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For those of you who are not familiar with our Apps for Less posts, they are a great way for us to point out a few good iPhone (and iPod touch) applications available in the App Store that are currently on sale, or ones that have come down to a price permanently that we feel are worth mentioning to our readers.
Today’s first application happens to be one of my personal favorites – Pocket Tunes Radio. [iTunes Link] Not only does it have a ton of free internet radio stations you also get the ability to stream Sirius XM channels. And most of the channels that were omitted from the official Sirius XM application are actually available with Pocket Tunes Radio! Howard Stern anyone? Pocket Tunes Radio is now available for a limited time for $7.99 – $2 off it’s regular price.
Next up we have a pair of retro games many of you old school gamers should enjoy. Namco’s Galaga REMIX [iTunes Link] and Dig Dug REMIX [iTunes Link] are now on sale for $2.99 a piece! Namco has added a nice twist to two great classic games – the ability to play both the original arcade games and new remixed versions with new boss battles, power-up items, etc…
Last up for today we have another great iPhone game, ngmoco’s Star Defense [iTunes Link] has dropped permanently to a low $2.99! This is one game that has been covered here at TiPb more than once, so be sure to check it out.
So there you have it, three great applications at low prices that hopefully some of you will take advantage of. If you happen to have an application in the App Store that is on sale and want everyone to know about it, feel free to contact us and let us know!
(Star Defense Forum Review by cjvitek For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!)
StarDefense is a twist of the tower defense game genre, something I first experienced online. Star Defense takes it to a new level, using a rotating sphere as the game board – representing a planet that is trying to repel Alien invasions.
Ngmoco takes classic gaming concepts and genres, re-interprets them for the iPhone, and then makes them look better than anyone can believe an iPhone game can look. Star Defense, a galaxy-spanning take on tower defense, is no exception.
Shown off yesterday during the WWDC 2009 keynote, not only does Star Defense let you travel from planet to planet, touch, spin, and zoom your way around, deploy your firepower, and try to keep ahead of the deadly hoards of S’rath out to harshen your tower’s mellow, but it lets you challenge your friends over Facebook or Twitter for extra fun.
Star Defense is available now [$5.99 - iTunes link]
When iPhone 3.0 launches on June 17, Star Defense will use in-app purchases for expansion packs. For $2.99, for example, you can buy another galaxy of planets. A Plus Network will also allow for network play, leader-boards, and other online gaming features.
I had a chance to try the pre-release version out during the media tournament, and even though I didn’t fare to well in the rankings, I had skads of fun.
Think you can out score me? (Yeah, I do too…)
Every week I will be bringing you what I think are the week’s biggest stories and articles. Let’s get started, after the break! Read the rest of this entry »
Every week a few of us from team TiPb, bloggers and forum crew alike, will bring you our current favorite, funnest, most useful App Store apps, WebApps, jailbreak apps, even the occasional accessory, web site, or desktop app if the mood strikes us. As long as they’re iPhone (or iPod touch) related, they’re fair game.
So who’s on deck this week and what are our picks? Find out after the break!
ngmoco has gone and set up a little media tournament, taking place on Twitter, with their hawt new game, StarDefense. Suiting up on TiPb’s behalf is yours truly, and you can follow my progress, and everyone’s progress, through the elimination rounds via @ngmoco or individually:
- Rene Ritchie/the iPhone Blog (@reneritchie)
- Chris Foreman/Ars Technica (@foresmac)
- Brandon Boyer/Boing Boing (@brandonnn)
- Bryan Barletta/148Apps (@BryanNO)
- Eli Hodapp/Touch Arcade (@hodapp)
- Tracy Erickson/Pocket Gamer (@TracyErickson)
- John Davidson/What They Play (@jwdavidson)
- Victor Lucas/Electric Playground (@Victor_Lucas)
- N’gai Croal/Hit Detection (@ncroal)
- Patrick Kelpek/G4TV.com (@eXxy)
- Levi Buchanan/IGN
Best of luck and… bring it on!
ngmoco just sent over their latest trailer for StarDefense, coming in May for the iPhone and iPod touch, and we’ve uploaded it to YouTube and embedded it above for all to enjoy.
