Carcassone

Carcassone is considered the classic Euro themed game that gamers play to wean non-gamers into the flock. The game is relatively simple: you compete with other players to assemble and connect different types of structures to earn points. The game allows for up to 9 players including playing against the AI of various difficulty. It also includes support for online play + pass and play. The core game costs USD $9.99 and is well worth it compared to the physical board game price of about USD $ 39.99 or more. You also have the option of two expansion as in-app purchases.

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Monopoly

OK a classic game of Monopoly brings us back to the 80′s. It’s quite fun to introduce this game to the new generation, especially on the iPad. You can pick this up for 0.99 cents — for either the Classic Edition aka “Monopoly” or the “Here and Now Edition” which is basically a spruced up “skinned” version with renamed locations. I honestly prefer the classic. You can’t go wrong with Monopoly.

iTunes 0.99 Classic Monopoly
iTunes 0.99 Monopoly Here and Now

Bang! The Official Video Game

This is the second update for Bang! The Bullet (renamed as Bang! The Official Video Game) for iOS. It used to cost USD $4.99 but the price is now at a more attractive 0.99 cents. We previously made a thorough review of the game when it was updated last year.

iTunes 0.99 Bang! [HD]

Ticket to Ride

Ticket to Ride is again one of those family-friendly board games that has the potential to amount to tons of fun in the living room. Now, instead of setting the whole game up on the floor, why not just play on your iPad or iPhone? The game is very easy to learn. You can spend 5 minutes on the core rules and get going with your friends. Although the game isn’t a universal release, you can download both versions (priced differently) and play via WiFi / Bluetooth.

iTunes 4.99 Ticket to Ride

Caylus

Stunning graphics and beautiful implementation. This is one of the most respected board games and for $4.99?, you definitely can’t go wrong. Gameplay mechanics include huge strategy elements as you try to earn points by building things for your king.

iTunes 4.99 Caylus

Settlers of Catan

Who doesn’t love Catan? Well, unless you can’t bear the fact that this game can take forever, you can always take it with you if you really need to go. The franchise is pretty solid and lives up to its cardboard roots allowing you to purchase expansions and even choose between card art sets. The game also comes with multiplayer and the option for AI controlled opponents.

iTunes USD $4.99 Settlers of Catan

Puerto Rico HD

Definitely another classic, Puerto Rico HD (there are versions for both the iPad and iPhone) brings you back to the days of colonization and exploration. In Puerto Rico, you choose a role and from there gain certain perks to vanquish your enemies through trade, battle or depending on what your personality dictates. You can play with friends or up to three other AI opponents. If you’ve never played this before, the game comes with a built in tutorial

iTunes USD $7.99 Puerto Rico

Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer

Ascension was designed by Justin Gary, one of the pro Magic the Gathering players (check out our interview with him). Ascension stands pretty solid in the deck building genre and is definitely a must have considering it is quite affordable. Last month, the Return of the Fallen Expansion was released for USD 2.99.

Shape Puzzle – Word Learning Game for Kids. This is a jigsaw puzzle game, suitable for young children who are learning to read. Kids can put together a basic jigsaw puzzle in order to create a picture and reveal the name of the picture. What’s more, as the picture puzzles are put together, they all fit into a larger scene, so as to create ongoing fun and learning for little ones. There’s even a free version, so you can try it out before purchasing more puzzles.

Dizzybee. This game is great for kids of all ages. It makes use of your accelerometer to guide a cute bee character through a variety of stimulating puzzles. Dizzybee comes in a free trial version, and a paid version for when you are ready to see your bee friend through new situations.
Sudoku. This classic puzzler is best for older children (and adults) who have the attention span for such a complex mind-bender. The free version from Mighty Mighty Good Games is touted to be the best available. Unfussy graphics allow players to focus on what’s most important and enthralling about Sudoku: solving the puzzle.

Flight Control. Guide a variety of planes toward the traffic controller and make sure they don’t crash en route with this charming puzzle game. A simple user interface and clean graphics make Flight Control a great pastime for kids of all ages, and only for $0.99.

Bejeweled 2. It’s probably safe to say that no iPhone would be complete with a Bejeweled app download. This classic puzzle game is addictive for kids and adults alike. Swipe out brightly colored jewels so as to stack them and clear out rows. Just be sure not to run out of turns The graphics are great and the visceral feel of swiping those jewels is downright satisfying – well worth the $5.99 price tag.

Here you have it: a list of awesome puzzle iPhone game apps that the kids will love (and that you will most likely love, too). The next time you’re in a bind and must find some quick entertainment to calm some rowdy kids, look no further than your iPhone.

