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.

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.
There are two things I’m very sure of. One, Facebook is increasingly the new internet.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.


