1st Impressions

OK.  I admit.  This is first part is a bit of a rant.  The one thing I hate the most about the iPhone is the hubris of Steve Jobs in thinking that no one can do it better than he can.  The internal clock app is a perfect example.  While not allowing other developers to run background processes (like an alarm clock) because of alleged performance issues and battery drain, it’s actually all about control.  Steve has no problem at all with you running an alarm clock in the background as long as it is HIS alarm clock.  The iPhone is basically marketed as not only a phone, but a mini-computer with thousands of programs that you can run on it – as long as they are programs that Steve approves of.  If Microsoft were to sell you a computer and only allow you to run their chosen programs on it, folks would go nuts.  If GM were to sell you a car and tell you where you could drive it, they’d go nuts.  But in the cult that is Apple, the sheeple buy the party line of “it’s for our own good” and see the hubris of Mr. Jobs as a good thing.  But, thinking outside the box, now there is an app for that…or rather to get around that.  Fishbone Studios has, until Steve figures out someone has created a better mousetrap, created an app that gets around the “background processes” limitations of the iPhone and does it in style.  The way they did this is pure genius.

Alarm Clock is a $0.99 utility in the App Store that gets around the “background processes” limitation of the iPhone with an ingenious use of push notifications – alarms that are synchronized with a push server.  It is such an obvious solution that it leaves you smacking your forehead for not thinking of it first.  Not being satisfied with getting one over on Steve though, they went further and created one of the most comprehensive and feature-rich clock apps I’ve ever seen.  Not only does it support both portrait and landscape modes, but the interface is fully customizable with built-in themes and manual overrides and will allow the user to select separate brightness levels for both the clock and the background.  Even fonts (standard or italics) can be selected.  Alarms can be chosen from included sounds or selections from your iPod library (shuffled or not) and can be faded in over a chosen period of time.  Snooze times are also configurable up to 30 minutes and alarms can be set to repeat on certain days of the week.  The alarm can trigger the standard push notification, no push notification at all, or a selection of a couple of other sounds.  This is in addition to the sound selected for the alarm itself.  (Be warned though that without the push notification set to trigger the alarm, you need to have the app running in order for the app itself to trigger it.)  One of the handiest features though is the built-in flashlight mode.  If your alarm goes off in the dark, a shake of the iPhone will fade in a “flashlight” white screen to illuminate your surroundings.

This app is so feature-rich that I had to really search for my typical list of suggestions….but I did come up with a list.  Right now, the app has very few built-in sounds and no access to the iPhone’s regular alarm sound library.  The ability to choose any sound from your music library allows for all kinds of opportunities, but it would be nice if there were other alarm sounds available.  Also, while the alarms can be repeated on particular days of the week, it would be nice if they could be set like a calendar function with specific dates and repeat weekly, monthly, annually, and so forth.  I don’t know if there is a way to have a “silent” push notification that automatically triggers the selected alarm sound from the app, but that too would be cool.  Maybe one way around this is to have the required push notification to play a selected song from the iTunes library at the selected volume level so that “viewing” the push notification is not required in order to hear the selected alarm sound.  Finally, and this is the one feature I expected and was surprised not to find, it would be cool if you could select an image from your own photos to use as a background.  That, in conjunction with the adjustable placement of the clock digits, would make this app pretty much perfect.

All in all, I’m very impressed with this app.  With push notifications for an alarm turned off, it acts like most other alarm apps.  With them turned on (particularly with that obnoxious “digital nightstand” sound), it alerts/wakes you no matter what you have running.  If/when Apple ever allows a push alert to automatically launch an app, you’d already have all your alarms set up for that.  For those of you that ask me privately if I’d recommend this app for you, the answer is yes.  It’s a buck well spent and definitely makes my Must Have list as it will be replacing the other alarm apps on my iPhone permanently.  The fact that it gets around some of Steve Jobs hubris is just icing on the cake.   Even if you don’t use your iPhone as an alarm clock, support the ingenuity of this great little work-around.

