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

With all the talk recently about Peggle, I was surprised that it hasn't been reviewed (although it did get a "quick app" and a pick of the week) so I thought I would download and give it a try. And, well, Peggle has managed to crack my "regular game rotation" that currently consists of only a few other games.

Let me start by saying that as Peggle loads, they took a page from The Sims and actually make you want to read the loading messages.

Peggle is a game based on skill and luck, similar to Pachinko. Your goal is to shoot balls into a pachinko-style board with "pegs", trying to remove all the orange pegs and blocks within a certain number of shots. You can have various power up abilities, lucky shots or skill shots increase your score, and you can earn extra balls by "saving" your ball as it falls or by scoring a certain number of points within a shot. The enjoyment on Peggle comes from two main factors in my mind - the various power up abilities and the variety of boards.

If you start playing in adventure mode, you are led through the game by ten "masters", each of whom has a different power up ability. As they guide you through the game, they teach you the details and the best ways to use their abilities. Once you finish with them, you go back through the same levels with the option of choosing the power up ability you want for each board.

The second biggest positive from the game is the variety of boards. You start off with a simple pachinko style board, but they gradually become more and more complex - with bumpers, with moving parts, with time warps, etc. Each level has specific characteristics that make it challenging, so no two levels will be played the same way. As your progress through the adventure mode, you get various trophies to add to your collection (I am currently running through them the second time in "Master" mode).

There are other game modes as well. Quick play lets you choose a level to play by itself. Challenge mode lets you play a specific levle with a specific challenge (beat a certain number of points, more orange pegs than normal, etc). And dual mode is a two play battle where you play on the same board against either the computer or a friend. Unfortunately, the dual mode is a "pass the iPhone" multiplayer so you can't play via wifi. I was also hoping to see a direct battle where you are both shooting balls at the same time (and can interfere with each other) but that doesn't happen.

Let me just add, when you finish a level, they play Ode to Joy. There nothing quite like having that blast from your iPhone to actually make you feel like you have accomplished something! The game can be replayed multiple time because the placement of the orange pegs (as well as the various power-up and other pegs) are randomized so your strategy can vary even when replaying the same level!

Conclusion

All in all, this is really a great game. Aside from the few minor wishes I had for multiplayer, I could find nothing wrong with this game, and it has "earned" a spot on my permanent rotation of games. At $4.99, the price isn't cheap, but it is well worth it for a game that can be played over and over.

Pros:

• Good puzzle/arcade game
• Involves strategy and luck
• Lots of replay-ability
• Has a two player mode
• Multiple play modes

Cons

• Two player mode is only "pass the iPhone", no wifi

TiPb Review Rating

[Peggle is available for $4.99 via the iTunes App Store]

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

Photogene is an iPhone "touch up" utlity that can be used to touch up or enhance photos you take with your iPhone.

First, what Photogene isn't. It isn't simply a series of filters that you can apply to photos. There are lots of apps out there that can apply a huge range of filters (oil painting, cartoon, black and white, sepia, posterize, etc). I have reviewed a couple of them. This app does have a few filters, but it is more about touching up photos (fine-tuning them, if you will) rather than simply applying a filter to make it "art".

When you start the app, you can choose to take a new photo, edit an existing phot, or continue a previous session. This last option is particularly nice, it means the app "remembers" where you were and what you were doing. If you get interrupted, you don't need to start over. One cool little thing is when you start the app, a "tip of the week" appears about taking photos with the iPhone. Normally I don't like tips that appear like this, but I like it here because the tip is specific to using the iPhone camera (not just a general photography tip).

I was using a general photo of some mosquito cages when testing this app. The touch up features include a crop option, rotate option, three filters, color adjust, symbols, and frames. When you finish with your editing, you can save the photo or start over (take a new photo or edit a new photo). There is an undo button to undo the last edit, but there isn't a complete "reset" button to undo all adjustments. I would like to see that in a future release. So let's talk about the touch up features.

With the crop feature, you can choose to crop it with a specific ratio (3:4, 9:16, etc). The area that will be cropped appears highlighted on the picture, and you can resize it or move it around. One nice thing is that as your resizing the crop, you can see the pixel size that the new image will be - very useful. You can't do a free-form crop however.

The rotate allows you to rotate the picture by 90% or flip the picture on an axis. If your image is at an angle, you can also do some slight angle adjustments to make it level.

The app comes with three filters - sharpen, pencil, and effect (which includes sepia, night vision, or infrared (heat vision). With sharpen and pencil, you can adjust the level of effect as well. Pencil is sort of cool, making your picture look like a pencil drawing. But as I said, this app isn't about having 30 filters - it is mostly about touching up photos to make them as nice as possible.

Next we move onto color adjustment. Here, you can see the color histogram and either adjust it manually or automatically for the best color image. You can also adjust the exposure, contrast, saturation, color temperature, as the actual RGB levels. These are, in my opinion, the best features of this app because this is the area that really helps you touch up a picture to optimal quality.

You can add symbols like stars, word ballons (with text), arrows - about 13 symbols in all. These aren't anything really that help the picture, but they can make a picture a little more entertaining.

Lastly, you can add a frame - ranging from a "blurred" frame that doesn't have a distinct edge to more tradition picture frames to a stamp border or photo album "taped on the corners" frame. There are about 15 frames in all to choose from.

Working on a couple sample pictures, I was able to make some nice adjustments and really make some of the pictures shine. You are still working within the limitation of the iPhone camera, so pictures that are outdoors or in bright light are going to be the best, but you can really enhance some pictures that you might have throught were lost. The features like frames and symbols aren't really that necessary, and I would have preferred more filters instead of having those, but they can be fun to add to some pictures.

