Today’s TiPb Top 5 will be directed towards our iPhone and iPod Touch wielding readers who love photography. Just like our other TiPb’s top 5 must-have posts, all of these applications are available in the App Store. For the full overview, follow us after the break!

Photogene

Today’s first application is Omer Shoor’s photo editing app Photogene. If you’re looking to do some serious photo editing with your iPhone, Photogene is the app for you. Whether you want an app that auto edits for you and has special effects or you want full control over every aspect of the editing process, Photogene does it all!

• Correct color distribution, brightness, color temperature, exposure and contrast
• Gamma correction
• RGB Balance
• Special effects
• Customizable Frames and Frame effects
• Text bubbles

Photogene is available for $2.99. [iTunes link].

DSLR Camera Remote Professional Edition

Are you an aspiring or professional photographer with a Nikon or Canon DSLR? DSLR Camera Remote displays what your camera sees on your iPhone or iPod Touch and allows you to remotely control your camera’s shutter release and settings. This app is ideal for studio photography, self portraits, and awkward angles. Even though you are restricted to using this app on WiFi, when comparing it to the price of professional remotes, DSLR Camera Remote is a must-have for photographers with a supporting camera.

• Remotely fire your DSLR over any WiFi network (ad-hoc ok)
• See through your camera’s viewfinder with LiveView mode and focus remotely
• Remotely control camera settings like aperture, white-balance, and shutter-speed
• Auto Bracketing, burst, and intervalometer modes

DSLR Camera Remote Professional Edition is available for $19.99 [iTunes link]

Panorama

Next up, we have the excellent panoramic application Panorama. Similar applications require the user to have skill in aligning photos for the final stitching to look good, but not Panorama! The stitching algorithms built into Panorama are very sophisticated and do an amazing job at fixing a bad alignment job. So if you’re interested in taking beautiful, high quality panoramic shots, be sure to pick this one up!

• Sophisticated stitching algorithms
• Take individual photos as portrait or landscape
• Add photos to the left or right
• Auto brightness/exposure corrections

Panorama is available for $9.99 [iTunes link]

TiltShift Generator

Photographers will often shoot photos with a shallow depth of field to make their subject stand out, but the iPhone’s camera is rather limited in this regard. With TiltShift Generator, you can add a very natural blur to your photos to bring non-subject matter out of focus and adjust contrast and saturation to really make your photos pop. Look no further than TiltShift Generator to satisfy your depth of field generating needs.

• Create “retro miniature pictures”
• Radial or linear Blur
• Edit contrast and saturation
• Vignetting
• Direct email and Twitter support

TiltShift Generator is available for $0.99 [iTunes link]

ColorSplash

Have you ever wanted to add a Sin City feel to your photos with only specific details in color? With ColorSplash you can! This technique is what’s known as selective desaturation and with 4 different brush types and a mode to clearly see the boundaries between black & white and color, ColorSplashis an excellent choice to give your photos that dramatic look.

• Give photos a dramatic look by keeping chosen details in color
• Use your finger as brush
• 4 different brush types
• Share with Facebook, Flickr, or Twitter
• Alternate mode that shows colored regions in red to easily see boundaries between black & white and color.

ColorSplash is available for $1.99 [iTunes link]

Conclusion

There you have it, TiPb’s Top 5 Must-Have iPhone photo apps. Did we miss any of your favorites? Overlook any killer photo apps? Drop us a comment and let us know your list!

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TiPb’s Top 5 iPhone Photo Apps

TwitBit 2.0 Forum Review by llofte. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!

Surprisingly, nearly 3 months after iPhone 3.0’s release, there are only a few twitter applications that offer push notifications. Twitbit is one of them. Version 1.x wasn’t compelling enough for me to use as my primary client, but the latest 2.0 update is rather impressive and brings Twitbit up to par with other great Twitter clients. The design is clean and simple yet not lacking in important features.