Guest post by
Erik Snellbaker always thinks twice before handing his iPhone to his child who wants to play a game. When he’s not monitoring what his kids are doing, he can be found writing about personal finance or helping his friends use Accounting Principals to find new employment opportunities.

Apple critics have long complained about Apple’s walled garden policy that severely restricts the ability of just anyone to develop an app for the iPhone and then sell it. You need to play by Apple’s rules if you want to get inside the so-called garden. This policy may be generating some negative spin for Apple but by all accounts it does work. Apple does make sure that any app that enters the fold and is sold at the App Store is safe for everyone to use. But that assurance has been tarnished with the exposure of a security hole that allows an app that passed Apple’s review to turn rogue.

The vulnerability was revealed by Charlie Miller, an Apple security researcher. The app Miller developed was an innocuous looking stock checking app that communicates with a server located in Miller’s home. The app was reviewed by Apple and was deemed safe. It was made available in the App store. The shenanigan happens after the app is downloaded. The app’s code gets updated remotely and from here on in the app will be able to gather information stored on the phone and send it back to the server. The bad news is that the phone user won’t even have any idea that this is happening because it occurs in the background. The app takes advantage of a security hole in the mobile Safari app that will allow apps to run a code that has not been approved by Apple.

Apple has removed the app from the App Store and has also removed Miller from the Apple developer program.

I sat down to try out Riot Rings for the first time, intending to play for fifteen or twenty minutes. Two hours and dozens of levels later, I knew that Cervo Media was onto something special with their clever little action puzzler.

Riot Rings bears some similarities to Zuma and Luxor, with balls that must be fired to match at least three colored balls on the board, and thereby make them disappear. But Riot Rings brings enough twists to the formula to make its own mark.

The silly backstory claims that animals have escaped from zoos all over the world, and your job is to return them to their captured states. You do this by matching at least three animals — which are shaped like balls, of course — making them disappear from the screen and return to the zoo where they belong. To fire a ball at the track, just tap the spot on the track where you want the ball to land. What makes Riot Rings different is that, instead of levels that simply change the shapes of their tracks between levels, each level is so different it’s practically a completely different game. With more than one hundred levels to play through, the game’s imagination and variation seems to never end.

Every level brings some new challenge, some new wrinkle in its basic gameplay, which goes something like this. In the center of the screen is a catapult that you fire with a tap. The tracks are usually circular or oval in shape, but vary wildly, and often change shape as you’re playing. As you progress through the game, you’ll be challenged with multiple tracks, overlapping tracks, tracks that skip or spurt, clouds that obscure the top-down view, boulders that block part of your range of fire, and loads more. In most levels, new animals come flying in to add to the complications, and they can add up fast. That’s bad, because if so many animals are on a single track that the circle closes, you lose.

There are other challenges too, like giant bees that fly slowly in and try to destroy the catapult; it takes a lot of animal/balls to destroy bees, so you’ll find yourself tapping those bees like crazy until they finally die. Fortunately, the game helps you out with special weapons that appear now and then to give you an advantage. You might see a hypodermic needle that you can pick up and then throw at an animal track, making it slow down or even stop moving altogether. Or there might be food of some kind, which you can pick up and throw, causing a large number of animals to break free from the track and go off to chase it.

In addition to the campaign, there’s a Free Play mode, which lets you revisit any particular level and replay it to try for a higher score; and a Zen Mode, which keeps the game going infinitely, and tasks you with surviving as long as possible. These three modes give the game a high replay value.

If you’re ready for a new puzzle obsession, give Riot Rings a try. You won’t be disappointed. It’s better than Angry Birds!

[Editor's note: this review is based on the iOS version of Riot Rings, but there's also a Mac version available.]

(I swear, if I see one more Angry Birds clone, I may require psychological counseling.)

Galaxart HD
Price: $.99 Free
Category: Entertainment
Made for: iPad

TipClock
Price: $.99 Free
Category: Finances
Made for: iPhone, iPad

Flying Hamster
Price: $2.99 Free
Category: Games
Made for: iPhone

The Last Stand: Zombie Apocalypse
Price: $.99 Free
Category: Games
Made for: iPhone, iPad

Music Spore
Price: $3.99 Free
Category: Games
Made for: iPad

Plush Wars
Price: $.99 Free
Category: Games
Made for: iPhone

ReaXXor
Price: $.99 Free
Category: Games
Made for: iPhone, iPad

Slideshot XL
Price: $2.99 Free
Category: Games
Made for: iPad

Sixth Seal
Price: $.99 Free
Category: Games
Made for: iPad

Snake ’97
Price: $.99 Free
Category: Games
Made for: iPhone

Smart Foods – Organic Diet Buddy
Price: $.99 Free
Category: Lifestyle
Made for: iPhone