Pros:

• Touch up iPhone pictures to make them shine

Cons:

• Some features don't really add anything,
• no ability to completely reset a picture

All in all, this is a good, all around photo touch up tool for the iPhone. Rather than just rely on applying filters, you can make some manual adjustments to thingsl ike saturation and exposure to try to bring out the best in your pictures. Some of the effects don't really add anything to the picture quality, but they might be fun to include in some pictures. There is no way to remove all the touchups at one, however - you have to reset each feature individually. But the color adjust can really make a picture shine. The app is $2.99, so the price is great if you use the iPhone camera a lot. Four and a half out of five stars.

TiPb Forum Review Rating

[http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=309327900&mt=8">Photogene is available for $2.99 via the iTunes App Store]

(MLB At Bat 2009 Forum Review by cjvitek For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!)

Okay, I admit it, I am a die hard baseball fan. One of the first apps I bought last year was MLB At Bat, and when I heard it was coming out again, after a brief period of annoyance, I decided to purchase it again.

On a side note, I expect to see many more subscription based or "partial" purchase based apps with the new pricing methods in the app store. I don't think it bodes well.

But anyway, I decided to get the app when I saw that this year it included the MLB Audio - radio broadcasts of the games. As a bonus, you get to choose the stream to listen to!

So how does it stack up?

I must say, very well.

When you start the app, you are presented with a screen showing the days games. The current score and inning are listed, and if you click on a game, you get a short highlight summary at the bottom of the screen (how many outs, who is pitching and batting, on base, etc). You can scroll through the various games. When a game is highlighted, you can click on "audio" and choose from either of the teams radio stream to listen to the game. Unfortunately, you can't have it in the background (curse you iPhone) so you need to stay in the application in order to listen to the stream. If you click the blue arrow, you are taken to what I call the "game" menu.

The game menu is broken down into a variety of screens. The first one, gameday, shows you the current batter, pitch by pitch (with location) action of what is going on. You can also see the fielding situation (including dimensions for each stadium), the box score, the game summary, and of course video highlights (just like last year) by selecting the various tabs at the bottom. The video highlights are supposed to be better quality this year, but I always look at them when I am connected via wifi, so I have no problem with the quality. I wish they had more highlights to choose from (it seems that they are moslty focused on big hits). The video is not HD quality or like watching a movie, but it certainly is okay to watch for a ten-second highlight.

Back on the main screen, there is an additional button for "extras". With Extras, you can look at additional MLB videos (like "A look at the ballparks of the last decade" and fantasy updates"). You can also look at the up to date standings, legal information, or be taken to the MLB.com website in safari. I wish they have other information like leaderboards, player stats, matchup information. It is all available at MLB.com, but I would think it would be easy to have it in the app itself (especially since if you leave the app, the audio stream is lost).

Out of curiosity, I tried watching the game-day play by play, watching a game on TV, and listening on the radio, just to see how it synced up. The radio had the longest lab, the TV was the fastest, but evne then it was only about one pitch behind.

Pros:

• Audio!
• Gameday effects are nice,
• lots of options for "in game" status

Cons:

• Lacking some basic statistical information,
• some video highlights seem to be sparse (for some teams)

Conclusion

All in all, for baseball fans on the road, this is almost a must-have app. The price ($9.99) is not cheap, but it is very reasonable compared to what they charge for Gameday audio online. I wish they have video highlights for every half inning or so, rather than just having (at times) one or two per game. I also wish they have more reference and statistical information. But this is a great app for following a team when you are on the road - just make sure you have your car charger! Most of the stuff I found lacking were things that don't really detract from the app, but rather things that would put the app over the top.

TiPb Forum Review Rating

[MLB At Bat 2009 is available via the iTunes App Store]

Flight Control Forum Review by cjvitek For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!

Ever want to be a flight controller? The most stressful job (so I hear) ever? Well, if you want the fun, but don't want the stress, Flight Control is the game for you.

With Flight Control, you play a flight controller who needs to guide planes in for a safe landing. You have two runways (red and yellow) and one helicopter pad (blue). As planes fly in, they are either red or yellow, indicating which runway they need to land on (helicopters can only land on the pad). Your job is to guide the planes to the appropriate runway while avoiding in-air collisions.

Sounds easy, right? Sure it is...when there are only one or two planes coming in at a time. But as time progresses, more and more planes enter the playing field, increasing the risk of close calls and collisions.

The process of guiding a plane is very simple. Simply tap the plane, and slide you finger along the path you want the plane to take. As you are creating the path, it appears as a dotted line. When you lift you finger, the planes path is "set", and it starts to follow it. Need to adjust a path? Just tap the plane and slide your finger to create a new path. Not sure you know where you want the plane to go? Draw it flying in circles or a big loop, and then come back to it later. Don't forget about a plane though! If a plane finished it's path and hasn't landed, it just keeps flying straight (pilots are sort of dumb like that).

This game is really sort of cool, and there aren't any other games out there like it. The controls are very easy, making good use of the touch screen. The game warns your of potential collisions and incoming aircraft (which are offscreen so you can't see them). As with most games, I wish there were some sort of multiplayer or competitive option, but the game can get pretty hectic on it's own. The game's difficulty increases quickly - one or two planes on the screen is fine, but with 5 or 6 planes it can be very difficult to keep track of them all.

I would love to see some different "airport" options - different layouts of runways and helicopter pads, so you could choose which airport you wanted. This would also be a good way to allow different difficulty levels. But the included airport is fun. The stats page gives you a nice rundown of your performance, including your average score, the most planes on the screen at one time, you highest score, etc.

Pros:

• New game concept,
• easy game play

Cons:

• No multiple airports

Conclusion

All in all, this is a fun little game. It takes the iPhone and brings a new game concept to it (at least a concept I haven't seen before). The game design is perfect for the iPhone. At $.99 (current grand opening sale) the game is a must try. The normal price is probably going to be $2.99, and even at that price it is worth it.

