Apple Apps Reviews

TWiT Netcast Network for iPhone, iPod Touch & iPad!

2011-08-17T07:36:00.000-07:00

TWiT powered by Mediafly allows you to watch & listen to the entire TWiT.tv Network – at home, at work and on the go.

The TWiT network is one of the most renown tech news networks with popular shows, such as This WEEK in TECH, MacBreak Weekly, Security Now & More

Feature Highlights:

Play via streaming or download for offline
Audio and Video shows
Live TWiT streams
Background audio playback
Full multitasking support
Support for Apple TV output adapter for iPad, iPhone4, iPod Touch 4 (Great accessory if you want to watch on your big screen TV)
Jump forward 30s / back 10s buttons to player
Support for headphone controls
Email sharing

Pros

Excellent contents! You can never be bored with the information presented by TWiT!
Offline watching is a PLUS, definitely good for travel & Alfresco coffee entertainment!

Cons

If you had forgotten to “pre-load” the latest podcast it will cost you 3G data usage but it’s not a problem in Singapore but in USA it may cost you.
I spent too much time on it…LOL there are too much content! Muahaha! Ok ok seriously…Wow!

Overall, this app definitely a must have for either iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad as it’s FREE & universal.

Category: Entertainment

Type: Universal App

Price for iPhone: Free

Price for iPad: Free

Zombie Gunship – Universal zombie shooting fun!

2011-08-12T09:12:00.000-07:00

From the makers of the award-winning TowerMadness® and the sound designer of the famed Gears of War® series, Zombie Gunship™ puts you in the gunner seat of a heavily-armed AC-130 ground attack aircraft.

Strategically fire your powerful guns to slay endless waves of zombies and protect the remaining survivors of the zombie apocalypse!

3D NIGHT VISION DISPLAY with Motion Blur

Toggle between white and black hot modes. Use your radar to quickly detect and eliminate the zombie threat.

AUTHENTIC WEAPONS

• 25mm Gatling gun• 40mm Bofors auto-cannon• 105mm Howitzer cannon

COLLECT a BOUNTY for each ZOMBIE KILL

Use coins to upgrade your armaments and increase your zombie killing efficiency.

COMPETE FOR GLORY

Challenge your friends and other gunners on the Game Center Leaderboard!

Pros

Realistic simulation of the gunship
Satisfying blowing up zombies!

Cons

A little repetitive after you get most of the upgrades
Need some variation of gameplay to keep it interesting
Need more different types of humans & zombies!
Need more voice packs for the operator!
Need more different maps
A campaign mode?

Overall, it’s satisfying to blow zombies up however the fun only last so long before it get repetitive and it’s over.

Some suggestions to developer(s)

Humans survivals should have different types from normal human, police officers, marines, kids, female, males…etc
Weapons maybe can include sniper rifle (The most powerful one)
it will be nice to have a change in maps to include obstacles for zombies
Some nice voice packs to randomize the operator will be nice
Campaign modes? I don’t know…something to keep the game more variety
How about zombie dogs?
If a human got bitten, shouldn’t he/she becomes zombie?
Advanced zombies that can still crawl on the ground after first attack & die only after 2nd strike

I am not sure if it’s possible to use accelerometer to control the moving of the gun camera but it probably be nice & will be a good exercise for those who use that…rotating around the iPad & iPhone to aim :3

Overall, it’s a good game and worth the current price of $0.99 but it have potential to be better in the future if the developer can improve on the game further!

Category: Games, Shooter

Type: Universal App

Price for iPhone: $0.99

Price for iPad: $0.99

System Status 3.0

2011-08-10T22:39:00.000-07:00

System Status is the ultimate application for monitoring and optimizing your device’s performance. It provides information starting from the most basic device status parameters such as battery and disk usage, network connections and carrier information, and ending with advanced system data such as kernel version, memory page statistics, routing table, system log and CPU cache information.

Moreover, you can use System Status to optimize your system performance by releasing the system memory or browse the system log to see if something is going wrong on your device.

★ Essential: “System Status provides one of the cleanest and most efficient interfaces for an app of this kind.” – AppAdvice.com ★

GENERAL FEATURES
- Full iOS 4 multitasking support
- Universal binary – full support of all iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad models
- Graphics optimized both for retina and older displays for pixel perfect graphics
- Well-arranged user interface so the most frequently used information available immediately
- Use of color coding for indicators and graphs to improve readability
- Real time updates of the display every time the monitored parameters change
- Export of device info by email
- Both landscape and portrait mode under iPad
- Copy/paste support
- Detailed help

BATTERY MONITORING
- Graphical battery level display
- Battery state monitoring (discharging, charging, full)
- Estimated battery work time for different usage patterns (standby, audio and video playback, Wi-Fi and 3G browser usage, talk time)
- Adjustable battery health to make the estimated work times usable for older batteries
- Optional full charge sound alert

MEMORY AND DISK MONITORING
- System memory releasing
- Real time memory usage monitoring – graphical display of wired, active, inactive and free memory
- Detailed page statistics including page ins and outs, page faults, page lookups, page purges and others
- Used and free disk capacity monitoring
- File statistics (number of songs, videos, podcasts, artists, genres, etc.)

CELL AND NETWORK MONITORING
- 3G and Wi-Fi network connection information
- IP and MAC addresses of the current connection
- Carrier information such as network provider and MCC/MNC codes
- External IP address
- Default gateway
- Routing table
- List of all network connections

PROCESS AND CPU MONITORING
- List of all running processes with detailed information about each of them including process name, run time, priority, PID and PPID
- CPU usage updated in real time
- Average load over the last 1, 5 and 15 minutes

OPERATING SYSTEM AND HARDWARE INFORMATION
- System log with device status and error messages
- System boot time and uptime
- Operating system and kernel version
- Device model, user name and UDID
- Detailed CPU and GPU information – model, core number, CPU and BUS frequency, L1, L2 cache sizes and others
- Hardware features of the device including display resolution, pixel density, battery voltage, battery capacity, front and rear camera resolution and many more

Pros

All the features mentioned above
I like how UDID can be copied within the app without going into iTunes for developer
Easy to monitor how much hard disk is left

Cons

Not all the features are required to monitor by ordinary users unless you are a developer or jailbreaker
I wish the app can show which app uses the largest disk space so I can sort accordingly by space usage for all applications.