SleepMe
Price: $.99 Free
Category: Music
Made for: iPad

Compass Pro Plus
Price: $.99 Free
Category: Navigation
Made for: iPhone

EasyPivot
Price: $1.99 Free
Category: Productivity
Made for: Mac

iPoo
Price: $.99 Free
Category: Social Networking
Made for: iPhone

Wake Journal
Price: $.99 Free
Category: Sports
Made for: iPhone, iPad

As it turns out, Clue: Secrets & Spies for iPad has nothing to do with the board game Clue. It shares the brand image, and there are some peripheral “secret agent” characters referenced who share their names with the iconic Mrs. White, Mr. Green, and so forth, but you won’t spend your time solving a murder or wandering a large mansion filled with deadly weapons. Instead, Secrets & Spies presents you with the standard scavenger hunt wrapped in an excellent presentation.

When you start up the game, it presents you with seven missions, each of which you’re given up to an hour to complete. Each mission is comprised of four standard scavenger hunt screens (several of which are reused in other missions, but with different objects to find), with a list of ten “clue” objects that are unique to that screen. Find the ten clue objects and you succeed. You can take on the four screens in any order you want. The clock starts counting down from one hour when you start the first screen, and it’s up to you to solve the entire mission before time runs out. If you fail, you have to start the entire mission over, though you can pause at any time. You can also get hints, though these must “power up” before each use, and can eat away at your time.

After those first four screens in a mission, you have one more screen to do, but this one comes with a twist: the photo is obscured by night or fog, so you have to use night vision goggles, a flashlight, or fog reduction glasses — which you must find in one of the first four screens — to highlight a small, round section of the photo at a time. Sweep your finger across the scavenger screen and the unobscured area follows your finger. These levels are meant to be more challenging than the standard variety, but I found them easier; something about narrowing the field of vision helped me focus and locate the clue objects a lot faster.

Following the fifth screen, you’re presented with a bonus level. The game mechanic is completely different in these bonus levels. Instead of finding a list of objects, the game presents you with two identical photos. Your task is to locate the tiny differences — and in some cases, I do mean very tiny — between the two pictures. There are fifteen differences for each bonus level, and they’re not listed for what they are, and this is where the majority of your mission’s hour of allotted time will be used, because these are some mighty fiendish puzzles.

The game’s presentation is polished and modern, in a super-spy kind of way, with nice visual touches and effects. The scavenger screens themselves are nice and clear, though the game could have benefited from the option of zooming in; most of the objects are recognizable, but a few were so small I couldn’t see them at all without the help of the hint feature.

The music’s biggest downside is the music — an inane, repetitious elevator music that never varies in any way. Most frustratingly, there’s no option for muting the music without also muting the sound effects. The effects are nice, so I hated to lose them, but I had to mute all the sound just to get rid of that detestable music. So many iOS games — many with lesser production values and no big-name publisher support — offer the option to listen to your own iTunes tracks while you play, but this is a glaring oversight that EA Games apparently couldn’t be bothered with.

Get used to this screen, you'll see it A LOT.

Another annoyance is the long load times between scavenger screens. You’d think that a static photograph that doesn’t move and barely changes (when you find an object, it disappears) wouldn’t use up that much of your iPad’s memory, but I was surprised at just how long it took to load a new scavenger hunt. I’ve played games with seemingly more complex graphics that required much shorter load times between levels.

I bought Clue: Secrets & Spies from the iTunes App Store just before Christmas, during a fantastic $.99 app sale that EA Games was having, and for that amount of money, it was a terrific value. But if you’re considering buying it at its full price, then you should know what you are — and aren’t — getting. I grabbed it assuming it was built on the deductive reasoning mechanics of the Clue board game, and it’s nothing of the sort. Scavenger hunt games are a dime a dozen on the iPad, so I was surprised to find yet another one built around the Clue brand name.

But you can find far worse games than this perfectly enjoyable time-waster.

Skype has updated its iOS App to support video calling to any Skype client on any OS – a far wider reach of devices than those supported by Apple’s FaceTime. The update requires iOS 4.0 and a device with a video camera (4th generation iPod Touch and iPhone). For those iOS devices without a video camera, you can receive a live video feed of your participant.

Besides the massive number of supported of devices, Skype has another feature that sets it apart from FaceTime: 3G support. FaceTime on the iPhone is limited to a WiFi connection but Skype supports 3G and Wifi connections for video calls.

You can download Skype from the App Store

The $1.99 App was removed from the App Store without any explanation although many thought the sensitive nature of the information being shared likely prompted Apple to take action. While many will be quick to cry censorship, Apple could have removed the App for another reason: raising money for a charity.