PathPix is not my ordinary review here.  In fact, it is extraordinary.  I usually don’t review things other than iPhone apps, but in this case I make an exception for two reasons.  First, this PC app now has a iPhone port, and second, the game is extraordinary in every sense.  I’ll be doing a separate review of the iPhone port, but until then, here is what the PC game is all about.

PathPix, at it’s core, is a graphical logic game.  It reminds me of a cross between paint-by-number, Sudoku, and Nonograms.  Created by Kris Pixton, the game features grids of varying size filled with numbers designated with different colors.  The concept is simple.  Connect the dots so that the total number of covered squares matches the numbers indicated at the ends.  In other words, if you are dealing with a black 5, it has to connect to another black 5 with three squares in-between so that, when you add in the two ends, you get five squares total.  When you do that, you end up with a line covering the area in the color shown by the number.  Sometimes this isn’t as easy as it sounds though because you run into a brick wall, so to speak; a red line that cannot be crossed and has to be gone around.  As the puzzle nears completion, you actually start developing a picture.  Once the puzzle level is complete, the grid disappears, the colors merge together, and the full picture is revealed.  In the example posted here, it is pretty obvious that we’re creating a lighthouse.  In other cases though, I you don’t really see the pattern until the image is complete.

To help with this process of finding the single way the level can be solved, the PC version of the game has a couple of nice features.  If you hit the “/” key, it will indicate if the puzzle is correct so far.  It doesn’t indicate where the errors are though.  You are left to find those and fix them yourself.  If you need the additional help though, the “F” key will “fix” any incorrect paths by removing them and allowing you to try a different path to connect the numbers.  This comes in very handy when there are multiple blue 12’s, for example, in a single area and you are not even sure which pair of them are supposed to link up.  These options are also available from the menu.  Finally, as you near completion, you may loose track of what pairs remain to be connected.  This is real easy with the 2’s as, but default and design, the have to be right next to each other.

PathPix is one of those games that is both simple to learn, and compulsively addictive.  The “reward” you get upon completion when you see the final solution is a lot like finishing a jigsaw puzzle.  It makes you want to “just start” a new one.  Problem is that once you start it, you don’t want to put it down.  Like a jigsaw puzzle where you really need to do something else but are going to find “just one more piece first”, I found PathPix to be more addicting than any game I have played on any platform in quite a while.  I just had to have more.  Luckily, the free demo version offered, while providing hours of game play with the included 25 levels, isn’t all that there is to the game.  When purchased for $19.99, you get 26 extra puzzle packs (in addition to the 30 “regular” packs) for a total of 1,400 levels.  Some of these have grids as large as 63×43…significantly larger and more complex than the easy 12×12 grids that get you started in the game.  And new packs are made available on the web site for registered users to download for free.  An average 30×30 grid takes me about 30 minutes to complete.  This equates to roughly 700 hours of game play for $20.  That comes out to about 1.75 cents per level or less than 4 cents per hour of entertainment…a steal in any economy.

The game offers both background music and sound effects.  Both can be turned off or on, but volume adjustment isn’t an option.  The background music is MIDI files, and you can add your own from any source to have in the background as you play.  As you play through puzzle packs, the number of solved puzzles shows up next to the puzzle pack name, and as you open the pack, a thumbnail of a solved level shows up to indicate which ones have already been solved.  This makes it easy to find a particularly entertaining level that you may want to clear and replay.  The game also allows for different user profiles so that you can keep track of your own progress separately from another player on the same machine.