Personally, I probably use this for checking hard disk space & minor monitoring of memory usage and find the most efficient methods of using my iPhone & iPad.

You may find closing some background running apps may save you some memory to run bigger applications & also your battery last longer if you switch off certain features like GPS location, Bluetooth & 3G when not requiring them.

It’s amazing to see the standby time is soooooooon LONG!! HAHAHAHA :3

Overall, if you find some of the information important for you daily usage…then this app is for you.

Category: Utilities
Type: Universal App

Price for iPhone: $1.99

Price for iPad: $1.99

Ultimate Gem™ – iOS Gem Puzzle Game Review!

2011-08-07T02:23:00.000-07:00

☻ Challenging puzzles
☻ Beautiful gems
☻ Wonderful music
☻ Awesome design
☻ Addictive play modes

★★★★★ A Super-dynamic, brilliant, radiant gems clix game “Ultimate Gem” is coming!
★★★★★ Has gorgeous screen, dynamic sound, and sweet music.
★★★★★ Has 2 kinds of super-fun game modes, called: Time killer.

How to Play:

- Just tap three or more gems of the same color.
- No time limit, but each level has target score to proceed to next level.

Tips:

- The more gems you clean, the more score you will get.

Rule:

3 Blocks = 45 points
4 Blocks = 80 points
5 Blocks = 125 points
6 Blocks = 180 points
…
10 Blocks = 500 points
…
20 Blocks = 2000 points

Features:

- Autosave when terminated
- Supports iOS4
- All available for iPad

Pros

It’s very addictive!
The “puzzle” mode is for people who wants to use the brain at a much slower pace but it’s almost zen like!
The “Time Attack” mode is like a combo of bejewel & tetris! Absolutely fun!
Once you get the hang of it, it’s almost irresistible!

Cons

There are too many version on iTunes which can be confusing, I recommend getting the Universal version for both iPhone & iPad use
It does look a little too similar to bejewel but with a little change in the game play
Time will travel too fast when playing this game, yes time travel applications is the geeks fantasy but in the wrong way haha

Overall, I find this application simply irresistible and that’s what I like about application when I review them.

It’s not easy to find application that you will consistently think about it even after you had put it down and this is just such a game.

Currently it’s free on the appstore but for a limited period hence get it now quick!

Category: Games, Puzzle
Type: Universal App

Price for iPhone: Free

Price for iPad: Free

Zombie Café

2011-07-22T09:47:00.000-07:00

It’s hard to find good help, which is why you’ve partnered with an evil corporation to use zombies as free labor to build your café empire. Prepare food, direct your zombies and manage supplies. If the competition gets too fierce you can always direct your zombie workers to attack a neighboring café and steal their secret recipes.

Features:

- Transform customers into zombie waiters using toxin and have them do your bidding… but be careful! If you work a zombie too hard they’ll get tired and will try and eat customers

- Raid neighboring cafes to steal recipes and toxin

- Decorate your cafe with more than 100 items from the store

- Collect and prepare more than 50 zombie-inspired recipes

- Connect with your Facebook friends to form a franchise: order food, collect fees, and share recipes

- Keep playing even when you don’t have an network signal, or cook while you’re online every day to earn special “Frequent Fryer” bonuses

- Retina display graphics

Pros

Addictive & unique against other time management games
Really superb graphics
Interesting to watch the zombies attacking other diners!

Cons

Time consuming! Hahaha productivity will drop! Not safe for work!
Zombies should not get tired…haha they should be hungry!
Other than attacking your friends…there’s no other ways to poke them?

Tips & Tricks

In the beginning trial & error…do take risk and find out the best way to start & have fun
Different human have different energy levels hence try to find out which person is the BEST to be your zombie slave
Avoid the first recipe “Mystery Meat” after the first cook as it does not earn you any money
It takes estimated the same time to cook for it to get rotten (if left on the stove), hence 1 hour cooking then it will get rotten 1 hour after it’s cooked
Take out your competitors or you get less customers
Decorate your diners to your heart contents…ONLY when you have money! Don’t waste!
Attacking your neighboring Diners will unlock new recipe for you, try it!
There are special items to buy to improve on your game but they cost toxins or money.
Toxins are very precious, don’t waste them on increasing the speed of cooking…try using them to hire chef later in the game
If you ran out of food, try closing the diners by clicking on the door & reopen it when your food is ready.
Closing your diner also good for resting your zombies!

Overall, this game have more features then most time management games and have more things to explore however when it’s time to decide how good they are…they are almost the same….a time management game.

However, Zombie cafe does have it’s attractiveness & it’s satisfying to see how your diner grow from nothing to become something.

Category: Games, Time Management
Type: Universal App

Price for iPhone: Free

Price for iPad: Free

Let’s Golf!® 2 HD By Gameloft

2011-07-16T22:08:00.000-07:00

A GAME WITH CHARACTER

Liven up the sport with 8 fun characters, fully modeled in 3D. Customize your golfer with a selection of gear and clothes you can unlock to improve your skills.

GOLF AROUND THE GLOBE

Discover 108 holes of golf across 6 varied locations like Mount Olympus Golf Club, Aztec Temple, a Winter Wonderland in Greenland, a tree-filled Bavaria, the spectacular English Countryside and even the wild Royal Safari in Kenya. Each spot has its own challenges to overcome that grow in difficulty.