The home tab displays both your timeline and mentions. Just select which you want to view from the top. To scroll up to the most recent tweet, tap the time in the iPhone’s toolbar. Tapping on a tweet opens a new screen with the Tweeter’s name and username, the tweet, and some options. The tweet is displayed in a chat bubble below the user and includes the date/time and what platform the tweeter posted with. If the tweet was a reply, “In reply to…” will be attached to the tweet and tapping this will bring up a nice conversation view (direct messages also have conversation view). The tweet screen also includes buttons to reply, DM, retweet, and mark as favorite. Tapping the forward icon in the upper right corner allows you to open the tweet with the built in browser or mail a link to that tweet.

As you navigate through screens, the button on the top left will be named after your previous screen. If you find yourself several screens deep through navigation, tap the home tab to quickly return to your timeline.

A user’s profile screen includes the standard profile information including the options to follow/stop following, block, and bookmark. You can also send a user a public or direct message and view tweets that mention them from their profile. When viewing your own tweets from your user profile, there is an option to delete.

The Search tab is where you go to search for tweets in all of Twitter or by tweets near you. You can save any search term to for quick access later. To search trends, tap the bookmarks icon and select the trends tab at the bottom. From the top you can select current, daily, or weekly trends.

Search for users in the People tab as well as find all the users you have bookmarked and recent profiles you have visited. Your own profile will be listed on the top of the bookmarks list in blue. You can easily rearrange the list order by tapping edit.

Twitbit supports the use of multiple accounts and the account tab is where you go to switch between users. Tap the arrow for an account to set your push notification settings and edit your services. Twitbit allows you to post pictures to TwitPic, Yfrog, and Flickr and videos (3GS only) to TwitVid, Yfrog and Flickr all of which need to be authorized separately. If you have an Instapaper account, you can authorize it to use with Twitbit as well.

For even more settings, visit the iPhone’s Settings app and tap Twitbit. From here you can choose to display full names or usernames, how many tweets to fetch (20, 50, or 100), whether to highlight new tweets, and whether to scroll to the top when loading new tweets. Retweets can be formatted as “… (via @name)” or “RT @name: …”, image upload quality set as low, medium, or high, and nearby search radius as 2 km, 10 km, 50 km, or 250 km. If you don’t want your links to be shortened, you can turn that off too.

Twitbit is great application, but does has some disadvantages. There isn’t a way to access a list of users when composing a tweet, Flickr uploads do not include EXIF data, and the push notification sound is Apple’s default Tri-tone text message sound. The good news is that the developers have let us know they are considering adding these features in an upcoming release.

Speaking of the developers, High Order Bit is already diligently working on 2.1 promising features like full landscape support and the ability to iterate through your timeline from the tweet view. They are also planning to utilize those Twitter API updates for native retweet and geotag support.

Conclusion

Twitbit 2.0 is an excellent Twitter client! Notifications are quickly pushed to your iPhone in under 2 minutes, the UI is clutter free, and performance is smooth and snappy. If you’re looking for a Twitter application with built-in push notifications, I highly recommend Twitbit. If you’re unsure about making a purchase, you can try before you buy! Twitbit Lite is available for free and has all the features of Twitbit “pro” except for push and Flickr uploads. If you do choose to download Twitbit, be sure to let us know what you think!

Pros

• Push Notifications for mentions and direction messages in under 2 minutes
• Upload to Flickr
• Built-in browser and map
• Bookmark users

Cons

• No access to users while composing tweet
• Flickr uploads do not include EXIF data
• Only one notification sound option

TiPb Review Rating

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App Review: TwiBit 2.0 Twitter Client for iPhone

DSLR Camera Remote Professional Edition App Forum Review by llofte. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!

DSLR Camera Remote Professional Edition [$19.99 - iTunes link] is a “the next-generation cable release” for your Canon or Nikon DSLR camera. With it you can trigger the shutter as well as change multiple settings, see through your camera’s viewfinder, and view images directly on your iPhone.

To use DSLR Camera Remote, you will need a computer, a USB cable that connects your camera to your computer, a Wi-Fi network (internet connection not required), and onOne’s free DSLR Camera Remote Server software installed on your computer.

