1st Impressions

Quick News is my new Must-Have $0.99 application. It is a basic interface to ten mobile-friendly national news sites. A default can be chosen, and selections can be made from TV networks, cable news networks, national newspapers, and news services. A little bit for everyone.

I have one suggestion that would make this app perfect. I would love for it to use your local location and include the closest local stations in the mix as well. I prefer to get my local news from local sources. One other thing they could add is links to audio versions of some of these sources.

Even without these wish list items, it is a great and simple app that will stay on my iPhone for some time to come.

Numbers is my new Must Have $0.99 puzzle game. A free light version is available, but save your time any go for the full version. The premise is simple, but the proper solution may take you a while. Basically, you are given a pattern of numbered blocks to duplicate. When you put a new piece down, it has a value of 1. But it also ADDS 1 to any pieces on the four sides of it. This means that pieces must be placed in the right order in order to match the goal pattern. If you think this sounds challenging, you would be right.

The game comes with over 100 levels. My hope is that more will be on the way. As you progress in the levels, you can used earned credits to purchase new board themes, new level packs, and/or use the credits earned here on/in the developer’s other games like SlideIt. The one huge thing I would like to do is to play without the pressure of the timer. I just think fast enough or remember well enough to either beat the clock or start over.

The unique game play and over 200 current levels makes this game a great buy in my book and I’ve added it to the Must Have list.

I couldn’t do a review of Castle Smasher without following it up with it’s opposite.  In case you have not seen StickWars, it is a $0.99 hit at the iTunes store.  A light version is available for free.  

In the app, you play the defender of the castle.  You can capture guys and turn them into archers, repairmen, and “wizards”.  They can help you repel the attacks.  While Castle Smasher requires some thought, this game is primarily about reaction.  No thought necessary. 

The game has options for sound, music, level of blood (screen shot has it on high), and so forth.  To defend your castle, you can “flick” the little stick guys up in the air high enough so that the fall kills them.  Of course the archers do a good job of eliminating as well.  And, if you have wizards, they can launch meteors down on them.  If you have enough prisoners caught, you can even send them out with bombs on a kamikaze mission.  

Overall, the game play is very similar to the game that is supposed to have started this genre, Defend Your Castle.  While it is at the same price point, and I have purchased and tried both, I find StickWars to be much more intuitive and configurable of the two.  If you are only going to get one, make this one your pick.  Because of the price point and the unlimited nature of game play, this one gets added to my Must Have list.

If the iPhone is not your first trip around the PDA block, you need no intruduction to QuickOffice. And the version for the iPhone does not disappoint. It lives up to every expectation. The ability to have Word documents and Excel spreadsheets on the iPhone is great. I uploaded a 60-page document and a 1MB spreadsheet with thousands of formulas in it, and it handled it with no problem.

While it doesn’t natively sync to your documents folder, there is a really slick web browser interface for uploading and downloading files over Wi-Fi. You can also email local or remote files, drag and drop files to your iPhone as a mounted drive, and access what you have on MobileMe.

I’ve only scratched the surface of what this app will do. It is a $20 app and I recommend a visit to the QuickOffice.com web site for all the details.

Pro Camera has been a review that was a long time in coming.  But, as they say, good things come to those that wait.  In short, this app is a Must-Have if you use your iPhone camera much.  Like other of my Must Have apps, this is how Apple SHOULD have done it.

Pro Camera has some awesome features.  First, it cleans up your memory to speed up performance if you are running low on memory.  Once the application starts, the first thing you notice is the “level” indicator in the middle of the screen that uses the tilt sensor of the iPhone to show you when your shot is lined up level.  Can’t tell you how many recent vacation photos had to be edited because my other digital camera (definitely not the photographer!) took crooked photos.  Pro Camera fixes that problem.

You can quickly take a photo by tapping anywhere on the screen.  Once taken, a preview is shown and you can choose to save it or discard it.  If you choose to save it, it becomes a background process and you can continue to take another photo.   If that were not all, it also has an image stabilazation feature.  Touch that icon and as soon as your iPhone’s accelerometer shows no movement, it snaps the photo.  The included self-portrait mode lets you get into the photo as well.

All in all, it is a wonderful app.  Definitely worth the $2.99 price tag considering all it does.

Actions is more than a To-Do list. It is a task manager. And it is EXCELLENT! Not only can tasks (or “actions”) be assigned to project lists, but you can also them to a “context”. The context can be a location or something else. And, as you would expect in a quality app of this type, start dates and due dates for each action can me set. Basically you get a lot of the power of a project management system without the confusing complexity.