In Star Defense, players take control of the captain’s chair and travel to a series of planets invaded by alien S’rath forces. Twisting and spinning complete 3-D planets, players must examine the terrain to plan tower defenses, selecting from a broad range of turrets that unleash everything from burning hot plasma to high voltage decimation. With seven planets, five upgradable tower types and three difficulty levels available at launch, Star Defense will challenge players of all skill sets, from sci-fi fans to tower defense champions.
If this really combines the skills of ngmoco with the addictive qualities of tower defense, we’re already predicting a massive slowdown in postings here as we play review this baby for hours on end.
Screenshots after the break!
Leo Laporte of TWiT fame’s Macworld 2009 Keynote. Be sure to check out our photo gallery as well. All the highlights after the break!
(Not one, but two premiere game reviews on TiPb today. If you haven’t already checked out the review of Spore for the iPhone, go get your evolution on!)
Star Wars: The Force Unleashed (Mobile) for the iPhone by THQ Wireless is available for $9.99 via the iTunes App Store. Alongside Spore, it’s one of the highest profile games released so far for the “funnest iPod (and iPhone) ever”.
Now, Star Wars was the first movie I remember seeing in the theater (which, yes, makes me old and tells you something about how big a deal actually going to a movie theater was in the days before PPV, torrentz, and home cinema!) I had a lot of the toys. I played a lot of the video games, from the early Nintendo fare that drove the sound track so far into overuse I still cringe when I hear Jawa, to the truly epic Battlefront II on the original Xbox. I even have had the prequels Jedi-mind-tricked out of my consciousness (”not the Star Wars you were looking for…”)
So yes, Star Wars is in my DNA every bit as much as Apple. Put them together and — even absent Megan Fox — and The Force Unleashed pretty much had me at announce. But would it hold me? Does THQ deliver Empire-class sizzle, or Phantom-style fizzle?
Check out the review, after the break!
Seems it wasn’t a hair that broke the blogerati’s back, it was an App. Or more precisely, it was Apple’s denial of the Podcaster App that let loose the floodgates of negative internet reaction. Or even more precisely, it is the continued lack of certainty among developers as to what can and will be denied by Apple, leading many to reconsider the return on investment of hours upon hours of coding with 11th hour rejection hanging perpetually over their heads, like a virtual Sword of Damocles.
According to Read Write Web, Podcaster will be turning to Ad Hoc to distribute their App for nowwhile everyone from Daring Fireball to Roughly Drafted cover (and in some cases, recover from) the various comments and implications flinging back and forth across the blogsphere, the New York Times has decided to escalate the attention level:
I can’t see how distributing the program will hurt Apple. If anything it will make the iPhone a tad more valuable. On the other hand, treating developers capriciously is most certainly going to discourage them from spending nights and weekends working on new and useful applications that may give more people reasons to buy an iPhone.
Sure, the App Store is growing twice as fast as iTunes Music (though starting from zero is an easy way to generate an opening curve), and may well hit a billion units moved by 2009, but with Android’s open marketplace on the horizon, and Microsoft me-too’ing their way in with Skymarket, there could be alternatives. If Apple doesn’t take a page from their MobileMe fiasco playbook and rapidly standardize and clarify the rules of the game, they could lose their early lead. And that could cost them the Mobile Internet Platform dominance they so currently crave.
Don’t get us wrong. It’s Apple’s platform and they, like a Nintendo with the Wii, have the absolute right to approve or deny anything developed for their platform. But developers have the same right to stop developing for a platform they don’t think serves their best interests. And consumers have the same right to stop buying it for the same reason. As with the Blacklist push-back, that will be the ultimate officiator of this debate.
And a terse one-line email from Steve may not fix things if Apple waits too long…