Apple states that collecting money for charity from iOS App sales is not allowed. The developer behind the unofficial WikiLeaks App was donating half of the profit to WikiLeaks.

Word Lens works in real time and is free for the iPhone 3GS, 4 and 4th generation iPod Touch. The capabilities of this App are simply amazing as it can erase or translate words just by pointing your camera equipped iOS device at any text in a foreign language.

While the App itself is free, dictionaries will cost $4.99 with Spanish being the only one available.

Google Latitude, which launched in February 2009, was not available on the iPhone after Apple asked the search engine giant not develop an iOS App to avoid user confusion between the integrated Maps Application. After living 2-years as a web App, Google Latitude was finally allowed to be developed for iOS devices and was recently approved for the App Store. The App supports real-time location updating even when it’s not running.

New Features Of Google Latitude

With Latitude, you can:
- See your friends on a map – find out who’s nearby and meet up.
- Share your location continuously with whomever you choose – help friends and family stay in touch with you, even when you canÂ’t take out your phone.
- Control your privacy – share only city-level location, hide your location, or turn off background updating at any time.

Google Latitude is available from the App Store for the iPhone 3G, 3GS, iPad and iPod Touch.

If making a cute little ninja scale the tallest trees this side of Endor sounds like fun, then Ninjatown: Trees of Doom is the iOS game for you, available for both iPhone and iPad.

Don’t be surprised if I wind up using the word “cute” too many times in this review. The cartoonish graphics make for an adorable, family-friendly play experience that’s easy to pick up but challenging to master. Trees of Doom is a fun little platformer where you send your little ninja jumping between two trees, avoiding all sorts of obstacles along the way. The higher you climb, the higher your score.

That’s the basic formula, and it never gets more complicated. There are two play modes — Classic and Timed — which are exactly what they sound like. Jump across the chasm and cling to the tree trunks; occasionally you’ll come upon a branch that lets you slingshot a longer distance — usually up and over a particularly tough obstacle. Red mushrooms are like mini trampolines, bouncing you automatically upward whenever you touch them.

Some parts of the tree trunks are lacking bark, making them too slick to grab properly, so you have to move fast to keep from sliding to your doom. Elsewhere you’ll find (inexplicable) oozing purple sap pouring out of the tree trunks; if you touch the sap, game over. Sometimes you’ll encounter floating objects or creatures, suspended between the two trees. The creatures you usually want to avoid if you can because they’ll end the game. Most of the objects are power-ups or bonuses of one type or another, so time your jump carefully to hit them. Some of these objects are unlockable bonuses, such as new outfits that your ninja can wear. (Changing his clothes is as simple as tapping him on the home page.)

The Timed game provides you with distances you must traverse in the time allotted. Make it to the finish line and you’ll be awarded with additional time so you can keep going to the next part of the level. In what’s become the norm for iOS games, the game features interactivity with Facebook and Twitter, so you can post your high score for all your friends to see.

What it lacks in depth, it makes up for in…

Wait for it…

Cuteness.

But you knew that, right?

MobileMe has been the subject of criticism for its previous stability issues, lack of new features and annual fee. Justifying the cost for MobileMe became harder when Apple’s Find My iPhone service – one of the main selling points of the online service – went free. However, Steve Jobs is looking to improve MobileMe.

A concerned MacRumors emailed Steve Jobs about his dissatisfaction of MobileMe stating problems others had (including me) spanning from syncing issues to unreliability. His response below:

I love my iPad and iPhone4 and am a huge fan of yours and all that Apple does. I desperately want to stay inside of Apple’e [sic] ecosystem as much as possible.

However, MobileMe is making it very difficult for me to do so. Unreliable/unpredictable syncing, creating duplicate entries (sometimes scores of them), etc. It’s almost unusable.

And I know from forums (including Apple’s own support boards) that I am not the only one experiencing these very real and frustrating problems.

Please tell me it will get better, and soon?

Steve Jobs replied with his typical short and almost cryptic response.

Yes, it will get a lot better in 2011.

Sent from my iPhone

Steve’s email lacks any sold dates or what Apple will do to improve MobileMe. The one thing Apple needs to do is make MobileMe free as so many free alternatives exist such as Google Sync and Dropbox for file storage in the cloud

that beat Apple’s online service. In the mean time, MobileMe needs its occasional syncing and unreliability issues fixed.

Apple will be calling its version of Folders for iBooks Collections will let you organize your PDFs and eBooks in any way you want. However, Collections won’t let you mix PDFs and eBooks.

 Apple will be adding two new features in the coming iBooks update: AirPrint support and emailing PDFs. AirPrint should work in iBooks exactly how it does in Safari, Mail and Pages but will only support PDFs. In addition, emailing PDFs will be added but it wont be extended to eBooks. 

