is also a storyline to keep things interesting! $4.99 – [iTunes Link]

• 20 real cars
• 8 race modes
• Performance upgrades
• Slow-motion effects

2XL ATV Offroad

Looking for something different? ATV Offroad might be for you! smooth framerate and killer graphics make this one a keeper! The standout feature in this racing game is the ability to do tricks and achievements! Tricks can be done by tilting the device forward and backward while combining 6 preset stunt moves accessible on the screen. Couple this with some local Wi-Fi multiplayer and let the good times role! [$7.99 - iTunes Link]

• 16 tracks
• Career mode with achievements
• 8 opponents on screen
• Local Multiplayer

Conclusion

All of these game are great and well worth the price of admission. However, for what it has to offer, I have to go with Real Racing as my winner this year. I prefer the “real” style of racing. Though, it is not Gran Turismo, for a mobile game it is close enough for me. If this game was not available, second place would go to Asphalt 5. NFSU is close, but Asphalt ups the anti with its Burnout-like gameplay.

Winner: Real Racing

There you have it, TiPb’s Top 5 Racing Games and our 2009 Grand Prix Winner. Did we miss any of your favorites? Overlook any killer racers? Drop us a comment and let us know your list, and your winner!

Do you use a Bluetooth headset while driving? A lot of us do. How would you like to do the same thing, but hands free with nothing in your ear? Now you can! The Blueant S1 stereo Bluetooth headset is awesome for the iPhone! you can get it in the TiPb accessory store for $59.95. Now, why would you want to do that? Because this hands-free headset rocks!

I have been using the Blueant S1 for a while now and I have to tell you it is great for so many reasons. First of all the speaker is really lightweight and small. It has a detachable clip that allows you to slip it on to a window visor in your car. if you don’t want the clip, it easily pops right off. There are only three buttons on the Blueant S1; Green for power on/off as well as activating the iPhone’s Voice Control. Green also answers your calls. Red ends a call and if you hold it down, it will dial the last phone number from the phone app.

Using Voice Control with the iPhone could not be simpler; press the green button and wait for the Voice Control prompt from the iPhone. this works like a charm. You can call anyone or play music all from the press of the green button.

Speaking of music, you can use the Blueant S1 as a standalone speaker in your car. You can use the Blueant S1 for making calla but plug in your iPhone to your csr stereo and enjoy the freedom of Apple’s Voice Control.

Outside of using the Blueant S1 as a car-based hands-free device, you can also just slip it in your bag and use it as a desktop Bluetooth speaker, or as I have, use it as a portable speakerphone! During the last month I have been away from my desk at work and have been working in random meeting rooms across campus. Not all of these rooms had phones and some of the rooms were quite large. As an iPhone owner we all know our speaker phones are not very loud, problem solved with the Blueant S1! This little guy came in handy in many of my meetings!

Personally I could not be happier with the Blueant S1. The only improvement I could suggest is a more robust speaker. The audio when playing music is tinty, but sounds great with spoken words. This device has come in handy on many occasions and I know it will for you too!

I’m a big Facebook user, and I’m guessing many of you are as well, given the interest in our Facebook for iPhone posts. Well, I was able to spend a little time with the Droid in a Verizon store on launch day, and while I wouldn’t call this a full-blown comparison, it is a quick overview of some of the similarities and differences I noticed between their Facebook applications.

The setup is a little different than the iPhone. For starters, it was reminiscent of the Palm Pre; the Droid will sync your contacts to your address book. After the initial setup, I was eager to get started using the app.

At first facebook for droid looks like its iPhone cousin; very familiar news feed page. After that however, is where the similarities start to diverge. Let us take it back a step. The facebook app has a “launcher’ page with News Feed, Friends, etc. The Droid app is missing Inbox.Yup. You read right. There is no Inbox on the Droid app. Ok, moving on…

So, like on the iPhone, the Droid shows links in posts and status updates. So, I went to click on a link one of my friend’s posted web links and it took me directly to their profile. Odd. I then tried to click on the post again and it created a vicious circle. Conclusion with links? It appears you cannot launch them from the Droid app. Hard to believe, I am sure.