My selections for this game would be very few.  I’d love volume settings for the sound and music, notifications when new packs are available for download, buttons on the top for checking for and fixing errors, and, most of all, I’d love some kind of editor so that users could create and upload their own puzzle packs.  I am not sure how these levels are created to begin with, but if users were able to create these and upload them, it would be really cool.  One last suggestion would be upgraded graphics.  I can understand the need to have something that would run on OS versions going all the way back to Windows 98, but does it have to look like something from six operating systems ago?  If a “new and improved” version allowing for in-game downloads and uploads of new content is considered, some new buttons and such might make the GUI a little more 21st century.

Overall, if I were to give this game “stars” on a 5-star spread, it would definitely get 5 stars.  While I do offer some suggestions of how this almost-perfect puzzle/logic game can be improved, none of those things distract from the game play or overall enjoyment of the game.  It’s a “Must-Have” in my book!

If you like Chillingo’s Toki Tori, probably the best platform game for the iPhone, or are a fan of the  Ice Age movies, then their new Ice Age: Dawn Of The Dinosaurs is not only a must-have app, but a GET IT NOW! app.  Originally introduced at $4.99 (and what I paid for the game), it is a downright steal right now at $0.99 sale price.  The game comes with a very Toki Tori feel to it, but you are using Scrat, the saber-toothed squirrel from the movie, to collect acorns.  You do this by climbing around, pushing and moving things, jumping, and so forth.  As the game progresses, you are introduced to new things you can do with helpful little signs.

The game comes with four different environments to explore.  Each area has nine different “chapters” to play.  This give you 36 different levels to explore.  It may not sound like much, but doing all the right things at all the right times in order to collect all the acorns on a level is not always an easy task.  It will take you hours to get though the game.  One thing that helps, which I didn’t discover early enough, is the ability to do a two-fingered pan to move around and see more of the levels and obstacles than what fit on the screen in regular resolution.  If I could suggest one thing to the developers (besides more levels), it would be a pinch/zoom feature that seems oddly lacking.

Overall, the graphics are excellent, the game-play both casual and oddly rewarding, and I give the game a big thumbs up.  It makes my my must-have list at this $0.99 price point.  You can do a whole lot worse.

There are two things I’m very sure of.  One, Facebook is increasingly the new internet.  One recent article I read said it makes up 25% of US internet page views.  There doesn’t seem to be a way to stop it.  The second thing I’m sure of is that the Facebook Birthday Calendar application is the most useful application on the site.  It is one of my primary reasons for being there.  And now, they have an iPhone application that brings all that to your fingertips.

In a recent review, I mentioned how to get the birthdays of all your Facebook friends into your calendar.  With this app, that is not necessary.  Instead of needing your calendar app in order to notify you of a friend or relative’s birthday, this $1.99 app will do that for you.  The interface is what you would expect from a quality application.  The person’s profile picture is displayed along with their birthday.  It also displays if you have alerts set for the individual and if you have contacted them and how.  Tapping their entry will bring up a page of options to view their Facebook profile, write on their wall, email them, call them, send them a Facebook gift, send them a text message, and so forth.  You can also set whether to give you alerts to this person’s birthday.

Application options include what time of day you want to be alerted, whether you want an alert 3 days or 7 days ahead of time, the email address you want to use for reminders (in addition to application alerts), how many events you want downloaded at one time, and which national and/or religious holidays you want to also show up on the calendar. And, if your friend or relative is not on Facebook, there is an option to add in their information manually.  And, as you would expect, any changes to your settings on the application will sync to your online Facebook Birthday Calendar.

My only complaint about the application is minor.  When you sign in with your Facebook email and later enter your email address for alerts, you do so with the default iPhone keyboard.  It would be nice if your alert email defaulted to your Facebook email and if it used that email-friendly keyboard layout that had the “at” symbol and period on it.  Also, it would be nice if there was a way to link a Facebook Friend to their contact entry in your iPhone address book without it actually marking them as having received an email, text message, or phone call.  I would think that this would fit nicely in the Modify window of the Friend Details where you can currently edit their name, add a birth year, or mark if the year is unknown.