SUPER-POWERED

Each character has their own unique super power that can give them an unexpected edge. Pull off unbelievable shots by stopping the ball at will, making it super-sticky or by even rewinding time.

PLAY A ROUND WITH FRIENDS

Grab a friend and play against each other in one of 3 different multiplayer modes: Online Wi-Fi, Local Wi-Fi & Bluetooth. You can also challenge the world by climbing the online leaderboard and unlocking achievements on Gameloft LIVE! for being one of the best golfers around.

A WHOLE NEW GAME

Spice up your game with new modes for a totally different way to play. Enjoy an in-depth Career mode and new challenges like Shoot Out where you eliminate 1 player after each hole, and Closest to Pin where players put it all on the line with a single shot.

Pros

Amazing graphics & gameplay!
Each player have their own “super power” like heroes
Simple & very user friendly interface
Feel like playing a consol game like Nintendo Wii

Cons

Online multiplayer need to register account, it’s not as seamless as using gamecenter to handle the online multiplayer match up
Is it possible to allow players to connect an iPhone or iPodtouch to their iPad via bluetooth and use them as the golf stick?
More golf course! More more more!

Overall, I find this game very addicting and want some “explosive force” golfing.

It’s slightly expensive on the appstore however it’s worth it’s value for gamers who love golf casual gaming.

Category: Games, Sports
Type: Separate App

Price for iPhone: $4.99

Price for iPad: $4.99

Color Me!!!

2011-07-12T20:43:00.000-07:00

COLOR ME !!! ONE OF THE BEST COLORING APPLICATION FOR iPHONE & iPOD TOUCH NOW AVAILABLE FOR iPAD !!!!

A coloring booklet for children at the age of 2-6 years. Diverse pictures and color palette will trigger the development of your child’s imagination and shape his/her senses.

A very friendly and intuitive application enables your child to easily create extraordinary pictures.

Only a touch of a finger and the selected element of the coloring will be filled with colors.

Shaking the iPad will cause the cleansing of the picture and therefore provides endless possibilities for coloring of the pictures.

It is also possible to save the masterpieces of your child in the image gallery. Then the child will be able to place them on the desktop of your device..

Allow your child to discover the world of colors by means of “Color Me!”

Pros

Very powerful yet simple user interface!
Makes most kids proud of their own painting!
Able to bring the creativity out of most kids

Cons

Can’t share the image via email, twitter but it’s not critical as you can do it after exporting to photo library
There’s no “Undo” option in the advance controls
You cannot import your own “uncolored” images
Cannot see your friends creations via gamecenter or other social network leaderboards

Overall, this app is one of the best coloring application I had seen on iOS appstore and yes I had seen some crappy ones.

This app really set the standard for coloring app for the future developers to meet but I hope this developer can further improve by adding more features.

Category: Education
Type: Separate App

Price for iPhone: $0.99

Price for iPad: $1.99

Tiny Tower

2011-07-10T07:23:00.000-07:00

Tiny Tower lets you build a tiny tower and manage the businesses and bitizens that inhabit it!

  ★ Make money to build new types of floors and attract bitizens to live and work inside.

 ★ Special events and VIP visitors will earn you special perks as you build your tower towards the clouds. 

★ Customize the look and placement of each floor and the bitizens that live in them, and upgrade your elevator.

 ★ Game Center integration to let you see your friends towers, back up your game and earn awards.

 ★ See what is on your bitizens’ minds by peeking at the “BitBook” virtual social network for your tower!

Pros

Cute graphics & great user interface makes this a excellent freemium time management game!
You do not need to keep playing to earn money, just stock up enough items to sell in each businesses you get $ when you go back in!
Your kids will love this game and keep quiet in the car!

Cons

There is only one copy of save game in the game center which makes it inconvenient if you have multiple devices playing the same game by different people.
If you mess with the date of the device, it will screw up the game
If the game crash, you do get to load the save copy of the game…but you can’t really control when that copy was saved!
When you get to higher levels, it takes longer to build a new levels without using the “Tower Bux”

Tips & Tricks

Always stock up the 3rd items first, the 3rd item takes longer time to run out then the first 2 hence you can time it to have all three items stocked up at the same time if you never use “tower bux”.
Always keep good employees & evict the bad ones, higher relevant skills will make the business cheaper to buy stocks to sell hence make more money
If you have time, help bitizens up the elevator to earn some coins or even get some occasional “tower bux” tips!
VIP visitors will help you plenty hence keep an eye on the VIP icon when you are in game.
Find missing person mini game is a quick way to earn “tower bux”, keep a look out for them too!
Put your bitizen in their dream job will make them happy! Hmm
BBook seems to be a virtual facebook for bitizen to express their virtual opinions in the game but too bad it’s not by real people

Overall, I find the developer had created an addictive platform similar to other free time management games. The only things I can think to improve on it is to make a real in-app chat between friends of game center…but this need Apple to wake up and give the developers an API for that.

Game Center is so similar to other leader board that needs some additional feature which like multiple save games & in-app chat posting (like twitter) with reply options & Direct private messages.

This game is free & universal which makes it a must have for all!

Category: Games, Time Management
Type: Universal App

Price for iPhone: Free

Price for iPad: Free

Falling Stars by Trident Vitality Gum

2011-07-09T01:01:00.000-07:00

Create a world of music in seconds with Falling Stars from Trident Vitality. Then enjoy, share and expand your world whenever you want to.

Pros

Amazing user interface that anyone of all ages can enjoy
Magical musical masterpiece can be created naturally
Share your composition via twitter & facebook!