Reading Apple’s leaked internal document, I’m happy that they’re taking a cue from Folders in iOS 4.0. I have more PDFs than eBooks on varying topics. Sorting them in to a collection makes it that much easier to visualize my  PDFs and eBooks. However, there is no word on when the new update to iBooks will roll out.

9 to 5 also posted the leaked internal Apple documents they received that details how collections will work in iBooks.

Create, rename, or delete a collection: Tap Collections to display the collections list. Tap New to add a new collection. To delete a collection tap Edit, then tap and tap Delete. You can’t edit or remove the built-in Books and PDFs collections. To edit the name of a collection, tap its name. When you finish, tap Done.

Move a book or PDF to a collection: Go to the bookshelf and tap Edit. Tap each book or PDF that you want to move so that a checkmark appears, then tap Move and select a collection. An item can be in only one collection at a time. When you add a book or PDF to your bookshelf, it’s put in the Books or PDF collection. From there, you can move it to a different collection. You might want to create collections for work and school, for example, or for reference and leisure reading.

View a collection: Tap Collections, then tap an item in the list that appears.

You can use iBooks to send a copy of a PDF via email, or to print all or a portion of the PDF to a supported printer.

Email a PDF: Open the PDF, then tap and choose Email Document. A new message appears with the PDF attached. Tap Send when you finish addressing and writing your message.

Print a PDF: Open the PDF, then tap and choose Print. Select a printer and the page range and number of copies, then tap Print. For information about supported printers, see “Printing” on page 39.

You can only email or print PDFs. These options aren’t available for ePub books.

If you’re older than 20 you probably have heard of the Smurfs and maybe even grown up with the little blue dwarfs, created by Peyo. The popular game company licensed the rights to the Smurfs and recently released Smurfy Village.

The story is well known: Gargamel, the sorcerer, has discovered the village of the Smurfs and Papa Smurf and his disciples had to move and build a new village in the forest.

While the game has all annoying Facebook spam habits and wants you to connect with your Facebook account in order to spam everyone’s newsfeed (something they apparently managed to do successfully with more than 200,000 monthly players in little more than two weeks), there is no game on Facebook available.

I must admit that I tend to stay far away from farming games and their addictive mechanism, especially with the ability for them to send Push notifications, reminding one that you need to return and continue farming. Smurfs’ Village has a special kind of charm though, thanks to the almost perfect design.

Not only did Capcom completely nail the Smurfs’ spirit, also the general design and UI of the game are beautiful and a joy to use on the iPad. I had wished that one could have zoomed out more, gaining a view of the completely village once larger.

The game’s dynamics are different to games such as Farmville and Zombieville as well. Rather than farming on all available farm ground and spend all your available credits on craps, Smurf’s Village uses the dynamics of real time strategy simulation games and you can only farm as many fields as you have crops.

The game is also full with mini-games such as Greedy’s Smurf Baking game and while they are entertaining, they quickly becoming boring. After the third play or sooner even.

As most other farming games, Smurf’s Village also has in-game credits to speed farming and building up and buy more items. The main thing about Smurf’s Village is that the game is very well designed and is a real p-leasure to navigate.

If farming apps are your thing this might be a nice addition to your collection and even to your Facebook newsfeed. All in all we do think that Smurf’s Village a cool game is for kids but like any farming game it is massively boring and leads to very much nothing.

While the graphics are nice and it is nice to see Capcom revive the Smurfs, we fail to attribute more than 2 stars for this game because in all honesty, farming games are the new fart apps.

Download the Smurf’s Village for free.

So back when the gulf oil spill took place, somebody thought it would be a good idea to help raise funds for the cleanup by creating an iPhone game themed around the disaster. (Yeah, I really just typed that.)

Puff Puff is the result, a simple little side-scroller that finds you steering a blowfish through the dirty waters to try and avoid the oil spill and other hazards. In addition to the spill, there’s also a healthy coral reef to play through, but there’s no difference in the gameplay at all — only different ocean-y backdrops and dangerous things to avoid. In either game mode, there are power-ups, shields, and lightning bolts to run into in order to get bonuses like extra speed and extended time in a single level.

The control scheme is one of the game’s worst aspects (which is saying something). Holding your iPhone in landscape mode, you pinch your thumbs together at the bottom of the screen to make the blowfish contract in size, causing it to dive. If you spread your thumbs (like you’d typically do to zoom in on a photo), the blowfish will blow up and you’ll float upward. That’s basically it. I found the responsiveness of the pinch-and-zoom scheme sorely lacking, and often the cause of my blowfish’s downfall. Even when it does manage to respond, the dive or climb action happens too slowly to be all that helpful.