As far as suggestions go, there are probably limits to what Facebook and the iPhone would allow.  If possible, it would be nice to have an option to update contact info in the address book with new friends’ profile pictures and birthdays.  If there was a way to capture or cut-and-paste contact information from the person’s Facebook profile information screen and get that into their iPhone contact record, that would be cool as well.  I’d also like to see an option to go the other way with information.  If the application could scan your contacts in your address book and find any records with a birthday field and automatically add those or link those to the Facebook list, that would be a plus as well.  Finally, with an option to go to your own profile, this application could even replace the native Facebook iPhone app.  You can still view your news feed, change your status, and so forth, but it takes a jump to your page from the profile page of one of your friends to get there.

Overall, I’d give this application 9 out of 10 stars.  It’s almost perfect and makes my Must Have list.  If you would like to give the application a spin without spending the $1.99, you can check out the free lite version that  disables the option to call/text/email your birthday greetings.

If there were ever two things that don’t go together, it’s pregnancy and drugs.  When my wife was pregnant, she was cautious to the point of being paranoid.  Now, you don’t have to be paranoid because there’s an app for that!

The $2.99 application is, in my eyes, a must-have application for anyone who is pregnant, planning on getting that way one day, or loves someone that will.  By looking up a drug’s name, you are not only shown warnings as it relates to human pregnancy, but also animal studies on things like pregnant rats and mice, and information for post-pregnancy labor and nursing.  You can also bookmark a drug for easy location later.

I didn’t find the drug database in this to be as robust as the one in Side Effect Check, and I also had an issue in the email function where it sent a “{null}” emails instead of the information described on the screen, but I found this to be a very useful application.  It makes my Must Have list.

Two new games have hit the App store recently that follow in the genre of those parking lot puzzles or traffic puzzles where you attempt to move the pieces around until you free a designated one. In this case, the designated one is appropriatly identified as the Blue Block. The clean interface of the game is due in large part to the lack of concentration on different kinds and/colors of vehicles. This game offers a simple GUI and graphics that do not distract from the goal at hand.  It makes up for that typical eye-candy with a massive puzzle database. When I say massive, I mean to convey an almost limitless supply.

Blue Blocks is currently free and contains a virtually endless number of levels (literally tens of thousands) starting with kiddy difficulty levels and immediate levels and going up. Virtual endless game play at a current price of zero should be a no brainer… ButWait!!!!  There’s More!!!

Not to be satisfied with the free Blue Block game, the developers took a common genre and stepped it up a notch. They added an additional blue block. This makes any given level twice as difficult. The almost 4,500 games in this pack are devided between medium, hard, and expert difficulties. If you want something at the kiddie or easy level, go back to the free game.  The difficulty levels seem well set. My attempt at the very first level ended me finishing with close to twice as many moves as it could have been done by a master at these. I learned real quick that I am no master. LOL

The game interface is simple.  Pieces slide with the swipe of a finger just as you would expect.  The status bar across the top displays your chosen difficulty level, the puzzle level you are working on, the number of moves you should be able to complete it in, and, in my case above, the fact that it took me almost twice that to complete it.  Once a level is complete, you can choose to re-play it and try to better your score or to move on to the next level.

I do have a few suggestions for the game(s).  First, I like it when a game has multiple player profiles.  My iPhone is the only one in the house and more than one person plays games on it.  Second, while I would not like a timer to stress me while I played the game, it would be nice if the level selection screen that showed how many moves a complete level took also displayed the time it took you.  Where this could really benefit is if the game added an online leader board that showed a score calculation based on your speed and a percentage of par.  Ability to optionally post these scores to Twitter and/or Facebook as some other games allow would not only allow for a bit of bragging, but also drive some attention to the game.  Finally, I would love to be able to move a piece, change my mind, and move it back without it counting as a move.  My scores are going to be plenty high as it is without my fat-finger mistakes adding to it.