The home screen has a big window that displays a photo or live view and your camera’s current settings. The six settings in the center are the ones you can remotely change: aperture, shutter speed, ISO, white balance, quality, and exposure compensation. Just tap the setting you want to change and list of available options appear. Below these you will see what focus and exposure mode your camera is set to (you cannot change these remotely). If you are using a mode that is partially automatic, then you will not be able to adjust all settings. For example, in the screenshot above, you can see that I’m shooting with aperture priority, so the shutter speed is grayed out. In the center of the bottom toolbar, you will see how much hard drive space is available on your computer. The bottom right corner is the fire button to trigger to shutter and the bottom left corner is where you go to access more options.

Before I used DSLR Camera Remote, I was concerned that there was going to be a bit of a delay between tapping fire and my camera actually snapping the shot as this would be a major problem when shooting subjects like children or pets. I was pleasantly surprised to discover that there is no noticeable delay. This is of course only true when not using LiveView mode. There is a significant delay when utilizing LiveView because your camera must first exit LiveView before taking the shot – not a fault of the app.

In situations where instantaneous shutter releases aren’t necessary, LiveView is awesome. From the home screen, the app displays exactly what you’d see by looking through your camera’s viewfinder; rotate to landscape for a larger view. After taking the shot, the app will display the photo for a few seconds before going back to LiveView. There is not a setting to change how long you see the preview for. If you have your camera set to autofocus, tapping the LiveView screen will focus. (Note that LiveView is only available on cameras that support it).

With LiveView disabled, you can swipe through all the photos saved in the chosen folder on your computer. Double tapping the photo will zoom in. Zooming in is nice in theory, but isn’t implemented well. It zooms in quite a bit and there isn’t a way to pan around the photo or change the magnification percentage. It’s easier to walk over to the computer and view the image there. You can zoom while in portrait or landscape, but you can only delete a photo from landscape – just tap and hold. Also from landscape you can trigger the shutter and access options.

Options

The intervalometer lets you take up to 999 shots anywhere from 1 second to 1 day apart. After choosing the desired interval and number of shots, just tap start

DSLR Camera Remote makes it easy to auto bracket. You can choose an exposure increment of ⅓ or a full stop and a total range between ⅓ and 5 stops above and below your current exposure. DSLR Camera Remote does the math for you and tells you how many shots will be included in your bracket given your chosen settings. You can also choose to lock shutter speed, aperture, or ISO speed and the delay between shots from 0 to 5 seconds. Once you’re ready to shoot your bracket, tap start.

Burst Mode lets you shoot 1 to 12 shots at your camera’s fastest rapid fire speed.

When turning on Live Preview, you will be given focusing options to choose from. Your choices depend on which camera you’re using. Refer your camera’s user manual if you aren’t sure what the options mean.

Conclusion

DSLR Camera Remote really is the “next generation cable release”. It’s biggest drawback is that you must have your camera connected to a computer. Since an actual internet connection is not required, you can create an ad-hoc network with your computer and communicate with your iPhone that way. This is a great workaround to the Wi-Fi requirement, but still needs a computer. I did see a glimmer of hope on onOne’s website about utilizing 3.0 to increase functionality:

Several people have asked if they can plug their iPhone directly into the camera’s USB port and control it this way. This is something we are actively investigating, but until the iPhone 3.0 update, third party developers like us don’t have any way to communicate through the iPod dock connector. In the future we hope to be able to add this support, we will keep you posted. They haven’t said anything more since 3.0 was released in June, so I hope that this is something they are still actively pursuing.

Regardless, DSLR Camera Remote is an excellent application as is and well worth the $19.99.

Pros

• Remotely control many settings and shutter release
• Immediately see photo taken
• Look through your camera’s viewfinder with LiveView
• Supports 16 Canon and 9 Nikon models
• Intervalometer and auto bracketting

Cons

• Zooming in on photo is limited
• Must have computer to use

TiPb Review Rating

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App Review: DSLR Camera Remote Professional Edition for iPhone

Review FOR THE LADIES: iPeriod vs Period Tracker by llofte. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!

