Apps

State of the Apps: Dev-Cash in Hand, Keywords Spammed, iBoobs banned, Approval Process Jammed

By Rene Ritchie, Sunday, Dec 21, 2008 a 3:42 pm

While many iPhone devs probably haven't struck it rich (just as many of the apps flooding the store haven't yet been strike-it-rich worthy), quality products that find an audience are still proving to be massive income sources for some developers reports ~~Fake Steve~~ Real Dan Lyons in Newsweek:

Forum Review: Frenzic for the iPhone

By Staff, Saturday, Dec 20, 2008 a 2:00 pm

Frenzic Forum Review by cjvitek (For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum!

A new game....just what the iPhone needs!

Actually, a little side note. I approach my iPhone as mostly an entertainment device. So while I will find, use (and review) useful productivity, utility, or lifestyle apps (or other categories) by far the category I am most interested in is games. I would guess that at least 70% of my downloads are games. Anyway, on to the review.

Holidaily Double Forum Review: The Weather Channel for the iPhone

By Staff, Friday, Dec 19, 2008 a 4:57 pm

The Weather Channel Forum Review by cjvitek (For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum!

Okay, I am sort of a weather junkie. I didn't used to be, but when I moved to Florida (with hurricanes), and the weather was directly related to my research activities, I became a little but of a junkie. Not as bad as some, but definitely more than most.

That's why I was a little disappointed with the iPhone default weather application. Sure, it gave you temperatures...but what if I wanted more! I tried the Weatherbug program, and that was okay...but I still found myself going to the Weather Underground site often. Then I found The Weather Channel program.

Read on for the review, after the jump!

Holidaily Double Forum Reviews: SimCity for the iPhone

By Staff, Friday, Dec 19, 2008 a 8:00 am

[Confession: I've been a little slow in getting the usual twice-weekly Forum Reviews up, and cjvitek and msbaylor, as if sensing my slacktivity level, put their production into turbo mode. So what's an editor to do? Come up with an angle, of course! So, from now until we catch up -- or I mess up again -- we'll be presenting lots more Forum Reviews. How many more? Well, we're calling it our Holidaily Double, so howzat for a clue? - Rene]

SimCity Forum Review by msbaylor. (Visit the thread for video and more pics. For more Forum Reviews see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum!

My main concern before getting this application was – would it be able to handle all the animations on the screen, or would it just be an expensive crashing app? After a brief setup and I selected the tutorial, I got a white screen. I thought this was a glitch (First thought - "NO, Not the white-screen-of-death!"), but after about 15 or 20 seconds, the main Sim-screen came up and walked me through the controls and what everything meant. That alone was very nice to have - major kudos for the help explanations.

Read on for the review, after the jump!

Konami Gets in on iPhone Gaming Action: Metal Gear Solid, Frogger, Silent Hill, and DDR!

By Jeremy, Thursday, Dec 18, 2008 a 2:00 pm

It seems to be a trend now a days, some of the top dog game developers are jumping in the ring to push some of their hotter titles onto iPhone. Electronic Arts has just released one of their most popular titles, Sim City. Now enter Konami.

Konami has just dropped a bomb on iPhone gaming with the announcement of 4 titles.

Quick App: SimCity for iPhone

By Rene Ritchie, Wednesday, Dec 17, 2008 a 4:05 pm

Concerned that you may not be wasting absolutely as much time as possible on your iPhone? Afraid you're not draining the battery as quickly as possible? Desperate to prove the iPhone really is a stop-and-use casual gaming monster to rival the DS and PSP? EA's got you covered with SimCity, the grandfather of them all.

Ready, set, build... for $9.99 at the iTunes App Store.

And when you get back to reality, let us know what you think of SimCity for the iPhone!

(Thanks to Stephen and Sol for sending this in!)

Apps for Less: Raging Thunder and BeejiveIM

By Jeremy, Wednesday, Dec 17, 2008 a 2:00 pm

Well here are two apps to pick up just in time for the holidays. Raging Thunder and BeejiveIM have just dropped in price! [iTunes links]

Raging Thunder is a game you've probably heard of before here at TiPb. It dropped in price back in October and once again it has dropped ever further to a deal you should not pass up, $1.99 for a winter blow out sale!

TiPb Video: Dropship for iPhone

By Chad Garrett, Tuesday, Dec 16, 2008 a 2:00 pm

Looking for a cool retro-arcade action title from what is shaping up to be a leading game developer/publisher on the iPhone? Than look no further than Dropship ($1.99) [iTunes Link] from ngmoco:).

Premise:

You control a "dropship". You save humans. You pick up cargo and delivery it safely. You do this in a time limit.

More after the break!

State of the Apps: Pods Streamed Not Casted, Peeps Blasted, Pull My Finger's Back!

By Rene Ritchie, Saturday, Dec 13, 2008 a 2:00 pm

Podcaster was rejected from the App Store for duplicating the (at that point upcoming) functionality of the built in iPod app. Seems like Podstreamer (Streamcaster in the Canadian store?!), however, made it in. While the two apps might not be identical, the situation does nothing to alleviate the appearance of capricious, near-random behavior from Apple's approval department. (Thanks benstinson for the tip!)

Next up, Daring Fireball reports that a CoverFlow-esque contacts app was rejected by Apple for using the private CoverFlow API.

UPDATED AGAIN: Gizmodo and Lifehacker Go Hands On with Pastebud Copy/Paste for iPhone

By Rene Ritchie, Friday, Dec 12, 2008 a 3:55 pm

UPDATED AGAIN: Pastebud founder, Jed Schmidt, via the comments, directs us back to Technologizer (see link below) for his update on what was happening:

I’ve updated this issue over at Get Satisfaction[1], but let me just summarize what exactly was going wrong: you were inadvertently forwarding your emails not to your secret pastebud address, but to the address set as the from address for these emails, which was noreply@pastebud.com.

This happened to other folks too; instead of sending email to secret-random-string@pastebud.com, they were sending to noreply@pastebud.com. And everyone who was doing this ended up sharing the same clipboard.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that we’ve fixed it, and the changed will be live by the morning.

PREVIOUS UPDATE/PRIVACY WARNING: Technologizer is showing that they're getting other people's clipboard data in their paste results, including complete emails:

Pastebud’s site addresses security, and says it’s “safe enough” for general use. Based on my experience so far, I think not! But I don’t know if I’m running into some bizarre quirk or doing something wrong, or if this is happening to everyone who’s trying Pastebud as I speak. I just know that I’ve come to the conclusion that using a Web service as a substitute for a feature that should be in a device’s OS may not be such a great idea after all.

This might be a temporary glitch on the server side, but it's a very disturbing glitch and one that might just be a deal-breaker for the security and privacy concerned.

Original post after the break...