Overall, I’d give this pair of games a solid 10 out of 10.  They make my Must Have list and have replaced any of the competing products on my iPhone.  Close to 40,000 combined levels for a total price of $0.99 is an incredible bargain.  If you want to try the double-block harder levels without the $0.99 expense, there is even a lite version that offers 50 puzzles for you to try.  My recommendation is to skip that though and grab Blue Block while it is free and Blue Block Double while developer still has it at a $0.99 price.  It’s worth a lot more.

Transformations is an INCREDIBLE word game.  It is definitely a Must Have for anyone that likes crosswords or any other kind of word game.  For $0.99, you get 2,000 puzzles like the one pictured.  Each word is changed a particular way, called a transformation, from the one it connects to.  This can include adding a letter (or two), re-arranging the letters, replacing a letter, and words that sound the same.  It is definitely a mental challenge.  If you get stuck, a two-finger tap on the screen brings up a menu to change to a different puzzle, fill in a letter, show your errors, and even an option to move on to another level.

The game offers three different difficulty levels and two different modes of play.  One is relaxing, and one is timed and you try to complete as much as you can before you run out of whichever time limit you select.  You get points based on the number completed puzzles and the number of correct letters on the current one when the time runs out.  The game also has the nice feature of allowing you to play music from your library while playing the game.

My suggestions for this almost-perfect game are few.  A leader board reflecting how long a particular level takes to complete would be nice.  Adding a transformation for synonyms would make for a nice addition.  Additions to the game is not what makes it just barely less than perfect though.  The keyboard is custom.  It has that “delete word” key on the bottom left.  The keyboard has a slightly different feel to it from the default iPhone keyboard though.  On a couple of occasions, I found myself having to tap a letter twice.  It doesn’t negatively impact overall game play, but if it was refined a bit, it would make this truly a masterpiece.

Overall, if I were to rate the game, I would give it a 9.5 out of 10 stars.  It’s that good.  If the $0.99 isn’t enough to make you want to rush out and get this, a lite version containing 40 puzzles is available for you to try.  If you like word games though, skip the lite version and go for the full thing.  It is guaranteed to bring you hours and hours of fun and challenge.

Cubit is a great little game that just hit the App Store in August.  It is a wonderfully executed puzzle game.  As you can see in the screen shot, the top of the screen has three views that show you where your block(s) reside from three different perspectives.  The goal is to move it/them so that the numbers on your “key” at the top correspond with the number of sides that are touching.  The numbers turn yellow as you achieve that goal.  As you move your finger around on the bottom of the screen, your field of play rotates around so that you can view it from any angle.  By touching a block, you can move if forward/backward, left/right, and/or up/down.  It sounds a lot more complicated than it really is.  It is actually very intuitive and the means of play in no way gets in the way of the game.

In many ways, this game reminds me of the old Nonogram style games.  In this case though, it has been elevated to 3D.  It is this increasing level of complexity with a small playing field that is perfect for the iPhone.  Larger puzzles with massive grids would be too difficult to casually play.  I would, however, love to possibly see 4×4 grids added in the future.

Some real thought went into this game.  There is no timer or anything to cause you stress.  As you finish a level, you can post the fact that you completed it on Twitter.  The first few levels are nothing really to brag about though.  If this feature were disabled until you got into more advanced levels, that would be fine with me.  Other thoughtful things are that you can leave the game at any time.  When you come back, it not only remembers what level you were on, but the position of your blocks as you left them.  If you get stuck, you can skip to the next level (as long as you stay in the same difficulty level of 20 puzzles) and return to the current one at another time.  As you get close to completing the puzzle, it will even tell you how many moves it will take to finish it.  While sometimes this appeared helpful, when you are really stuck, it is a taunt at how close you are.   One undocumented feature is that you can turn off the sound in the game and listen to your iPod library of music while playing the game.