Ladies, we all know the infamous question asked by our doctor at the beginning of every visit – “When was the first day of your last period?” Now if you’re like me, you pick some date you know is accurate by plus or minus a week and your doctor shakes his head and stresses the need for keeping track of these things and you shake your head wondering why it’s even necessary when you’re there for a broken arm. Well, with the help of an app, you can easily provide your doctor with any information needed about your cycle. With so many options in the app store, it may be difficult to decide which app is best for you, so I have chosen two apps that I believe are very good and comparable in price, iPeriod and Period Tracker.

Please note that for the sake of keeping my personal information private, the data provided for these screenshots is fake.

iPeriod

The home page of iPeriod is on the Summary tab which shows your next expected period date, average cycle length, average duration, and a brief history of your last 4 periods. You can add/edit a period from here as well. When adding a period, you are asked for the first day and last day. It will automatically have your average duration length set as default.

The Calendar tab is a calendar view of information. It is here that you can add more detailed information. At the bottom, you will see which date you have selected and what day of your cycle is associated with that date. Tapping here will bring up notes for that day. There are 3 options for flow levels (light, medium, heavy), severity of cramps (none, mild, severe) and boxes to check for spotting, love connection, and 4 user defined options. There is also 33 different moods you can choose for the day, each with it’s own smiley to appear on the calendar. All information given in notes will appear on the calendar as an icon or coloring. Period days will be in various shades of pink and fertile days will be in light green with dark green signifying ovulation. iPeriod assumes a luteal phase length of 14 days, but this can be changed in settings. Remember ladies, you should not use these apps to prevent pregnancy!

You can edit/add a period from the calendar view as well. One thing I don’t like about period entry, is that you must either accurately predict the length of your period when adding it, or go back and edit it once it’s over. There should be an option in notes to select the date as a last day. Another thing I don’t like about the calendar is that there isn’t a color change for the selected date; you must read the date on the bottom to know which date you have selected. This is only a minor annoyance, but an annoyance none the less.

The ManageData tab is where you go to email your data as text or CSV.

The Next12 tab has predictions for your next 12 periods and fertile days.

In Settings, you can password protect the app and set a question in case you forgot your password. In the event that you do forget your password, iPeriod will just give it to you if you get the question right, so make sure you choose a question that only you know the answer to! You can also set up in-app and/or email alerts reminding you of an expected period or informing you that you’re late. There are other basic changes you can make in settings like setting the length of luteal phase, editing the user defined calendar icons, and specifying how many cycles to use when calculating averages.

The best and worst feature of iPeriod is it’s calendar view. Some may love it’s colorfulness and the way it provides lots of information at a glance. Others, however, may find it too busy and cluttered. For the the latter, Period Tracker may be your period tracker of choice.

Period Tracker

The home screen for Period Tracker is very simple. In big bold letters it says how many days until your next predicted period or how many days late you are. To enter a period start date, just scroll to the correct date and tap “Period Start”. At the top corners, there are two options, Settings, and Calendar.

The calendar view is much more plain in comparison to iPeriod. It’s all gray with some icons. The same data was entered into both applications, so the screenshots really show how differently they display the same information. Fertile days are represented by green dots and ovulation day has a pink flower. Period days have various shades of pink triangles, “intimate” days have a heart, and a pink droplet means spotting. A little black dot means there are notes associated with that day, even if that note is also an icon on the calendar. The selected day is green instead of gray. At the bottom, there is more information about the selected day and tapping here brings up the notes page. Notes have an on/off toggle for “Period Ended” and “Intimate Today” and selections for backaches, bloating, bodyaches, cramps, spotting, headaches, and tender breasts, all of which have 3 levels of severity. Period Tracker has the advantage over iPeriod here, but iPeriod has more moods to select from. Period Tracker has 9 moods, but you can of course type your mood into notes if you feel like none of the choices accurately depict your mood. Since the smileys don’t show up on the calendar anyway, I feel like this is an acceptable compromise.