Cons

Limited number of save space for composition (4 only)
Cannot convert your music composition into mp3 or ringtones
Cannot email yourself a copy of the composition in mp3 or ringtones format
Need more sound pack!
Cannot easily see other people’s compositions creation

Overall this free universal app is a must have for all and must be there to show off to your friends what you can do with your iPad, iPhone or iPodtouch! I recommend a good earphone for this application

I wonder if the developer can add in some soothing sound pack for people who want to create sleeping music :3

Category: Music
Type: Universal App

Price for iPhone: Free

Price for iPad: Free

Photo Quiz Challenge

2011-07-07T21:07:00.000-07:00

Rome ,Italy – Daniele Antonietti has announced the availability in Apple Store of a new Online game called Photo Quiz Challenge for iPhone and iPod touch.

What’s different than other games quiz?

This game is for all ages that want to have fun by testing their visual memory in a way that was not available by app in Apple Store up to now.

Playing is very simple and addictive:

Look carefully at the pictures that will be shown within the time limit and test your ability to grasp the detail by answering to the questions proposed. You have up to 3 lives to take home the victory!

Will you able to conclude Photo Quiz Challenge even if you’ll have less time to look at following picture?

You can record your scores, climbing the charts and willing a lot of trophies: BRONZE, SILVER and GOLD for good achievements.

In Photo Quiz Challenge you can view in real time your world rankings while playing! Scores and Achievements could be shared by Facebook.

This game is also Online by Game Center that allows you to challenge your friends or any other player in the world through mode: PLAY ONLINE – who will be the winner after 10 questions?

Other Info:

Availability: for iPhone and iPod touch

Supported Languages: English,Italian and Spanish

Company name: Daniele Antonietti

E-mail address: photoquiz.emailme@gmail.com

Post date: 07/06/2011

App site: https://sites.google.com/site/iphonephotoquiz/

Category: Entertainment, Puzzle
Type: iPhone/iPodTouch Only

Price for iPhone: $0.99

FIFA 11 by EA SPORTS™

2011-07-05T19:14:00.000-07:00

FIFA Now’s 11! NOW WITH LOCAL MULTIPLAYER & “SUPERFAST” GRAPHICS FOR iPAD 2, this is the biggest and best soccer game on the App Store! The larger Multi-Touch screen on iPad delivers an incredible measure of visual excellence, and the graphic performance on iPad 2 makes for a truly scintillating experience. Featuring authentic teams, superstar players, precision controls, and more friendly play, FIFA 11 on iPad really kicks it to the next level!

VISUALIZE THE GAME IN VIVID DETAIL ON iPAD

HD-quality graphics make every detail on the field spring to life. Team colors are ultra vibrant. The green of the grass is even more glorious. Capture the passion and power of the world’s favorite sport with an unprecedented level of visual clarity that you can only get with iPad.

REAL PLAYERS, TEAMS, AND LEAGUES – UPDATED FOR THIS SEASON

Take the field with superstars like Real Madrid’s Kaka and more! Match up more than 500 teams from real leagues around the world and march into action in 35 authentic stadiums. The world of soccer is truly in your hands.

BETTER TOUCH CONTROLS LET YOU PLAY WITH PANACHE

The new D-pad and button layout options provide more gameplay sophistication for veterans and simplicity for casual players. Control the ball and the action with 360° player movement and gesture-driven skill moves. Swipe a player to make an attacking run! Pull off defense-splitting passes, rifling shots, penalty kicks, and pro-style tricks! Control of the action is even more precise and responsive on iPad.

TAKE THE FIELD WITH A FRIEND VIA LOCAL WIFI OR BLUETOOTH

Create your own friendly matches and match skills with your most personal opponents on iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch via Local WiFi or Bluetooth Multiplayer.

PLAY AS ANY TEAM YOU CHOOSE IN MULTIPLE MODES

Make your squad the team to beat in the Premier League, La Liga, MSL, and more. Play in Season Mode, Tournament Mode, and Quick Match (if you prefer to kick it in more casual style).

Cons

The movement control need to get use to it as it’s not like real joystick but it’s manageable
The tapping or dragging on players can give extra “controls” or “tricks” but it’s too far away from my thumb on the iPad making it tough to execute it properly.
The spectators are 2D graphics that does not give the impression of a lively stadium, no crowd wave or chants?
Why can’t we trade players, I know it’s not a management game but it will be nice to have a custom super star team of our own hehe and play the highest difficulty hehe.
The commentators repeats too much of their conversations, hope to have voice packs to better randomize their conversations
The iPhone version sometime crashes on the 3rd gen 8GB iTouch running iOS 4.2.1.

Overall, this game is worth it’s value and it’s a must have for soccer fans! It’s addictive & fun and this game completes the iOS platform to make it really a gaming device.

Category: Games, Sports
Type: Separate App

Price for iPhone: $0.99

Price for iPad: $0.99

Learn to Play Guitar with Miso Music

2011-06-29T07:05:00.000-07:00

2010 Miso Music won Tech Crunch Disrupt’s People’s Choice Award, and was featured earlier this year in Billboard.com’s article, “App Developers = Tomorrow’s Rock Stars.” Now Miso Media’s award-winning Miso Music app for iPad is officially out of beta with the release of Miso Music 2.0.

The app teaches users how to play songs on the guitar, bass, banjo, and ‘ukulele using Miso Media’s patented scrolling tablature system which not only shows users strumming and fingering, but also gives real time feedback with scrolling tablature as the correct notes are played.

Think Guitar Hero with real notes, real instruments, and real learning. Miso Music has a real instrument mode for those who already own an instrument as well as a virtual instrument mode that turns the iPad into the instrument of your choice.

Features include:

-Polyphonic pitch detection that recognizes notes played

-180 songs (and counting) ranging from pop to classical

-Distribution deals with Sony/ATV and Universal Music Publishing Group

-Dozens of virtual instruments made in partnership with Fender, CF Martin & Co., KoAloha ‘Ukulele, and Deering Banjo

-Simple and Pro instrument tuner modes

-Streamlined play screen with intuitive functionality

-Tutorials for virtual instrument and real instrument modes

Miso Music is currently available for iPad, with iPhone and Android versions in the works. The base app is free and includes a selection of songs and virtual instruments, and is free in the Apple App Store for a limited time. Additional songs and virtual instruments may be purchased in-app for $.99 to $1.99.