Actions also adds a goal of creating a “chain” by linking each day in which you complete a task. This graphical reminder, along with the numerical icon indicator of due tasks, really helps with the procrastination issue. Not only does this $9.99 app make it to my Must Have category, but it also gets moved to my main screen.

My recommendations are few. I’d love the ability to trigger an action context based on GPS location or wi-fi connection. Ability to prioritize actions and link an action to a contact would be nice additions as well. Finally, it would be nice to be able to sync the actions to a desktop and/or online version. But don’t let the “could be better” suggestions distract from the fact that it is a wonderful and fully functional app right now. I’m just excited about where this app may head in future versions.

iRealSMS is what Apple should have included in the iPhone to begin with. When you get a text message, it pops up and allows you to respond without leaving your current application. If you need to contact someone while you are playing a game or something, you can’t launch the app with the volume up button. It searches your contacts as you start typing their name. Once you select one, you can choose to either send them a message or call them. It even counts down your remaining characters as you type out a message.

iRealSMS has its own message database that allows for searches and storage of messages in folders (including drafts and templates) as well as landscape mode. It also allows you to save a sender to your contacts. You can also select to use the default Apple app for messages if you prefer. An unread message count can be displayed in the status bar as well as the app icon. If you don’t need all the features of iRealSMS, there us a iRealQuickSMS version that just contains the QuickSend and QuickReply features. I’ve used both and believe both belong in the Must Have category. If I had one suggestion, it would be to add the character count to the QuickReply box like it is on the QuickSend box. I believe that to be scheduled in the next release though.

Both iRealSMS and iRealQuickSMS require a jailbroken phone. They are 9.99€ and 3.99€ respectively and are available via Cydia. The program also work in a demo mode. A full feature list and community forum can be found at irealsms.com.

The much anticipated Uniwar for the iPhone has now arrived. I am new to this genre of games, but really wanted to check this out. In short, a micro-review is not going to do this game justice. TouchArcade has a more lengthy review and active forum topic that might help convince you if I don’t.

UniWar is a turn-based multi-player online strategy game. If you have no one to play with or are not online, you can play against the computer. You can play solo or on a team, up to eight players per game, and you are not limited to playing a single game at a time. When playing against others, email alerts let you know when it is your turn. If you are online and playing live, an alert let’s you know so there is no delay in turns. Turn play is pretty simple. Keeping the domination goal in mind, select to move, build, and/or repair something and tap the check icon to complete the turn. This makes game play smooth and fairly quick. At least that is how it plays on a small map with a single enemy. I’m sure the more advanced you go with your options and more units you have to deal with, the more time it will take.

There is a ton to this game. Players choose one of three different races to play, and one of 50 different maps to play on. Initially I wished all of the maps were unlocked, but decided this is probably a good idea as it may help to match similarly skilled players.

Online documentation is scarce, but for us noobs, there is tutorial help if you start in single-player campaign mode.  A full blown FAQ in the game would be nice though. So would additional campaigns for when these run out. It would also be cool if clients existed on other platforms that you could play against as well.

The game is currently at $0.99 as an introductory price. It will eventually go up to $7.99. At the current price point though, this us one of the rare games that make my Must Have list. There is just too much there at a buck to pass up. So snatch it up while you can and look for djeaton online…as long as you are gentle with me.

Time Box fits in a common puzzle game genre. The object is to roll around a box so that you can eventually stand it up on the designated square to exit that level. If you have played games like Edge ($4.99 for 43 levels) or CubicMan Deluxe ($2.99 for 100 levels), you know what I mean. The thing that sets this FREE app apart is that on top of the 54 levels that are included, the game has a random level generator. That and the price puts it in the Must Have list for me. You can’t beat unlimited free gameplay.

Time Box comes with 8 “worlds” to explore and the randomly created levels can be assigned three different sizes and three different difficulty levels.  You can’t really ask for more.

I have recently made some disparaging remarks about the frequency at which these match-three games pop up. I was really expecting this one to be a yawner. It takes a lot to change my mind, but this game did it. Seriously. If you have Bejeweled on your iPhone, do like I did. Replace it with Montezuma. The graphics and sound are just that good.

Game play is as you would expect. Match three or more colored crystals and they disappear. Bonus points are given for larger sets. There are almost 50 levels (including the bonus ones), and 6 different “power tokens” to activate. And you can do all of this on two different dificulty levels

The bottom line is that this game is a Must-Have. It is going to be THE program that I use to show off the iPhone. And at the introductory price of $1.99, it is a bargain that you can’t afford to pass up.