In settings you can set your default cycle and period length, edit entries, export notes through email, and set a 4 digit passcode. Period Tracker uses the same default of 14 days for the luteal phase, but does not have an option to change it. You also cannot export in CVS format. There is no list view of future period and fertile days; you must navigate to the month of interest to see predictions.

Period Tracker also offers a companion app for $0.99 to sync period dates and fertile days with a significant other… if that’s something you’re interested in.

The best feature of Period Tracker is it’s simplicity. It’s quick to start and end a period and calendar view shows only the most important data. Period tracker also offers more note options (minus mood choices). However, iPeriod offers more summary information, a nice list view of predictions, and export in CVS format.

Conclusion

I don’t think one app is better than the other and will not proclaim one as the winner. I personally prefer Period Tracker over iPeriod, but the girl next door may prefer iPeriod. They satisfy a different set of needs and offer different types of style.

Instead of a Pros and Cons list for each app, I will provide a list of features iPeriod has that Period Tracker does not, and vice versa.

Features of iPeriod that Period Tracker lacks

• List view of predicted period dates and fertile days
• Export in CVS format
• Colorful, detailed calendar view
• Edit length of luteal phase
• Question for password retrieval
• User defined symptoms
• Lots of summary information
• Email alerts
• 33 moods

Features of Period Tracker that iPeriod lacks

• Quick entry of period start and end dates
• Simple, less cluttered calendar
• 7 symptoms, all with 3 levels of severity
• Color change for date selection
• Companion app available

iPeriod TiPb Review Rating

Period Tracker Review Rating

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FOR THE LADIES App vs. App Review: iPeriod vs. Period Tracker for iPhone

PixPo Dogs App Forum Review by llofte. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!

Do you like matching games and adorable dogs? If so, then PixPop Dogs [$0.99 - iTunes link] may be the game for you. This is jigsaw puzzle type game that is fun, addicting, competitive, and just plain cute!

Game Play

The objective of PixPop is simple – pop the tokens on the right by matching them with the big picture. Tapping on the big picture will place a green square around your contact point. If it matches a token, just tap the token and it pops away. Once all the tokens are popped, you are given a new picture. Pop as many tokens as possible before time runs out. What makes PixPop challenging is when there are patterned objects or backgrounds such as blankets, fences, and grass. When playing in competition mode, you can submit your name and score to the Worldwide Scoreboard, otherwise, your score is only submitted locally.

During game play, the tokens may temporarily change colors, representing different point values. A blue token is worth 25 points, orange is 100 points, and a glowing token adds an extra 300 points.

Tapping hints on the lower left corner will move the green token to the spot that matches the bottom token. Use hints wisely, as you are only given 5 per game.

On the upper right of the screen next to your score, there is a brightness button. Tapping this will brighten the photo which helps with the darker areas of the picture where it’s hard to see details.

Menu/Options

Setup – There are two modes of play, Competition and Zen. In Competition Mode, everything is fixed and you can submit your score to the Worldwide Scoreboard. In Zen Mode, you can adjust the time (10s-eternity), matches per picture (3-20), hints per game (1-20), and square size (50-80).

Tips – This is where you learn how to play and are provided with contact information.

Credits – Here is where Spinapse gives credit to those who provided the images for PixPop Dogs.

Scores – There are 3 scoreboards, Latest Wordwide (today’s scores), All Time Wordwide (I’m #21 =D), and Local.

More – This is where you can find more apps from Spinapse with links to the App Store.

Conclusion

PixPop Dogs is a great game for kids and adults alike. If cute and adorable doggies isn’t your cup of tea, Spinapse also offers PixPop Extreme Sports, PixPop Around the World, PixPop Art, and PixPop Cats. So pick your favorite category, get to poppin’, and let us know what you think!

Pros

• Fun and addicting
• Great photos
• Good for both kids and adults
• Developers periodically update the app with more photos

Cons

• Can’t think of any!

TiPb Review Ranking

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

App Review: PixPop Dogs

IM+ Forum Review by llofte. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!