TiPb Forum Review Rating

[Flight Control is available via the iTunes App Store]

Pre-School Pals and My Beagle Kiddies' Corner Forum Reviews by cjvitek. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!

Pre-School Pals

You remember those old flip books where you could mix and match the head, body, and legs from various animals and such? Well, preschool pals with Henry and Hailey takes this idea and turns it in to an app for kids on the iPhone.

When playing this app, the first thing you can do is go through and look at the various "preschool pals" as they are supposed to appear. They include things like a fireman, policeman, robot, ballerina, etc. You can look at each image, and hit the play button to have each one say something (just a sentence or two). Keep reading Pre-School Pals Forum Review...

My Beagle

My Beagle is a "create a dog" app aimed at young kids. The concept of this app is simple - you can create a picture of a dog with various...accessories (for lack of a better word) from a wide list of options. Starting the app is simple - you simply click on the play button and get brought to a blank slate with a generic beagle image. From there, using the dial on the left, you can choose various accessories or attributes - collars, food bowls, background, eye shape, etc. You get to design a beagle to your liking.

When creating your masterpiece, you choose each of the categories of accessory, and then can choose from different images by sliding a button left or right to show the options. For example, with background images, you can choose from some butterflies, some birds, some trees, etc. The wide variety of options means that there are plenty of ways to create a unique masterpiece on your iPhone. Keep reading My Beagle Forum Review...

[Ed: iProRecorder is Currently on sale for $1.99 in the iTunes App Store - Rene]

iProRecorder Forum Review by cjvitek For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!

Recorder apps are a popular sub-group of apps, and each of them seems to offer a slight variation on the same overall theme. Depending on what you are looking for in a recording apps (ease of use, a large number of features, online synching, etc) different recording apps are going to be good or bad. iProRecorder is an app the focuses more on features that speed of use, but the features is has are quite nice.

When you first start the app, you are presented with the recording page. To record a memo, you hit the small red record button in the middle of the page. For people (like myself) who want to have an large, easy to hit button, the relative small size of this button may be difficult to get used to.

iProRecorder offers a large array of features when recording a memo - including timed recording, appending on to the end of a recording, different playback speeds, different recording qualities, volume boosting for low volume recordings, categorizing recordings, etc. In fact, there are really too many features to go into detail in this review - suffice to say there are lots of options to customize any recording you make.

Once you make a recording, you can classify it in a category, edit the title, add a photo to the description, and sending the recording via email. In addition, there is a wifi sync option to download recordings to your computer. One interesting thing that is available - you can hide specific memos from web sharing. This means you can select a specific memo, have someone else access it on their computer, and hide all your other memos so the person can't download them. I couldn't find any option to automatically "hide all" or "reveal all" so you need to go through memo by memo to access this feature.

The voice quality of the recorder is very nice. I like the option of choosing between different recording qualities. Bad quality for just a short quick memo, good quality for something I may want to post for my students to listen to. I also really like the timed recording option - you can set the timer to record for a specific length of time. I find this particularly useful for long recordings (like a lecture), because I will often forget to stop the recording once the lecture is over. You can also enable a quick 3 second countdown to recording so that you can start a memo and thant put the iPhone down (without getting a big "clunk" on the recording).

The app comes with a detailed guide that goes over each of the various settings, which is useful because some of them may not be that intuitive. I wish more apps came with instructions like this. One thing you can do from every screen in the app is access the recording button (the microphone) to start a new recording. This is especially nice, because I have found it is easy to "get lost" in the screens on many apps, something that this apps tries to avoid.

The features this recorder offers are very nice, and they allow you to adjust a wide range of settings. You can't edit a recording once it is made (it would be nice to be able to cut out or crop a recording) but that might be asking too much. If you are looking for a full featured recording app with good sound quality, this app may fit the bill. On the other hand, if you just want something to be able to record a quick memo - this app may not be focused on ease or speed of use.

Pros:

• Good quality,
• lots of features,
• wifi sync

Cons:

• Record button is a little small

Conclusion

All in all, this is a great recording app for managing your recordings, and has some nifty features for sharing recording, as well as modification when you initially make your recording. However, for people who just want to record a quick note, it might be too much. For people that are looking for a more detailed, "business" type recorder, this fits the bill pretty well. At $1.99, the price isn't bad (although it may be going back up to $4.99)

Forum Review Rating

[iPodRecorder is available via the iTunes App Store]

School of Rock Forum Review by cjvitek For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!

School of Rock (hypothetically based on the movie of the same name) is an app that tries to teach you the ins and outs of music. You progress through a series of "schools" - school of drums, school of guitar, school of keyboard, etc.

Overview

Each of the schools tries to teach you about the specifics of that type of instrument. In each school you progress through a series of excercises, first testing you ability to recognize various cords or note combinations, then testing your ability to play back a series of notes or music (or timing of your playing). Eventually you move on to answer some trivia questions. Going through these trials, you gather points based on your performance. As you accumulate enough points, you unlock the various other schools (you starts with drums, school of bass is the most advanced).

The program also features a "jam" session in the playground, where you can play along with songs inlcluded in the app, or songs from your iTunes library. Unfortunately, you can only play percussion instruments in the jam session - I would have liked to see the ability to play strings, keyboard, or the bass with them. One cool feature is that you can record your jam session, and then listen to it in playback.

I really liked the tutorial features in this game. Rather than just giving you instructions, each help section (for each school and for the playground) provides a short video detailing how to play in each category. I like the video tutorials, it really helps to clarify some things. However, the game assumes a lot of knowledge already. It throws you in the deep in when it comes to trying to recognize cords, for example. There is no information on how to recognize cords or distinguish them from one another, so it was mostly guess work. The trivia also seems rather random, without some knowledge of music and the music industry, I found myself guessing at most of the trivia questions.