Your blowfish starts off at the left side of the screen but occasionally wanders over to the right. And since you’re side-scrolling in toward the right, that means the the objects you’re supposed to avoid and targets you’re supposed to hit appear less than a second before they’re in striking range. It’s salt in the wound of such a poorly-conceived and constructed game.

I’m willing to give anything a good, fair-minded try, but after multiple play-throughs, I’m afraid I found nothing worth recommending about Puff Puff. It couldn’t have possibly required more than a day or two to put together. Its lack of ambition is unforgivable, and it suffers an utter absence of creativity.

There may be plenty of tremendous values in the iTunes store — games that give you tons of bang for very little buck. But Puff Puff is $.99… and you get exactly what you pay for. Maybe less. Only narcissists need apply.

If you want to help with the gulf oil clean up, just make a donation.

Last week I penned a review about the TomTom app for the iPhone, detailing my trip to California and how handy the app was (full disclosure: I was given the app for free for review). Anyways, they updated the app to 1.5, and the new features are pretty cool.

First off, there’s the higher resolution graphics, which are now designed for the iPhone 4′s Retina Display. These are more than just pretty to look at, they really make the app fun to use. But then there’s a big new feature, which is really cool.

It’s called Navigate to Picture, and it does just that. For example, last week I took some shots of my friend’s ’51 Ford on the trailer, right outside of our mutual friend’s house. I used my iPhone 4, so it has the geolocation tagged right into the image. Once I click on the icon, I can plot a route directly to that spot – and it’s specific, too. It’s not just my friend’s house, it’s slightly up the street, which is where I took the picture. That’s cool.

The price has gone up to $49.99, but I still think it’s worth the purchase. It’s still cheaper than a dedicated GPS, and it’s easier to use than Google Maps when driving down the road. Plus the update just puts the icing on the cake. I dig it.

Demino from Purple Wax Games is a study in simplicity. With a single screen, no menu of any kind, and pick-up-and-play ease, Demino manages to create one of the most addictive iPhone games I’ve ever played.

Anyone who’s ever played a game of dominos already knows exactly how to play Demino. The twist on the old formula here is that there are a set number of dominos in a round, and it’s the same set in every round. But with a total of 28 dominos to work through, you only get to see seven at a time. So strategy and planning ahead are required, because relying on luck won’t get you very far.

The idea, of course, is to match tiles that have the same numbers on their ends. If you find yourself lost, you can turn on the Help mode, which will show you which tiles on the screen are compatible with the current tile. The ones available to play will give a subtle dance after a few seconds, swaying back and forth. It’s a clever little visual cue that works well, and since there’s no time limit to the game or penalty for using Help mode, you can afford to use it.

Since there’s just the one screen — just tap the “New” button at the bottom to start a new game — you can open or close the app at any time and it will bring you right back to where you left off. Changing the background color is all that Demino offers in terms of options, but that’s not a terrible thing. Demino knows exactly what kind of game it is, and never tries to be anything else.

Only the most intelligent of players will last through multiple levels. Fans of brain-training games or dominos will find Demino the best $3 they’ve ever spent.

I’m a comic book guy, which means I’m also a fan of web comics, the online version of the Sunday funny pages. One of my usual reads is Ctrl+Alt+Delete, a comic about a goofy kid who loves video games and building cool techy gizmos, but isn’t very socially adept. Well, they’ve officially released an app for the iPhone, and it went live yesterday.

The app isn’t perfect. First off, there are no zooming options on the images, which means you have to squint a bit to read each comic. Second, there’s in app purchasing, which seems a bit odd considering the free nature of the web comic itself. On the plus side, readers have access to lots of comics, making it easy to catch up if need be. It’s free too, which is also nice.

One last thing: Don’t order the iPad version. Yes, it says it’s available, but it’s not working for crap right now. Wait for an update, then go for it.

I had a hell of a weekend.

I woke up around 5:30 or so on Saturday morning, and loaded into a Chevy Tahoe an hour or so later, headed from Arizona to California. My friend Chad owns a ’51 Ford Custom, and it was out being lowered at a shop in Los Angeles. It was time to pick the car up, so we decided to take an empty trailer on the 300+ mile journey, with the plan being to crash at a friend’s house that night and leave early the next morning. Problem was, we didn’t know exactly where that new friend lived. Time to try an experiment.

I received a review copy (read: free) of TomTom for iPhone a while back, with the understanding that I would wait until the new version came out to give it a review. Well I haven’t seen an update yet, but this was the perfect opportunity to try out the app, so I figured I’d give it a shot. Somewhere around Palm Springs we plugged in our friend’s address, and off we went.

Now I’ve owned a TomTom standalone GPS device before, and I loved it. If I had any issues, it would be its size and the length of time it took to recalculate a route. Neither are problems on my iPhone 4.