To view Miso Music demo video:

http://www.misomedia.com/storage/Miso_Music_Demo2011.mov

Category: Music
Type: iPad Only

Price for iPad: Free

IntelliVocab for Business

2011-06-26T17:07:00.000-07:00

Business Communication is the first Artificial Intelligent engine combining the research from MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and MIT Web Semantics Labs to personalize the learning experience of English vocabulary for competitive exams.

More you practice, more it learns about you. It uses latest machine learning algorithms and web semantic techniques to collapse billions of possibilities into comprehensible probabilistic profile information, in real-time.

Category: Business
Type: iPhone/iPodTouch Only

Price for iPhone: $0.99

War Grimoire HD – Tower Defense

2011-06-25T20:00:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the world of magic, mystery and unlimited adventure.

Waves of monsters are marching into your territory and it’s time to stop them.

Your sword alone is not strong enough to get rid of the invaders. Hire units with unique abilities to repel the enemy waves by dragging them into battle field and use 60 kinds of weapons at your disposal. You can upgrade your weapons and increase the firepower with the money and treasury chests left by the monsters. Prepare for an epic fight with special BOSS that has an ability to recover HP of monsters and even destroy your soldiers!

Features:

-Beautifully animated cartoon intro and step by step in-game guide

-60 kinds of upgradeable weapons to equip your soldiers

-30 visually stunning environments to explore with different monster combination

-6 relaxing unlockable mini-games: get new weapons by winning a mini game

-High definition 3D graphics and spectacular rendering effects

-Online worldwide leader boards with OpenFeint and Game Center

-Original music soundtracks and high quality sound effects

Plan your defense wisely, destroy the monsters’ horde and win the war!

Pros

This game is an improved version of the popular “fieldrunner” tower defense game with obstacles structures to be integrated into your strategy
The overall graphics & opening video sequence are very nicely done with a sense of “polished” feel
Able to replay past levels to increase “EP” to upgrade your units & weapons.

Cons

The navigation is a little user unfriendly but still able to navigate with a little trial & error
The game description should have mention the game type as “tower defense” or “TD” so that it won’t mislead people to think it’s some kind of RPG
Replaying past levels to get “EP” to upgrade so to win future levels tend to be repetitive & feels like “grinding” in RPG

Overall, this game is entertaining and if you uses the structures in the game to lengthen the enemy path correctly…it can be pretty easy however due to the fact your weapons & unit upgrades tree are only available when you upgrade out of the game with “EP” makes it slightly harder to kill higher bosses levels.

Knowing that your only solution are either go play those mini games to unlock new weapons or go grind past levels that you already know the trick to winning.

I hope the developer can lower down the price even though the price now is at 50% discount as there are too many other similar tower defense game around but cheaper on the wallet.

Category: Games, Tower Defence
Type: Separate App

Price for iPhone: $1.99

Price for iPad: $2.99

Fruit Blast – Shoot Monkey’s Fruits!!

2011-06-24T18:58:00.000-07:00

MONKEY GOES MANIC

 You play to destroy pieces of fruit being hurled at you by a sinister monkey. Fight off his blitzkrieg and show him who’s boss with an arsenal of powerful weapons. It’s easy at first, but be careful—every hit he lands covers part of your screen with mangled fruit pulp, making it hard to see what he throws next.

IMMERSIVE GAME-PLAY 

Defend against the attack with tilt-to-aim accelerometer controls and fully adjustable sensitivity. Pay attention to your ammo clip—if you forget to reload, you’ll get crushed into pulp. Sometimes the monkey will show you some mercy by throwing you a squeegee to clean your screen. Nab every squeegee you can—you’ll need them.

OVERPOWER THE PRIMATE 

Choose new weapons from a fully stocked armory. Buy guns with larger clips, faster fire rates, greater accuracy and more destructive force. This hateful hominid packs more than one kind of produce, so you’ll need to upgrade your firepower to keep him from blending you into a smoothie.

MICRO-TRANSACTIONS BUY BIGGER ACTION 

The more fruit you shoot, the more seeds you earn. Save up seeds to unlock new weapons and stages, or purchase seeds using your iTunes account. The more seeds you’ve got to spend, the bigger guns you can buy. The bigger your guns are, the better the game gets.

Pros

More family friendly shooter for teens
Challenging game play, best challenge your friend beside you to complete that stage!
User friendly interface

Cons

Slightly buggy for the iOS 5 beta version.
There’s no iPad version or Universal version which I believe can be done easily
Slightly repetitive and need some creative changes to make the game play more addictive.

Overall, it’s still entertaining however my suggestion to the developer is to add something that you can interact with others like a multiplayer co-op game play or even better multiplayer challenge to see who shoot down more fruits before both side ends.

Category: Games, Shooter
Type: iPhone/iPodTouch Only

Price for iPhone: $0.99

Dress the Monkey – Fashion Monkey (Free!)

2011-06-22T19:16:00.000-07:00

A new free game Dress the Monkey – Fashion Monkey for iOS can be described in three simple words. It’s a great mix of fun, fashion and fantasy.

Dressing up is one of the most favorite activities of women of all age. Every little girl loves raiding her mother’s closet for high heels and sequined dresses to parade around the house as though on a runway. This is where Dress the Monkey, a game created to bring fun and develop users’ creativity, imagination and fashion taste in a playful manner – comes in handy.

Features:

Make up an unusual outfit for one of the four adorable characters: Rebel, Princess, Sage, and Granny
Be in control of just about every aspect of a model’s look, including hair style, eyes and skin color, and even mood of your virtual friend!
Take advantage of the large collection of different accessories: hats, wigs, scarves, bows, glasses and more!
Choose fancy backgrounds for your monkey: Sunny Jungles, Icy Forest, and more!
Share your monkey via email, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or save it as wallpaper!
Find additional “packs” of accessories and backgrounds that are available through the built-in store!