It would be nice if you could have difficulty settings, allowing you to choose what difficulty or background you have in music. That way, you could really tailor the program to your ability.

Pros:

Nice inclusion of the jam session, some of the instruments can be fun to play

Cons:

Doesn't "teach" you enough, limited instruments in the jam session

Conclusion

All in all, I have mixed feelings about this app. I think it is well designed and can be fun, but it wasn't really what I was looking for. I was looking for something that would both teach me about music as well as enable me to play along and "jam" to some music. The app offers a little of both of those, but not to the degree that I was looking for. In addition, it seems to assume that you have a lot of prior knowledge about music, instruments, and the music industry. It was fun, but the best feature was the jam session (playing percussion along with my iTunes songs). It is currently only $.99, so it could be worth picking up if it sounds interesting. I give it three and a half out of five stars, mostly because I felt it was a little too difficult for my music background and I was guessing a lot during the various schools.

TiPb Forum Review Rating:

[School of Rock is available via the iTunes App Store]

eMees Avatar Creator Forum Review by cjvitek For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!

I have a Wii, and one of the most enjoyable things (surprisingly) that I do with the system is created the Miis. And now, Mii creation comes to the iPhone!

eMees is a tool to create avatars for the iPhone. Once you create an avatar, you can save it to your photo roll, and you can even assign it to one of your contacts as their photo! As someone who doesn’t have any photos associated with contacts, this is a nice feature to have!

The concept behind eMees is the same idea as creating a Mii on the Wii. You choose various features – like head shape, hair pattern, eyes, lips, eyebrows, etc) to combine into a face. You can also adjust the color, and for some items (like nose, eyes, eyebrows) you can adjust the size, orientation, and horizontal or vertical position. Combine these features and you have a lot of flexability in creating an avatar, and as you practice and get more talented, you can get quite good at creating avatars that start to look like the intended target!

One additional feature this program has is called the pose option. You can take you avatar and put them into one of three pre-determined posed (sledding, skateboarding, or typing). Unfortunately those are the only poses that are offered – hopefully more will be included in future updated.

I had one major issue with this program. The primary issue was the speed. The interface is very slow….very veryslow. It takes a while to load, and then it takes a long time to flip between the various avatar options as well. In fact, the delay almost makes the program unusable in my opinion. The delay is especially pronounced when you are flipping between the various options for each facial feature – the different hair styles for example, or the different eye glass options.

The only other concerns I had with this app is a minor one – the difficulty of using an avatar outside of the app. I would have thought that when you save an avatar, you would have the option of saving it as a contact photo, or in your photo roll. But when you save it, it enters the eMees gallery. From there, you then need to select it again tothen save it as a contact photo. It seems like the additional step of requiring you to save it first in the eMees gallery is not needed.

You also don’t have any option within the app to email an avatar to anything – you need to save it as a photo, then go out, look at the photo, and then email it to someone.

Pros:

• Fun way to design avatars for your contacts

Cons:

• Limited poses,
• program is much too slow,
• using avatars in contacts is needlessly convoluted

Conclusion

All in all, this is a pretty well designed program. The options to create the avatars are rather full featured, and the ability to use the avatars as a contact ID is great. However, the program is much, much to slow and I got frustrated many times while trying to use it because of the lag. The price is currently $.99, down from $2.99, so you may want to jump on it now, and hope future updates improve the speed problems. As the lag really impacts the usability of the program, I am giving the app only three out of five stars. If future updates improve the speed issues, than it will really be worthwhile application.

Forum Review Rating

[Monopoly is available from the iTunes App Store.]

Monopoly - Here and Now Edition Forum Review by cjvitek For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum!

Monopoly is a classic game, and it was just a matter of time until it appeared on the iPhone. I remember playing this in the summers with my sister when we were out of school. We would get games that lasted months as we would finally run out of money in the bank!

So finally Monopoly comes to the iPhone! The game is visually appealing, and is based on the Monopoly: Here and Now version with updated locations, dollars amount, and random cards. There is a lot of animation in the game, including rolling the dice, moving the pieces, and various cut scenes while running the app. That graphics are nicely done, and there was only a little stutter now and then with the animation sequences.

The game can be played over wifi, but internet play is not yet available. You can, however, play with multiplayer on the same iPhone. When creating a new game, you can set various game options, including some standard variations on the rules like landing on Go gives you a double paycheck, or all tax money goes to free parking. You choose a token for yourself (new, updated tokens), the difficulty level, and the number of players, and go ahead and start.

The in-game controls are fairly easy to use, but they can get a little cumbersome. I prefer that the controls are easily laid out, however, instead of being hidden or confusing. It is relatively easy to scan the board, scroll through the various title deeds to see who owns what. You are presented with action "tiles" at the bottom of the screen that enable all your actions - including purchase property, manage properties, buy houses, and trade.

I was pleased to see that setting up a trade is pretty straighforward, as is building houses and hotels. You can also change the house rules during the game if you like.

The AI seemed pretty good, I was mostly testing it at the medium difficulty setting. When you start a game, there is a nice help section that leads you through the game the first few times you try something. I couldn't find any way to turn off the help, so I got the help tutorial each time I played a game. This got a little annoying. It would also be nice to be able to turn off animations in order to speed the game up a little bit.

One thing I wish they had was the ability to choose your game board. With all the variations of Monopoly out there (Simpsons, Star Wars, Classic, etc) it would be nice to have various "skins" that you could apply.

Also, the "auction" rules seem a little odd. You are presented with a turn by turn auction, with each player taking turns to place bids. I don't know why they didn't implement a real auction for unpurchased properties (or even better, have an potential in-house rule to disable the auction).