I was also unable to switch between News Feed, Pages, Status Updates and custom groups I created. I am not saying there is not a way to do this, but I could not figure it out and the Verizon representative was less than helpful. It displayed News Feed in the top-right corner, but it was tiny and I could not find a way to switch with the brief amount of time I had with the device.

Oh, and one more thing: the app seems to cache really well, but also does not seem to refresh on launch; there is no refresh button and shake to refresh does not work like on the iPhone. So, I walked away unimpressed, but I can’t believe the Droid suffers from all of these short comings. I am looking forward to clarification and inquiries in the comments!

In these tumultuous times you need some sort of protector; the kind that will prevent your iPhone from flying off the seat to who knows where. What kind of protector is here to save the day? The iGrip cigarette lighter mount of course! [$19.95 - TiPb store link]

This handy mount plugs right into your existing A/C power or cigarette lighter plug. The iGrip does not charge your iPhone, rather it is a holder so you can keep the iPhone at hands-reach easily (base don car model). For me, the iGrip has worked really well. I always have my iPhone a hands-reach away, and the iGrip makes it that much easier.

The holder does an excellent job of keeping the iPhone in place while not making it difficult to remove. Say, you get a call on the road. The last thing you want to do is have a challenge removing the iPhone from the mount. Instead iGrip has developed a way in which the iPhone simply slides, or rests in place and is kept from moving by a flexible “hook” on the top left of the device. This hook is made from soft plastic and moves out of the way when you remove the iPhone. This works really well as there is no where for the iPhone to snap into place, it “rests” in place instead.

In my trials of using the iGrip mount,  I only came across two issues: 1) The mount’s close proximity to my gear shifter made it difficult shifting (yes, even in an automatic). This is not the holder’s fault, but something to keep in mind before purchase- where are you going to place this thing and will it work in the location that you find? And 2) Once the mount is in place, it really, really does not want to come out. You have to exert a sizable amount to remove the iGrip from the clutches of the cigarette adapter.

Overall I could not be happier with the iGrip 3G mount. Of course, part of me would like the same setup with power, but it would ruin the simplicity of this configuration as you would not be able to quickly remove the iPhone like you can now. If you are looking for a simple but effective iPhone holder for your car, take a look at the iGrip.

For more information, check out the TiPb iPhone Accessory store…

We have all been there. You know, our iPhone is about to die from a drained battery and no charge cable in sight. Well, the Seidio 3-in-1 Retractable Charger [$29.99 - TiPb Store link] is here to change that. The Seidio charger gives you everything you need for any portable situation. You get a USB cable that actually snaps into place (I love that. Most cables I see these days don’t actually snap in place, they just fit, but not securely) and the always capable wall charger and large grip-friendly car charger.

What really sets this charger apart from the competition is the retractability of the cable. Just like with other retractable cords, you pull on both ends and it expands. Of course, it is convenient if you have your iPhone charging on your Mac or PC to just let is sit right next to your computer without any extra cable mess.

I use my cable on the time. My day starts off with getting in the car for work (yeah, don’t use it at home, I have a cradle for that) and plugging it into the car adapter. I have a good 45 minute commute to work, so this buys me time to charge and listen to music, podcasts and audiobooks. Once I am work, I take the cable with me and charge at my desk as need. Yes, I am one of those people that if the iPhone 3GS tells me I have 96% battery, I must make it 100%.

As the day winds down, I repeat the morning process. Now you are probably thinking to yourself, “Why is this guy telling me how he carries his cable around all day?” Well, that is the point isn’t it? The fact that the cable retracts makes it super easy to pull out of my bag and stow it away. I have a separate cable I stash in my bag too, the one that came with the iPhone. Using that cable is annoying as I have to “stuff” it in my bag, where the Seidio cable retracts beautifully with no mess. I know, it is the little things. Because of its portability, this has quickly become my main cable. On the ever-so-small downside, there is not an airplane adapter. That would make this the ultimate in charger cables, but for now, Seidio will have to do with a “fav” rating from this reviewer.

If you are looking for a functional cable such as this, you can pick it up in the TiPb store for $29.95.

Check out more in the gallery below!