Check it out yourself! It’s time to be creative!

Category: Games
Type: iPhone/iPodTouch Only

Price for iPhone: Free

A.I.R Defense HD for iPad !!

2011-06-22T19:09:00.000-07:00

Are you able to protect Earth from massive “alien” attack? Using the futuristic iPad you can! LOL play this game by A.I.R Defense and control multiple aircraft using Line drawing combined with castle defense type of game play.

Use a variety of defensive fortifications quick fingers and even quicker thinking to keep the Pentagon in one piece during the massive alien invasion.

MASS DESTRUCTION

Rain destruction down on the Alien hordes using a variety of attacks. Not to mention some huge super powered weapons!

VARIETY OF MODES

Choose from the story driven campaign mode or see how long you can last in the challenging Endless Mode!

TONS OF ALIENS

The enemies come in all shapes and sizes, including epic bosses. It’s up to you to stop them any way you can!

Cons

The game play is a little too challenging for me as “Airport Mania” or “Flight Control” type of game is a little frustrating to play instead of entertaining
Sometimes if you are unable to gather enough money in the first few waves of enemies, you know you can’t make it in the last wave
It’s not enjoyable when many things are based on how you can focus in multiple things at once time…which may be humanly challenging lol

Well, it’s very challenging & it’s cheap…some may love it because of that.

Category: Games, Castle Defense
Type: Separate App

Price for iPhone: $0.99

Price for iPad: $0.99

Army of Darkness Defense HD

2011-06-21T18:00:00.000-07:00

In this tug-of-war, casual defense game based on the MGM classic movie, you play Ash, the time-traveling, evil-fighting, S-Mart sales clerk as you defend Lord Arthur’s castle and the Necronomicon from the oncoming hordes of evil undead.

Of course, you can’t do it alone! Call upon multitudes of allies including Lord Arthur, Duke Henry the Red, the Wiseman, and many more to help you in your quest to defend the unholy book and use it to return to your own time.

ARMY OF DARKNESS: DEFENSE takes the witty charm of the cult classic movie and combines it with gorgeous graphics and innovative casual gameplay that is certain to entertain any mobile gamer. So, remember the magic words and make sure your shoelace is tied, because this is going to be an epic battle!

Features include:

-Bruce Campbell as Ash Williams

-Beautiful, fully animated graphics

-A wide variety of allies to summon including swordsmen, armored knights, archers, and more

-50 initial waves and an unlockable endless wave

-Awards and leaderboards via Game Center

-More than 100 hilarious quotes from the movie

-Countless hoards of deadites

-Originally composed music score

-Tons of special abilities including the boomstick, the chainsaw, the ’88 deathcoaster and many more spells

-All of your favorite characters including Arthur, Henry, Sheila, the Wiseman, Evil Ash, and many more!

Cons

You cannot replay individual past levels unless you keep on dying, well…keep dying!! HAHAHA
There’s no multiplayer game mode
Resetting the game does not carry back all the gold & upgrades meaning start from ZERO Hmm

Overall, this game is addictive until you finished 50th wave & unlocked the endless mode which the fun factor decreases.

There must be a way to further enhance this game, my idea is to add multiplayer to the game and allow players to control the undead hoard!

Give players a fixed amount of Gold for them to select what upgrades they want or give fixed types of upgrades & troops for both sides and let game center auto match users to play each other!

However, that will mean either this app remains free forever & lower the coins earned in-game or make a special power up only available for in-app purchase.

Category: Games, Castle Defense
Type: Separate App

Price for iPhone: Free

Price for iPad: Free

Notability – Best Note Taking App without Handwriting!

2011-06-16T23:52:00.000-07:00

Notability is a powerful note taker that helps you capture everything. The streamline interface provides the tools you need to type notes, add pictures, draw figures, insert web clips, make audio recordings, organize notes by subjects, backup to cloud services, and share notes with friends and colleagues.

Notability improves your productivity in lectures, meetings and interviews when you need to work fast, and also afterward to organize, review, edit, and share your notes.

**LOGICAL**

Do you wish you could outline on iPad? Notability has you covered. You can quickly create outlines (bullet or numbered) with our easy-to-use interface. Outlines provide visual connections between subjects to help you stay organized.

**VERSATILE**

You can use one font or multiple fonts per note, whichever you prefer. Add media to enrich your notes with the text flowing automatically around it. This saves space, gives you more choices, and looks cleaner when printing and sharing your notes

Do you want to add a web clip or picture? No problem, add pictures and web clips (via the built in browser) to your notes and place them where you want. You can also re-size, crop, annotate, add single or multi-line captions in any font, and write directly on pictures.

Need to draw a diagram? Simply use your finger or stylus to draw diagrams and figures or write short phrases using your choice of color, stroke width, and transparency level.

Ready to review your notes or desire a larger screen? You can easily maximize the workspace by hiding the toolbars, which is especially helpful when iPad is rotated in landscape mode.

Notability provides excellent support for external keyboards for the speed typers out there.

Some bugs I found for developers

When trying to insert web clips, google search sometimes can’t type in the search box
The characters float a little when trying to write a list with none bold characters

Overall, this app is one of the best non-handwriting note taking app for students, reporters and more!

Category: Productivity
Type: iPad Only

Price for iPad: $0.99

Address Book World

2011-06-16T23:44:00.000-07:00

The application makes editing easier for you when it comes to telephone numbers for international calls. It helps you in two cases – when there is a country code and it should be automatically skipped during the call, or when you need to change or add an area code.

Application suitable for people who travel, frequently change the country stay or mobile network operators.

Now you can save without problem a international phone number with country/area code in address book, the program will modify them according to what country you’ll be.