Pros:

• Nice customization options with the "house rules",
• easy to play

Cons:

-Only one "skin", - no ability to turn off help or animation

Conclusion

All in all, this is a nicely designed game, that is pretty straightforward and easy to play. The various options and settings are nice. It's fun to play as well, and is currently on sale for $4.99.

Forum Review Rating

[Monopoly is available from the iTunes App Store.]

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

Game time! Topple is a quick, tower building game that is theoretically simple yet surprisingly addictive.

The goal of Topple is simple - build a tower to a goal line without having it fall down.

Sounds simple enough...especially in the first few levels when you have pieces that look like they belong in Tetris. However, as the levels progress, the pieces get more and more complex - including small octagonal pieces, pieces that have triangular sides, etc. Added is the fact that as your progress, the "base" upon which you build your tower is no longer flat, and the goal line is farther away.

Well, suffice to say, I found myself yelling at my iPhone a few times..."No, no, lean this way, no, don't fall!!......$%@#$". I got a few strange looks.

The game's graphics are nice, nothing too complex. The different pieces have faces on them, and respond to being moves and rotated. The sound is a simple background music which fits nicely, along with popping sounds when placing the pieces. It would have been fun to hear the pieces grunt or groan when they are being moved or are in the tower, but it doesn't detract from that game itself.

The controls are simple. You tap and slide a piece to move it. To rotate, you tap and hold, using another finger to "spin" the piece into the correct orientation. One thing I found out the hard way is that it does make use of the accelerometer - tilting the iPhone will tilt the tower (which can help, or hinder your cause).

The game play itself is one of two modes. There is a "levels" mode, where you progress through levels that get more and more difficult (I have yet to make it past level 6, although I have a new strategy I am going to try tonight.) There are nine levels listed - I am not sure if there are more levels, since as I said, I am currently stuck on level 6.

There is also a free play mode, where you just try to build a tower as tall as you can. There is a training tutorial mode as well, to help cover the basics of game play. The tutorial mode is nice because it is interactive; you aren't just reading or watching a video.

On the main menu, there is an option to "challenge" someone - basically send them an email with your high score and challenging them to beat it. I am not sure how I feel about this. Basically, they are trying to get you to be a commercial - tell others about the game. But there is no real reason to tell others - you can't directly compare scores, you can't go head to head, so what's the point?

A multiplayer mode is something that would push this game over the top. I can imagine going head to head against someone, watching their tower go up as your tower starts to fall. Or playing a turn based game, with each person putting one block on and then letting the other person go. Unfortunately there is no multiplayer option - something that I think is far too common in many of the games. Common - with 10 million iPhones in the US alone, surely multiplayer games are the way to go!!

You can keep track of your various achievements, such as the "Barely Award" or the "Flat Trick". Other achievements are hidden until you can unlock them - just a little incentive to try to play more and more.

Pros:

• Fun,
• addictive,
• easy to learn and play

Cons:

• No multiplayer

Conclusion

All in all, this is a fun game, which is now free (why does that always seem to happen to apps I buy?!?). It is easy to learn, easy to play, and hard to put down - a great combination. If it had a multiplayer mode, I would give it 5 stars, but instead I am giving it four and a half out of five (plus the attempt to get you to advertise for them annoyed me a little bit).

Forum Review Rating

[Topple is available from the iTunes App Store.]

AllRecipes.com DinnerSpinner by cjvitek For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum!

Hey, let's use Urban Spoon to pick a restaurant to go to.

Nah, I want to cook tonight. Let's use DinnerSpinner!

DinnerSpinner is an app based on the same idea as Urban Spoon. It let's you spin (or shake the iPhone) to choose various criteria to match recipes. You can match recipes based on three categories: dish type (main course, bread, cookies, dessert, etc), ingredients (beef, chocolate, fruit, legumes, etc), and preparation time (less than 20 minutes, slow cooker, over an hour, etc). Based on the criteria you "spin" (or select manually) you will get a variety of matching recipes to look through.

Now, before I go any further, yes, sometimes you may get something like "slow cooking cookies made with beef" - and you won't get any matches.

So once you get your matches (in my example, I am using desserts with fruit in 45 minutes or less) you then hit the button to see your recipe matches. In my example, I got 45 matching recipes. You are taken to a page that shows the recipe name, the reviews (presumably from Allrecipes.com), who submitted the recipe, and a quick, two or three sentence description of the recipe. It also shows a picture of the recipe, which can be nice. To go to the next option, just swipe the screen.

Note, recipes are not exclusive. In my example, I got many recipes that were cookies, even though I had chosen dessert (not cookies) as the dish type. I also got recipes that included chocolate as a ingredient - so recipes are cross listed, which is nice to know.

If you see a recipe you like, you can choose to send it to someone via email (with the share button). You can also click on the "view recipe/reviews" to see the recipe or read the reviews. I like the fact they have various reviews of the recipe - you can read what other people thought about it.

The recipe itself includes a list of ingredients, the "summary" you read when scanning the recipes, how many servings and how long it takes, and the directions for cooking. Since the recipes are submitted by people, my guess is that the quality of directions may vary somewhat. You also get the nutritional information, and the "file" ends with some of the reviews of the recipe. If you want to read more that the first ten reviews, or you want to browse more recipes, there is a button at the bottom of the page to go to Allrecipes.com directly.

Please note, you are accessing the internet when using this app, so you need to have a data connection - the recipes are not downloaded onto your phone until you look at it. I am not sure how many recipes are found at AllRecipes.com, but in what I thought was an obscure category (bread made with veggies in 45 minutes or less) I found 20 recipes, so my guess is there are a fair number of options.

Some problems with the app. First of all, you can't "lock in" a category. If you want to cook dinner, for example, you might want to lock in "main course" as the dish type. Or if you have a pound of ground beef, you might want to lock in "beef" as an ingredient.