When the app is first loaded up, it almost always has a problem finding a GPS signal. I don’t care if I’m outside standing in the sun, or inside a truck, it all sucks. But not to worry, that’s only temporary. Plug in your destination and the app calculates out your route, using your newly found location. This app is specific. If we need to be in the far right lane out of four available lanes, it showed us. If we need to make a slight bank, it shows us that too. It’s very handy, particularly when you’re trying to navigate the 91 and 215, or whatever other freeways we happened to come across.

With a standalone unit, the GPS would have to be on the window for a clear line to the satellite. Going through a tunnel breaks the signal, although temporarily. In my tests, the iPhone 4 held the signal steady throughout the entire trip, and never budged. as another added bonus, in the bottom right corner of  the screen is an ETA reading, making it easy to figure out what time you’ll be at your friend’s house.

So would I recommend it? Let’s put it this way: At $39.99, it’s not a cheap app to buy. But we’re going to buy it for my wife’s phone soon, that way she can have all of the same benefits. Not only is it better than a standalone, I can’t imagine going back.

This post is for Catholics who lean towards the developments in technology, courtesy of the Telegraph.  They put together a list of iPhone apps that would certainly catch your fancy.  I am not a Catholic, but I would be interested in getting hold of these apps if I had an iPhone/iPod Touch for cultural/educational value.

A few weeks ago, I reviewed OmniFocus for Mac, a powerful GTD tool for your desktop of laptop. Once I had a copy of OmniFocus in hand, I knew that I had to try the mobile versions. My tasks always seem to come to mind when I’m walking somewhere, far away from my computer. By having a way to add a task on the go, the system comes full circle. The Omni Group gave me a download code for a free copy of OmniFocus for iPad and OmniFocus for iPhone. Once those were installed, I decided to test out the system.

My biggest problem with my previous GTD system, Daylite, what the syncing system. Although it has powerful project management tools, Daylite really needs to be installed on a server somewhere for frequent updates. OmniFocus is much more user friendly. Once you establish where you want to sync your database, just assign the iPhone app to the same destination and you’re golden. You have three options: MobileMe, Bonjour, or WebDAV, so pick your poison and go from there. For me, MobileMe made the most sense, and within just a few minutes I had all my tasks updated and on the go.

The syncing system fires up once the app is opened on the iPhone, which could be a pain if you just wanted to hammer in an entry. Fortunately, there’s a quick entry button available at any time, making it easy to enter tasks. No worries at all.

In my opinion, the iPhone version is best used as a desktop companion so that you can sync on the go, and not really as an independent module. But that’s really how I work, and others may find it best to go  with the iPhone version solo. It’s a bit pricey at $19.99, but it’s so versatile that it’s worth the price.

Whenever I write these reviews, I always think to myself that people think I give high ratings because the program was free.That isn’t the case here, nor is it in any of my reviews. Not only has program changed my life for the better, I find myself using it every single day to get things done. To me, that means a lot.

How do you port something with complex controls like a sports title to a small, touchscreen device. That was the dilemma faced by developers at 2k Sports, but they more than succeeded with NHL 2K11 for iPhone and iPod Touch, thanks to a smart, intuitive interface and gameplay that keeps a firm hold on the fun factor.

NHL 2K11 has to sacrifice a bit on a few specifics and lesser-known hockey rules, but the game in no way suffers for it. If anything, this streamlined version of ice hockey might just be more fun than the real thing, because it’s so fast and fluid. The graphics are quite good, taking advantage of the iPhone’s processing power, and the animations are smooth and realistic. But the real focus should be on the gameplay, which is finely-tuned, with slick controls and an absolutely insane amount of options.

Actual NHL rosters for the 2011 season are at your fingertips, allowing you to pick any two teams to match up. Game modes include Quick Game for jumping into a fast game, Free Skate where you can hone your skills without the pressures of a live game, and Cup in Season mode, which lets you play an entire season’s worth of games, complete with statistics, trades, awards, and even the Stanley Cup itself.

The control scheme consists of a virtual analog stick in the bottom left corner for moving your players around the ice, and three virtual buttons in the bottom right corner for all of your actions, which change depending on whether you’re playing offense or defense. Holding down the buttons powers them up for stronger actions. This power-up ability is what gives the controls their versatility; the same button that lets you check another player will also slam them into the wall if you hold it down long enough.

The most surprising aspect of the game is its nearly infinite customization options, which allows for tons of replayability. This is one area where developers could have been sorely tempted to cut corners, but instead they went all out. In addition, 2k Sports is planning periodic updates throughout the 2011 season, which will keep the game fresh.