IM+ is an IM client with push notification support for 10 networks, including Twitter. I use AIM, Facebook, and Twitter, so these are the only networks that influence this review.

Design and Use

The design of IM+ is nice and intuitive. The bottom toolbar has tabs for contacts, inbox, favorites, status, and more. Under the contacts tab you will find find a list of your contacts organized by account, group name, or no group (selected in settings). If no group organization is chosen, then your contact list will by organized alphabetically based on availability. So, the top of your list will show available contacts, then idle or away contacts. At the bottom, offline contacts are treated as a separate group. There is an option to have offline contacts hidden.

Tapping a contact will open a chat window with that contact. If there is a previous conversation stored on IM+, then the window will include that conversation.

To the right of of every contact, there is an “i” to find more information. Tapping this will display the status of the contact, their user ID, as well as the ability to add to favorites, rename, and delete (provided that the IM service associated with the contact allows).

The inbox contains all current and past conversations. If a twitter account is enabled, then @replies and direct messages are treated as their own separate conversations. It is not possible to have twitter conversations treated as a conversation in IM+; only incoming messages are shown in the @reply and DM threads. Conversations can be easily deleted from the inbox with a tap of the edit button.

When writing a message, there is a smiley face on the left and a keyboard on the right of the text field. Tapping the smiley gives a list of symbols (mostly smileys) that you can insert into the message. Be careful with these though, if the receiving client doesn’t recognize a symbol, it will be displayed in text form, or worse, a smiley face with some symbols attached.

Tapping the keyboard symbol collapses the keyboard and the smiley face converts to an upload symbol. From here you can send your location, a picture, or voice message. You have to be careful with this too because once you make a choice, it sends without confirmation. This is a major problem, in my opinion. I attempted to send a DM tweet with my location and IM+ ignored the text and sent my location as a public tweet! I’m just glad I was at Starbucks and not my house! This also means that text cannot be included with any media type. All media gets sent as a link. Pictures and voice memos are hosted by IM+ and GPS locations send a link to GPSed.com. It would be nice if the link launched Google maps on an iPhone so the recipient could quickly get directions, but it doesn’t.

All links are opened in the built-in browser of IM+. This browser is very cool as it not only allows for reading and navigating through websites provided by links, but you can use it to visit any site by typing the web address into the text field at the top. This is very convenient for those times someone starts an IM conversation when browsing Safari. Just copy the URL before exiting Safari, launch IM+, paste the URL into the browser and quickly tab between conversation and browser. When your conversation is over, just tap the globe at the upper right of the browser to open the current page in Safari. Awesome.

Next is the favorites tab. This is simply a list of contacts that have been marked as favorites. You can add or delete contacts from this list and see more information about them, just as in the contact list.

The status tab is where you can choose your status message (for supporting networks). There are 6 options, Online, On iPhone with IM+, I am here (with link to GPS location), Away, Invisible, and Offline. To add a custom status message or edit the pre-existing ones, just tap edit.

The more tab gives access to your accounts, settings, and in-app web browser.

Twitter

IM+ is not intended to be used as a primary Twitter client, but makes for a great secondary client. It’s convenient to be able to access twitter while holding an IM conversation without having to go back and forth between two apps. Reading tweets on IM+ goes against the conventional style of most recent on top, but this doesn’t bother me because I find uniformity within an app to be important and it doesn’t make sense for normal IM to read like Twitter.

What makes Twitter so great on IM+ is of course push notification. All DMs and @mentions get pushed within 4 minutes of being sent. Ideally, they would arrive faster, but 4 minutes isn’t too bad. The problem with Twitter push on IM+ is that there is no way to choose what you want pushed. It is also a little glitchy and randomly pushes tweets from your timeline that aren’t directed at you. It’s not horribly intrusive as I’ve probably only had at most 5 in a day get through, but it needs to be fixed.