Also, you can't choose multiple items within a category. For example, you can't look at main courses made with fish or pork, it is only one or the other. Lastly, there is no way to simply browse through all the recipes (either in all groups, or within a category - browsing all pork recipes, for example). IMO, these are pretty important things for a cook book or recipe bank to allow. The concept of "spinning" is fun to play with, but a really useful cookbook should allow these various changes.

Pros:

• Fun way to approach a cookbook,
• lots of recipes available

Cons:

• No ability to limit options or to choose multiple options

All in all, I think this is sort of a fun app to use. It adds a little variety and fun to choosing a recipe to use, although I really think being able to "lock" a category is essential. There are a wide range of choices for the categories, so you can be very specific (if you want) about what you want to cook. This app is free, so if it is something you think you might want to try, give it a shot!

Forum Review Rating

[AllRecipes.com DinnerSpinner is available from the iTunes App Store.]

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

Okay, I have never used a sniping service on Ebay, but I hear they are very popular. So when I saw this AppSniper program, I thought I would give it a look see.

And my first impression was...interesting.

The AppSniper program is designed to track prices of applications that you are interested in, but that cost too much. You get to input a "desired" price, and if/when the app reaches that price, you are notified.

First things first, this does NOT run in the background, so you will not received a notification that the app has reached the snipe price unless you run the program and allow it to sync with the servers. Repeat, you won't be notified while going about your normal iPhone activities.

That is a serious limitation, but it is not unique to AppSniper. No programs are allowed to run in the background, so there is no point in crying over spilled milk.

When you start the app sniper program, it syncrhonizes any updates (on apps or prices) with your iPhone from it's servers. That way you are guaranteed to have the most recent prices and apps listed.

The AppSniper program has 4 screens - an "on sale" screen", a "new programs" screen, your appsnipe list, and the configuration screen. You select a screen by tapping an icon at the bottom of the screen. The icons at the bottom of the screen also display a notification of how many apps are either newly on sale, new, or meet your snipe criteria.

The on-sale screen let's you see the various apps that have gone down in price over the last 2 days (divided up by 24 hours, 1 day ago, and 2 days ago). When you see an app of interest on the list, you can click on it to read the app summary. You can choose to purchase the app right away, or you can choose to add it to your app snipe list (more on the list later).

The second screen is a "new apps" screen - or apps that have appeared within the last 24 hours. Just like the sale apps, you can choose to purchase the new apps right away, or add them to your snipe list.

The third screen is the snipe list, and this is where it gets interesting. When a program is added to the snipe list, you can set a price at which you would purchase the program - the snipe price. It can be any incremental value all the way down to free. If an app meets your target price on the snipe list, the price and "buy" button is highlighted green. If the current price is still to high, it is red.

When you click on the "buy" button, it takes you to the appstore page with that program. You can then choose to purchase or not. To add an app directly to the snipe list, you simply click the "+" button, then start typing the app name. This will go through the entire app list linking any apps that match the name you are typing. Once you find the app, you can select it, add it to the list (selecting your snipe price).

The last screen is options/configuration screen. It allows you to turn on/off the use of 3G/Edge (the default is off, so it only uses wifi). You can also turn off the icons in the app lists (faster loading), change your currency, and filter through the various genre of apps (for example, turning off books if you never want to download an ebook).

This program is great, however there are some problems with it (both big and small). The first problem is that you can only have 32 apps on your snipe list. Maybe 32 is plenty for most people, but there are many more apps that I am interested in purchasing. If there is some sort of system limit of 32 apps, it would be nice to be able just to create a "list of interest" (not actual sniping list) that includes apps you might be interested in purchasing at some future date - maybe with an indication as to the most recent price change (down or up). Some sort of log of the apps purchased and downloaded would also be great.

The second issue is that if you click on the buy button within the snipe list, the app is not removed from your snipe list. After you purchase the app, you still have to go back and manually delete it from your list! Some sort of automatic deletion (or at least asking you the next time you start the app if you want to remove app XXXX) would be beneficial.

The third issue I have with this app is that there is no ability to manually sync with the server. This is a minor issue, since the chance are that syncing when you start the program is sufficient, but it would be nice to have the option of syncing manually.

The biggest problem I had, however, was the method of searching for apps. It is great that the apps with reduced prices and any new apps are listed separately, but there is no further way to refine searches. It would be great to include the top ten downloads or the top ten apps in each category. The filters to exclude apps does not work when searching the app store. I turned on various filters, and still had apps within those categories listed. I even went so far as to turn on ALL the filters (excluding all apps)...but my search list still included all apps in the app store. The filters DID exclude various apps from the "on sale" and "new app" lists, but that was it. Without a better way to refine or organize searches for apps, this program is not as beneficial as I would have hoped. I would love to be able to simply browse the various categories without looking for a specific app, in case I see something that interests me (and thus want to purchase it or add it to my snipe list). Right now, that is not an option.

Another problem with the snipe list - if a program is on your snipe list at a certain price, you don't have the option of buying it even if it goes does in price (but doesn't reach your snipe). In fact, you can't even see if it has decreased from the original price offering at all!

Lastly, it would be nice to have a notification number on the App icon on the iPhone home screen. True, it isn't going to change since the program doesn't run in the background, but it would be nice to be reminded that I have 3 (or 4, 5, or however many) apps that currently meet my snipe criteria.

Pros:

• Good idea,
• nice interface to monitor app prices

Cons:

• Search methods need lots of work,
• only can list 32 apps,
• many minor tweaks to the application needed

Conclusion

All in all, I think this is a great idea for a program, and as it currently stands, it certainly has its strong points. As the app points out, it could easily save you the purchase price if you are able to purchase one or two apps cheaper than they are currently priced. Given the limitation of the iPhone (no background services) which is no fault of the app, this app does it's job reasonably well. However, it is lacking in some areas which prevent it from getting a very high rating. The search mechanism is limiting, and there is no automatical removal of apps when you purchase them. At $1.99, the app is certainly not overpriced, and I think it could be useful to many people. But the flaws it has (some of which are rather major, IMO) prevent it from getting a very high rating.