My only qualm with the game was that at times, I had difficulty following the tiny, on-screen action, such as which player had the puck. But I imagine this stems more from my own status as non-sports fan, and shouldn’t be an issue for genuine hockey fans.

NHL 2K11 is an incredibly robust title, with intuitive controls and tons of options, and all at the unheard of price of just $1.99 in the iTunes App Store.

A good game doesn’t have to be a terribly deep one.

Take for example, Big Ideas Corporation’s Say What You See, a simple little puzzler app that’s so addictive, it’ll keep you up at night, trying for hours on end to figure it out.

The idea behind Say What You See couldn’t be less complicated. You’re presented with a large, painted mural that has fifty objects within that you have to decipher the meaning of. In the version of the game I played, SWYS: Music Fest, the fifty objects all stand for the names of major pop stars and rock bands. (The mural was painted by fine art painter Amie Bolissan.)

So for example, a half dollar piece in the mural translates to rap star 50 Cent. Most of the solutions are artists you’ll recognize; Madonna and Coldplay are represented, for example, but there were a few from  further down the popularity list that I’d never heard of, like The Saturdays and Elbow.

The big mural takes advantage of the usual pinch-to-zoom and finger-scrolling effects inherent to the iPhone, allowing you to get close-up on any of the fifty objects. There are additional objects in the mural besides the fifty puzzle objects that seem to serve no purpose, such as a large image of a woman in the bottom right corner. I have no idea why she’s there. Fortunately, the game makes it easy to tell the difference between the stuff that’s puzzles and what’s not. Just tap an item and it will bring up a text box if it’s a puzzle. Type in your answer, and if you get it right, you’ll be rewarded with a rock chord and a fun message congratulating you on your victory.

A running tally is kept of how many images you’ve deciphered, and if you should need to look back and see what they are, a handy list is provided when you turn your iPhone horizontally. Points are awarded based on your correct answers, and whether or not you get them right on the first try. And leaderboards are available to compare your scores to your friends’. You can also post your progress to Facebook directly from within the app. Additional puzzle murals are planned for periodic release by SWYS‘s makers, according to their website, such as 80s movies and books that have been made into movies.

The only issue I experienced with the game was a lack of responsiveness to some of the buttons on the main menu. Frequently when I first started up the game, the “Resume Current Game” button would not respond until I’d tapped it a good eight times or more. Another button on the Profile creation page reacted much the same way. But this small problem is worth pushing past, because the game itself is so clever.

I enjoyed the heck out of See What You Say, and I give it my personal recommendation. And its $.99 bargain price makes it a must-have. Bring on the new puzzles — I can’t wait!

My wife has a problem. A few years back, she was all about PopCap games online. She’d play them for hours, and things would just get left on the wayside. She ended up giving up cold turkey one day, and things have never been better.

Then I bought Plants Vs. Zombies for my iPhone [iTunes link]. I now completely empathize.

Plants Vs. Zombies is one of those addictive games that’s difficult to put down. The premise goes that you’ve got a house with a lawn in front of it. Populate the lawn with plants with various attributes – some of them shoot, some of them provide energy to get more plants – and then wait for the zombie onslaught. Next thing you know, you’ve lost four hours of time and your fingers are cramped so bad that you can’t pick up a pencil.

With each level, things go up another notch and then another. I literally lost an hour on the game last night, all while I was trying to be productive and get things done. As if that wasn’t enough, there’s also an iPad version with more room for more plants and zombies. Awesome.

I love gaming on the iPhone, but not all of them translate that well to the small screen. In this case, it does so beautifully.

For people like me, CopyTrans is something that might be useful. It is software that makes it easy to transfer music from iPods/iPhones to the computer. I am sure that, at one point or another, you’ve found yourself looking for a program that will allow you to transfer the contents of your iPod to your computer. CopyTrans does just that – with a single click.

It actually has two modes – Smart Backup and Manual Backup. The former mode is that one that beginners will find helpful. One click and your iTunes library will contain whatever it is that is in your iPod. This will work perfectly if iTunes is empty or has missing tracks (that are in your iPod). And yes, you can say that this option is perfect for us who cannot afford to spend too much time figuring out which tracks to transfer. The Manual Backup mode, on the other hand, gives a lot more control to the user. In this mode, you can pick out tracks to transfer. You can even decide which details (of a track) to include in the transfer. If you’re in a finicky mood, then this mode will match that perfectly.

Even if your iTunes library is more organized than an accountant’s balance sheet, you might still find some use for this software. In the unfortunate event that you lose all your music in your hard drive, CopyTrans should come in handy.

You can check the software out for yourself at the CopyTrans web site. Oh, and yes, the latest version is compatible with iTunes 9 and iOS 4, but the suite doesn’t run on Mac.