Conclusion

IM+ is very well designed. Although the implemenation of Twitter push is not perfect, it’s a decent first attempt and I trust it will only get better with updates. The advantage of using IM+ is that you can use twitter, hold multiple IM conversations, and browse the web all within one application. At $9.99, IM+ is not cheap, but competive with Beejive. Version 3.2 has been submitted and is in review with Apple, so SHAPE Services has decided to lower the price to $4.99 until release; so if IM+ is something you’re interested in, snatch it up quick and let us know what you think!

Pros

• Push notification for Twitter
• Support for 10 networks
• Basic IM push is flawless
• In-app web browser
• Favorites

Cons

• Twitter push
• Cannot name accounts
• Not all avatars show
• Only one twitter account is supported
• GPS links don’t launch google maps

TiPb Review Rating

IM+ is available for $4.99 from the iTunes App Store.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

App Review: IM+ with Push for iPhone

Stuck Genie Forum Review by llofte. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!<

Big entertainment company Warner Bros. has recently released a couple apps, one of which is Stuck Genie. This is a cute little puzzle game where you must collect all the balls on the board by sticking them to each other. The concept is very simple but not necessarily always easy to complete.

Game Play and Controls

Before you can play Stuck Genie, you must enter your name. There is a horizontal scrolling list of the letters at the top and you must drag the letters down to the line to spell your name. I think this is a cute idea, but I hate it. The letter you want must be highlighted and half the time when I attempted to drag a letter, the letters scrolled instead or the game didn’t even register that I touched the letter. It is much faster to just type my name with a keyboard and not nearly as frustrating. I think Warner Bros. would be better off creating a custom keyboard with the bubbly letters.

Once you enter your name, you’re ready to play. There are three tutorial levels that teach you the controls of the game. They are optional and don’t need to be completed before playing the actual game. When you begin level 1, a genie tells you his story with scrolling text in a speech bubble. This text scrolls VERY slow and there is no way to speed it up. I find it aggravating to have to pause my reading mid-sentence waiting for the text to scroll into view.

The game board is a grid with a single yellow ball, any number of blue balls, and various obstacles. The object of the game is to get all the balls stuck together. The yellow ball is the one you control. To move, slide your finger anywhere on the screen in the direction you want to go. As you slide your finger, the squares in front of the ball will turn white. When you release your finger, the yellow ball follows the path of white squares. The one other control is rotation. At the bottom of the screen, there is button that rotates your cluster of balls clockwise when tapped; counter-clockwise is not an option. That’s all there is to it!

Under the game board, you will notice a horizontal bar that fades from green to yellow. This is a time bar. There is no minimum time limit for a given level, but if you’re fast, you can earn 4x, 3x, or 2x the normal point value. Sometimes, you may do a sequence of moves that result in the puzzle being impossible to complete. If so, there is an option to reset the level in the menu. However, this does not reset your time bar.

The first series of levels are, in my opinion, quite easy. This is expected in any puzzle game; however, I nearly lost interest in the game and was initially planning to write my review emphasizing that the game would be great for children. After completing fifteen levels, the first genie is released and you advance to the next series of levels. I immediately noticed a significant change in the difficulty level and this is when the game became fun for me. I wish there was a way to skip ahead to these levels without first completing the first set. What makes this game challenging is that as you collect more balls, you may be unable to fit through areas of the board or rotate. If you attempt to randomly collect balls, you will fail; a strategy is needed to be successful.

Conclusion

Stuck Genie is a great little puzzle game for both kids and adults. It stimulates the brain and makes you think. The game runs great and not once did I experience lag. The music is nice and sound effects are subtle. Don’t let the cute, smiling, dancing genie and child-like design fool you, any adult can have fun playing Stuck Genie and I recommend you give it a try!

Pros

• Simple Concept
• Easy to play
• Challenging (eventually)
• Multiple profiles

Cons

• Cannot listen to iPod while playing
• Must complete 15 levels before they are challenging
• Slow scrolling text

TiPb Review Rating

Stuck Genie is available for $1.99 from the iTunes App Store.