User will be able to perform the following operations with telephone number:

Calling from Phone
Calling from Skype
Sending SMS
Sharing via SMS
Sharing via Mail
Saving in new Contact or current one
Saving in clipboard

App feature:

Detect a country with GPS
Manually change country
Add Operator’s Code – which replaces or adds the standart symbol of the international access network – plus “+”
Edit telephone number
Detect country code in phone number

More info – www.macarov.net – software developer

Category: Utilities
Type: iPhone/iPodTouch Only

Price for iPhone: $0.99

Robotek HD – Robots taking over the world!!

2011-06-15T12:56:00.000-07:00

The humanity had fallen. In the great robot uprising machines took the planet over. Empire of Machine is the new world order. It’s time to take it back! One node at a time.

Rip through your enemies with lasers, electrocute them or fry them with microwaves. Deploy your own robots to fight for you or steal them from your enemy. Protect and upgrade your forces or throw them away in a ruthless wave of destruction.

Get experience from every battle, level up, gain power and crush the Empire of Machine!

IN-APP PURCHASES

Robotek is free to play supported only by optional in-app purchases. You can finish the entire game without re-charging your energy. Play it safe: Learn all of the symbols in tutorial. Do not challenge nodes tougher than you. Master the gameplay, level up and go against weaker nodes first! You can always reset the campaign in Options and start from scratch.

However with any in-app purchase you get:

• Power & Coins

• gain access to RECHARGE NODE

• better Power gains for every victory

• unlock the DUEL mode to play with friends

FEATURES

• Unique blend of strategy, action and RPG.

• More than 200 levels spread all around the world.

• Rewarding skill system with more than 30 levels.

• 9 upgradable slot symbols to fit your own style of play.

• 4 special abilities including the devastating Nuke.

• Play thrilling hotseat duels with your friends!

• Online hall of fame – Your scores can only grow.

• Facebook leaderboards – compete with your friends!

• Signature soundtrack by kubatko (www.kubatko.info)

SOCIAL FEATURES

• Compete on your Facebook leaderboard

• Invite or challenge your Facebook friends

• Share your achievements on your Facebook wall

Wishlist for the developer to implement in the future

If there are iPhone & iPod Touch version of this game will be SWEET!
Hope to have true multiplayer online via game center integration
Deeper character story plots with twist & turn characters development

Category: Games, Turn-Based
Type: iPad Only

Price for iPad: Free

Note Plus – Handwriting, Note Taking, Shape Drawing, and Sound Recording

2011-06-12T02:18:00.000-07:00

Notes Plus is a powerful note-taking tool that supports handwriting, typing and audio recording. It offers close-up writing mode for small text, stroke smoothing, vector shape auto-detection, palm handling, complete folder structure, PDF exporting, emailing, Google Docs uploading, and more.

*** IMPORTANT: This app is not for everybody. Before you buy, please visit the developer website to learn more about the app. I don’t want you to make a wrong purchase decision. There are too much information about what the app can do and cannot do that I cannot put them all here. ***

Notes Plus benefits include:

1. CLOSE-UP HANDWRITING

Hand write comfortably with your big finger, your text will show up as fine as with pen and paper. Auto-advance feature let you write even with your eyes closed. Advanced stroke smoothing algorithm makes your writing look as good as ever; the faster you write, the better it looks.

2. PALM HANDLING

Lay your palm comfortably down with Palm Pad. The pad scrolls along with your palm making it natural to write on a touch screen.

3. TYPED TEXT MIXING

Let you insert keyboard text anywhere on the page with many type faces, font sizes, and colors.

4. SHAPE AUTO-DETECT

Let you draw a basic shape (ellipse, rectangle, line, polygon, …) with your finger, auto-detect and insert the perfect vector shape, then let you edit it.

5. VOICE RECORDING

Let you record audio while jotting down the note. Perfect for meetings, classes, or conferences. Recordings are linked with pages to provide easy playback.

6. EASY EDITING

Let you select handwriting text by just circling around it, then erase or re-arrange it. Erasing a writing is as easy as drawing a line over it. No awkward switching between erase tool, selection tool, and draw tool.

7. EASY ORGANIZING

Provide a complete folder structure. Private folders can be password-protected. A folder can have many notebooks; a notebook can have many pages. Pages are listing with thumbnails. Provide ability to move, copy, duplicate and delete notebooks or individual pages.

8. RECOVERING FROM YOUR MISTAKES

Full undo/redo support. Yes, it does have REDO function; touch and hold undo button to reveal the undo/redo action sheet. Also let you recover your deleted notebooks or pages.

9. CUSTOMIZING TO YOUR TASTE

Many options are provided including: stroke color, thickness, transparency; text font, size, color; paper background, etc.

10. (LAST AND MOST IMPORTANT) CLEAN & NATURAL USER INTERFACE

As you can see from the screenshots below, this app stands out for its clean interface. A great effort was put in to hide controls so that it would not cluster the interface. You should be able to start without a tutorial. However, if you need one, there is one QuickStart guide when the app is first loaded.

Cons

This application is a full suit of note taking, it feels a little complex to use for ordinary user but once you mastered it…it’s flawless!
When NOT in full screen mode at horizontal, the recording audio button is a little off hence I will trigger the “renaming” of note 90% of the time instead of recording audio

Overall, this app is HIGHLY recommended for anyone who take notes daily for either school or work. The developer seems to be pushing out many updates to the app that will make this app more feature rich in the near future!

Visit the Note Plus youtube channel to see all the features!!

Category: Productivity
Type: iPad Only

Price for iPad: $4.99

UPAD – Handwriting, Typing, PDF Annotation, Photo Frame!

2011-06-12T02:09:00.000-07:00

Equipped with the best handwrite drawing engine in the world, UPAD will surprise you when you start to write on it with a stylus pen or your finger – because it brings a feeling very close to writing on an actual paper!