Forum Review Rating

[Pocket Tunes Radio is available from the iTunes App Store.]

Update

Some of my issues have been addressed in an update to the app (like the limit of 32 apps on the snipe list, and the inability to purcahse apps even if they don't meet your snipe price).

Pocket Tunes Radio Forum Review by cjvitek For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum!

Coming from a Palm Zire/Treo background, I am familiar with Pocket Tunes (or Ptunes) - the default media and streaming audio player that came with both my Zire 72 and my Treo 680. So when Pocket Tunes came out with a streaming audio player for the iPhone, I said sure, I will review it.

Just a quick note, Ptunes (as I will refer to it) does not actually play media files on the iPhone - that is the exclusive domain of the iPod aspect of the iPhone (don't touch Steve's dock!). But it does act as a streaming media player. Also, although I briefly used a few of the other streaming media players for the iPhone, I haven't used them exclusively - so I won't be comparing Ptunes to those, but instead looking at Ptunes by itself.

Ptunes starts you off with a genre list of streaming music - Country, Funk, Comedy, Metal, etc. When you choose a genre, you are then presented with a list of stations in that genre to choose from. In the 5 days that I have had this program, the station list has been updated twice, so I think they will update the list fairly frequently. One thing I liked is that they include a featured, aacplus, and hi speed network stations as categories. I do wish they included a few more - like sports talk, for example.

One problem I had was there was no description of the radio stations themselves. For some stations, it was obvious where they were from, but some stations just included the call letters, so you don't know where it is broadcasting or in some cases, the content of the radio station. As I said, I wish they broke down the "other" or the "talk" categories more - maybe sports, news, politics, etc. Simply listing radio stations under talk doesn't really tell you what kind of talk radio there is.

On the bottom of the screen, there is a tab for favorites - you can add favorites to this list, including stations that may not be listed. You can also use the "search" tab to search for radio stations. Unfortunately, the few general searches I tried (sports) did not reveal any result, but search for call letters or station names directly can yield hit or miss results.

You can also use the web tab to go to web stations directly. This is useful to go to a specific website for a station and add it directly to your favorite list. Also, the Ptunes website lists some search sites that are good places to start looking through the stations. The web browser can also be used for "normal" surfing while listening to the radio.

Lastly, the now playing screen shows you the current station that is playing. On that screen you can add the current station to your favorites, you can pause, fast forward, or rewind. It also tells you the current song/artist that is playing. You can use the iTunes button to search iTunes for the current artist/music. That is nice, because you can go directly to iTunes to purchase music or albums if you like.

This is a nice interface for streaming music. According to the website, Pocket Tunes will recognize a large variety of streaming audio formats, including MP3, AAC, WMA, and more. The sound quality was nice - I didn't have any stuttering and hiss, nor was there any interuption of the station while I was listening. Of course much of this will depend on the radio station and the quality of their stream. I tried using a 3G connection, and the quality of the stream still was quite good, but using edge I had connection difficulties (mostly connection time itself and time to buffer the station).

Pros:

• Easy to use and add stations,
• remembers radio stations,
• easy to create a favorites list

Cons:

• Can not skin the player,
• a little expensive,
• some radio station descriptions could have more information

Conclusion

All in all, this is a nicely designed program, and the quality shows. Unfortunately, at $9.99, it is priced significantly more than other streaming audio programs (many of which are free). The interface, program quality, and sound quality may justify some of the cost, but I am not sure how many people will purchase the $10 app when there may be a similar option that is free (even if the sound quality is somewhat worse). Because of the high price point compared to other apps, I would rate this app as four out of five stars, but if you are willing to pay for the quality, it might be worth it to you (and the few other issues were minor).

Forum Review Rating

[Pocket Tunes Radio is available from the iTunes App Store.]

Touch Physics Forum Review by cjvitek (For msbaylor's take on it, check the link. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum!

Touch Physics is a strategy/puzzle game, where the goal is to get the purple circle to touch the yellow star. As the game progresses, you are presented with an increasing array and diversity of obstacles in your path that you need to navigate the purple circle around. The circle is moved by forces of gravity, friction, and elasticity. For example, if a large object falls on the circle on the left side, the circle will move/roll/bounce to the right.

So how do you get the large object (or planks, or whatever you want)? Simple - you draw them. You get to add the objects that interact with the circle (and the rest of the obstacles, for that matter). You can draw straight lines, you can draw cirlces or polygons, just about any shape you have in mind (with a few exceptions - see below). These object are subject to the same laws of gravity, friction, and elasticity as the rest of the object in the game.

One especially cool feature of this game is that you can also adjust the various physical interactions. Increasing or decreasing gravity will influence both your objects and the movement of the circle, for example. Because of the various ability to actually adjust the physical parameters of the world, this becomes a much more interesting game - you can replay the same game multiple times with various changes to the physical constants.

This is an interesting concept for the game, and I like the interface. It looks like you are working on a simple paper background, and the images you "draw" look like they were drawn with a crayon. Settings can be changed in the settings menu (not within the game itself, one minor complaint), and there is a nice musical background that is playing as well.

My main problem with this game is the interaction - specifically, dawing shapes. Unfortunately, the game engine does not allow for the drawing of any sort of complex shapes (with multiple obtuse or acute angles, for example). If you try to draw one of those, the game "simplifies" it for you, often times negating the strategy you might have had when drawing the shape.