My suggestions are few.  I’d love for there to be some hint system for the more difficult puzzles.  When you are getting up to 5 different blocks to move around, it would be nice of you could replace the actual view of things as displayed on the top with the front, side, and top view of what the solution looks like.  In other words, you would see the solution represented graphically instead of numerically.  Having both modes of play would really help, I would think.  The only other suggestion I would have is to add additional levels that are generated on demand and/or levels with an increased playing field size.  While I think the higher levels of the game are probably smarter than I am and I’m likely to never get finished with them all, I could see the benefit of having more puzzles available in the cheaper difficulty levels.

The game currently consists of 100 different levels that get increasingly more difficult.  If the $2.99 price tag is too much for you, a free lite version is available that contains the first 15 levels.  And, if you can wait until September 5th, the app will be on sale for $0.99.  At that price, it definitely makes my Must-Have list for any puzzle fan and deserves the 5-star rating in the App Store.  While I don’t give out stars here, this game made it to my single partially-full iPhone screen of favorites.  So, out of the hundreds (300-400) apps and games I’ve tested and/or reviewed, this makes it to my list of top 10-15 games.  So my suggestion is simple.  Download the Lite version to play with for the next 72-hours, then grab this thing while it is on sale.  You won’t regret it.

UPDATE: Seems that once you get past the novice and beginner difficulty levels (40 puzzles), you do get into 4×4 grids.  This means that you have 64 possible positions for blocks instead of 9.  My genius son played some of these higher levels (as well as everything before them), but found it more difficult to maneuver the blocks where you wanted them.  It became frustrating.  It also revealed the need for keeping track of user progress for more than one user.  If I am any indication, the game gets too difficult at some level that probably differs from one person to the next.  That is why I would love to see it generate new levels within a certain selected difficulty level.

To be perfectly honest, arcade games are not a huge attraction for me.  As I’ve said before, I am more of a puzzle kind of game.  Arcade games just never hold my attention…until this one came out.

Inkvaders is a new title from Chillingo.  I predict that is is going to be a huge seller for them.  The game is pretty much perfect in every way.  Controls are easy.  The left thumb-pad controls the direction you head.  The right thumb controls your jetpack and your firing of your selected gun. An icon in the top corner shows you level of ammunition for your gun.  Tapping that icon lets you choose a different weapon.  Up to 15 different weapons are available in the “vending machine”.

Game play is very smooth.  Your goal is to kill all the zombie-like aliens that are beaming down to the planet/moon depicted by your current level.  Three different locations are available for play.  As you collect points from marked boxes or by killing aliens, you are offered upgrades and additional weapons in the vending machine.  You also collect points by using your jetpack to “catch” stars and asteroids that are above you.  Ammunition and jetpack power run out though, so you have to be careful about when/how you use them.  Run out of ammo and/or jetpack power, and your ability to avoid the aliens gets severely limited.  If they get too close, they “zap” you and your health decreases until you die.  Loose all your lives and the game is over.

Three different difficulty modes are available.  The game also comes with an “endurance” mode so that you can play as long as you wish.  The ability to leave the game and resume it is a real plus.  At the $0.99 intr0ductory sale price, this game makes my must-have list.  It is a ton of fun for a buck.  Although I didn’t need it, my only suggestion would be for there to be an option to reverse the controls for those that are left handed.

This free app immediately made my Must Have list.  It is the best app I have seen for finding those great bargains in the app store.  What really sets it apart is not only the push notifications, but the ability to filter each category by all sales, bargains of 50% off or more, and price drops to free.  Viewing popular apps with price drops is also cool.  The only issue I had with the app is that it doesn’t seem to have a full database.  I wanted to add the new Civilization Revolution game, for example, and it could not find it.  And when I searched for Myst, it apparently used it as a wildcats ( like *myst*) and the title was buried deep in the long list of mystery and mysterious stuff.  I’d also like to see some way to limit searches and displayed apps to only selected categories.   I am not complaining though. For a free app, it’s a bargain and very useful. Check it out.