UPAD promised smoothness and speed, on top of countless differentiated features from other similar apps.

Let us enlighten you with what UPAD can do.

3 in 1. UPAD is the answer !!!

“Note taking + PDF reader & annotating + Photo editing”

<< 3 modes of UPAD >>

Note PAD

You can begin by choosing one of the many paper style templates.

Select this mode for taking notes in your college classes, documenting

your business meeting with clients, or simple doodling.

Book PAD

Download your favorite books in PDF form via iTunes file sharing

or just open it through “Open in UPAD”. Now you can add memo,

highlight, and make sketches on your PDF files. Want to add Post it?

No problem! Select any color and size for your Post it memo.

Photo PAD

Redesign your photo file by selecting a photo frame, add a comment

or two, and then add decoration with color pencil tool. UPAD gives

you an ability to archive your memories in your own way.

<< Key Features >>

Drawing mode

✔ Draw or write fast with your finger or a stylus

✔ Pen & Highlighter: color & width option

✔ 2 type erasers: pen type & stroke eraser

Typing mode

✔ Simple text adding feature with keyboard

✔ Various font type, size and color option

✔ Background color option

Palm-rest: No need to worry about your palm interfering with your writing

✏ Magnifying input mode: Write precise note as you want to

✏ Zoom-in & out with 2 fingers

<< Additional features >>

✏ PDF export: Transfer notes to PDF files and send it to your e-mail

✏ VGA out : Connect iPAD to your desktop screen or a projector and show UPAD on the large screen for the presentation.

✏ Folder management feature support

✏ UPAD data backup and restore

Cons

There are no shapes recognition like Notes Plus
You can’t make your own Customized Memo background using your own photograph however the available selection is very sufficient for normal usage
You cannot record voice to sync with each page like note plus.

Overall, This application is one of the best note taking application other then “Note Plus” with many of the features but making it simple to use plus a whole lot of new features that any students or lecturers will LOVE to use!

Highly recommended for everyone who have iPAD!

Category: Productivity
Type: iPad Only

Price for iPad: $4.99

World Cup Table Tennis™ – Realistic Table Tennis!!

2011-06-12T01:56:00.000-07:00

Grab your headband, matching track-suit and paddle and represent your country’s colors in some classic table tennis action with WORLD CUP TABLE TENNIS™ from Skyworks®, creators of the best quality and most fun sports games on the iPhone/iPod touch! It’s the fastest sport on a table, and now it’s right here on your mobile device. Feel like a pro, concentrating to catch the corners with each shot. Be precise, even the slightest mistake can lose the game and let down your entire country.

World Cup Table Tennis features four modes: all-new Career, enhanced Tournament, Arcade, and Multi-player/Head to Head. In Career, play against twenty countries. Start with the lowest ranked countries in the world, and go against the top rated countries – all from real world rankings! In Tournament mode, see if you can win the Gold Cup! In Arcade, play a new twist on the classic game with added bonuses! In Head-to-Head Mode, compete in real-time against another player on the same iPhone/iPod touch!

As you play Career, Tournament, and Arcade modes, unlock 8 paddles – with each paddle offering a distinct performance combination of power and spin that you can use against different countries. Wait till you master these awesome new paddles!

In addition to four modes, WORLD CUP TABLE TENNIS features ‘state of the iPhone’ 3D graphics, your choice of music and local and global high scoreboards.

KEY FEATURES:

- New Career Mode: Play against 20 different countries while unlocking 8 different paddles, each with different physics

- Enhanced Tournament: Play for the Gold Trophy in quarters, semis, and the finals! You choose which country you represent.

- Arcade: Table tennis “wall practice” with different targets

- Head-to-Head: Compete in real time against another player on the same iPhone/iPod touch!

- Ten paddles, each with its own physics and game play. Will you have a favorite paddle?

- Play your own Music

- Win achievements in Game Center

- Local and global score boards

- Challenge friends via emails

- Post your scores on Facebook

Cons

At first I thought there’s no pause button but later I realized you can pause a game using the “i” button which may not feel like a pause button.
If you leave your finger off the screen you need to quickly get back to your paddle and the paddle jumps slightly forward, not serious but just saying
Why must your control to your paddle lost during “Service Breaks”
Hope the developer can add in multiplayer online version so you can play with people all around the world! However not in the top down version thou

Overall, this game is highly addictive and you can potentially break a sweat while playing this game!!

Currently the price for the iPhone version is very cheap and the “not yet updated” iPad version is free so get it quick!

Category: Games, Arcade
Type: Separate App

Price for iPhone: $0.99

Price for iPad: Free

Crazy Bunny – Puzzle game !!

2011-06-12T01:51:00.000-07:00

Long long ago, there is a race between bunny and turtle. It ‘s a heroic war in animal world, and takes a very long time to decide who is the king of speed – well, but it has nothing to do with this game..

Ok, the true story is, there is a bunny get crazed because lacking of Vitamin c.

“The world without Vitamin c should be destroyed.” Crazy bunny said cruelly.

So, you, defender of the downtrodden, savior to orphans, chosen one of the god, and taco deliveryman, you will guide the crazy bunny to the ice carrot, which contains much Vitamin c, to save the world from bunny vitamin C deficiency.

How to play:

-Touch and clear bricks except black ones

-Guide crazy bunny to ice carrot

-Don’t let crazy bunny drop down to the ground

Pros

Very simple to play and don’t need too much time per level
suitable for any age
challenging for the last few levels
Relatively cheap

Cons

Too simple for puzzle lovers to repeat playing the beginning levels
Too little levels, I took like 3 hours to complete the whole game

Overall, this game is cute enough for kids & challenging for puzzle lovers for the last few levels to keep me playing until to the very end.

Category: Games, Puzzle
Type: Universal App

Price for iPhone: $0.99

Price for iPad: $0.99