Other than that, however, the game is fun, and can be quite challenging. I like the interaction between what you draw and the obstacles in the way of the purple circle. I do wish you could save you progress within a level, instead of simply starting the level over, but that is a minor flaw. Shaking the iPhone to start a level over is a fun way to vent frustrations and begin anew.

Pros:

• Nice interface, good game concepts

Cons:

• Complex shapes not allowed

Conclusion

All in all, this is a cool game for the money, and if you like strategy puzzle games, this might be worth your money. The interface is clean and simple, the controls are easy to learn, and the game play can be radically alterred by adjusting the physical parameters of the "universe". For $1.99 (on sale now for $.99) it is worth the money.

Forum Review Rating

[Touch Physics is available from the iTunes App Store.]

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.

Frenzic is a frantic, fast paced strategy game, simple in concept, but one that can provide lots of enjoyment (frantic + frenzy = frenzic!). In Frenzic, your goal is to put little pie-shaped wedges into various circles, filling the circles. For anyone who has played Trivial Pursuit (where is that game for the iPhone?) the shapes look just like the pie pieces from there!

Anyway, the pie pieces come in three colors - orange, green/yellow, and purple. As you move along, you can try to organize the pieces by color, but you aren't required to (Thank GOD!). If you do fill a circle with pie pieces that are the same color, you get more points, an extra life, and a power-up (more on that later). If you fill a circle with mixed colors, you just get some points.

The game starts off slow - presenting you with one piece of a pie, and 6 empty circles to fill. A timer (around the center) indicates how much time you have left to move that piece. If you run out of time, you lose a life. Lose all your lives and the game is over.

As you progress, you have less and less time to use a piece (at least it felt that way, I didn't actually time it). Eventually (trust me, it will happen) you will get to frazzled to find a place to put the piece, and you will lose your last life.

As I said, when you fill a circle with pie-pieces that are the same color, you get a bonus life, more points, and a power-up. The power ups have to be manually activated, and come in three varieties - double points, slow down, or nuke. Double points give you, as you might expect, double points for a limited time. Slow down simply slows the timer down for a while. And nuke simply clears some the board. Unfortunately you are not given the choice of which power up you get, nor can you stockpile them to save up (I know, I tried). Although you can't stockpile them, you can pick up a powerup while you are currently using one.

In the settings, you can control the various aspects of the game - sound, music, vibration, etc. You can also activate "advance piece" which allows you to move to the next piece costing you a life (but not having to wait for the time to run out).

You also have the option of uploading scores, which I didn't participate in, but some people may enjoy. It would be nice to see a head-to-head match ability via wifi, giving people the same pieces and seeing how they do with them (or people using the same board, filling each other’s spaces to foil their moves!). There are lots of options for a multiplayer, and I would hope to see something in that vein in the future. There is also no difficulty setting - it would be nice to be able to choose easier (with only two colors) or harder (with four colors).

This is a fun game. The graphics are simple but crisp and clean, and the background sounds and music work well with the game. The responsiveness is great, and while it is not a game to play to relax, it certainly is one the shows a high level of replay-ability.

Pros:

• Nice graphics,
• simple concept,
• addicting

Cons:

• No multiplayer

Conclusion

All in all, this is a fun game, and may very well make its way onto the first three pages of my iPhone (where I keep "my apps" as opposed to apps I am reviewing). It is fun, fast paced, and easy to pick up. It is currently on sale for $1.99 (during the "holiday season") but it is normally $4.99. My rating is based on the current price - for the "normal" price, people may consider it overpriced.

Forum Review Rating

[Frenzic is available from the iTunes App Store.]

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!

The Weather Channel program has just about most types of weather information you could want. So let's go through what it offers.

First, you can customize your locations. I don't know if there is a limit to how many locations you can include, but I added five with no problem.

When you access the weather data, the screens are divided into "weather", "explore map", "video", "severe", and "more". They are navigated by hitting tabs at the bottom of the screen. The weather tab is the first you see, and you can get current conditions, hourly, 36 hour, and 10 day reports. The current conditions data includes temperature, cloud cover, "feels like" temperature, wind, humidity, UV index, and visibility. The only thing lacking are the sunrise and sunset times.

The hourly screen reports the anticipated changes on an hour by hour basis. Rather than just settle for a 60% chance of rain, you can determine when it is supposed to rain, and plan your activities accordingly. The 36 hour forecast if just that - what it will be like for the next day and a half. And the 10 day forecast is a long term look at the weather (temperature and precipitation).

The Explore map tab allows you to look at a radar map of the area. However, you are not limited to just radar - you can also look at cloud cover, radar AND clouds, temperature, "feel like" temperature, 24 hour rainfall/snowfall, and UV index. You can include cities, schools, parks, golf courses, or lakes on the map.

The video tab gives you a short (about 2 to 3 minutes) local video forecast - basically what is played on The Weather Channel station on TV. The severe tab gives you any severe weather forecasts, and the "more" tab is a help screen, an about screen, and links you to more videos (worldwide weather).

All in all, a pretty full featured weather program.

I am not sure how it would do with out of the ordinary weather items - hurricane tracking, for example. Presumably a hurricane warning would show up, but I don't know if you would have detailed access to the prediction cones, anticipated landfall, strength data, etc. I am don't know if it shows you the cycle of the moon (I looked last night, but I was tired and now I can't remember). But for a casual weather junkie, or people who just are really looking for detailed information for event planning, this application covers most of the bases. It would also be nice to be able to customize a screen to show the information you want specifically.

Of course, you are still relying on the report of the weather man, but that is another issue entirely.

Pros:

• Very complete data set,
• easy interface

Cons:

• Information can almost be TOO much

Conclusion

All in all, if you want a complete weather program, this is one of the best I have seen. And to top it off, it is free.

Forum Rating

[The Weather Channel is available from the iTunes App Store, though some may need to search for the "international" version. iSigh.]