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App Review: Stuck Genie for iPhone

iScape Games let us know that they have released their first iPhone game: Super Marble Roll [iTunes link]. I know… another marble game, but I think this one deserves your attention. I have spent a little time playing Super Marble Roll and find the controls and implementation of the accelerometer to be phenomenal. There is also a special easter egg “bonus mechanic” included that’ll help rack up those points!

iScape Games also shared with me that they already have updates planned for the future and are discussing more features such as unlocking levels and stage achievements.

Super Marble Roll is available in the App Store for $2.99. If you pick this one up, let us know what you think in the comments below!

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

Quick App: Super Marble Roll for iPhone

FLIP Forum Review by llofte. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!

If Tetris and Bejeweled were to have a child, they would give birth to FLIP. This is a puzzle game of flipping and tilting your iPhone around to manipulate gems. There are 3 very distinct game modes: standard, puzzle, and speed.

Standard Mode

In standard mode, gems fall one at a time from the top and the objective is to mach like-colored gems by having them touch. Tilting the iPhone left and right moves the falling gems appropriately. These controls are fairly sensitive and it’s easy to move a gem farther than intended. I found that the more vertical I hold the iPhone, the less sensitive the controls tend to be. If you flip the iPhone 90 degrees, all the gems will fall to the new bottom. This is what makes standard mode a true puzzle in my opinion. For example, in the above screenshot, it initially looks like there’s no way to match 4 gems. But if I flip to the right, I will get 4 red gems to match up. This makes the dynamics of the game interesting and challenging. As you progress, the falling speed and the amount of gems you need to match increases. You get bonus points for multiple matches at once called “link combos” and for matching more gems than required for that level. The game ends when a gem is unable to enter the game because the stack is too high.

Puzzle Mode

In this mode, you play through a series of what eBattalion calls “think-puzzles”. Each level begins with multiple distinctly colored gems in a specific location. On the grid, there is a colored square for each gem. The goal is to get the gems to their matching square. When you get a match, the square eats up the gem and turns white like the rest of the grid. You’re given a certain number of allowed flips to complete each level. If you finish without using all the allotted flips, you earn extra points. If you do not complete the puzzle with the allowed flips, you lose a life. The game ends when you lose all your lives. You are also given a certain amount of continues. Using a continue lets you continue from the current level, but erases your points.

To control the gems, you must (of course) flip your iPhone around. Moving gems square by square is not an option; they all fall in the direction that you tilt your iPhone. Again, the controls are pretty sensitive and it’s easy to accidently make unintended moves. I found it easiest to play this mode with my iPhone as flat as possible looking down on it.

Speed Mode

The object of this mode is to match up all the like-colored gems in each level before you run out of time. What makes this mode challenging is that you must have all the gems of one color matched up before they clear. The controls and layout is exactly like puzzle mode. The quicker you complete the level, the more points you get. The game is over if you do not complete the puzzle in time. Unlike puzzle mode, you do not have any lives. You can use continues, however, but this erases your points.

Other Features

• If you exit the application while in the middle of game, FLIP returns to exactly where you left off when you relaunch.
• Can disable the music and listen to your own
• Easy directions to include your scores on the global scoreboard (must visit their website)

Conclusion

FLIP is a great little game (actually, three games), especially at only $0.99. I find myself playing when I have a few minutes to kill as well as when I have time to obsess over it for awhile. I would love it if a future update had an option to adjust the sensitivity of the controls. I often find myself losing a life or game because the game reacts when I barely move. I was initially disappointed that there wasn’t an option to disable the accelerometer and have gesture controls, but it didn’t take long to realize that the game wouldn’t be the same with gestures… besides, its name is FLIP for a reason!

Pros

• 3 game modes
• Fun and challenging
• Time killer

Cons

• Sensitive controls

TiPb Review Rating

FLIP is available for $0.99 from the iTunes App Store.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

App Review: FLIP

Twittelator Pro Forum Review by llofte. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum Review Index!

Twittelator Pro is a twitter client with support for multiple accounts. It is beautifully designed and feature packed to make your mobile twitter experience quick and enjoyable. It would take a book to review each and every feature of Twittelator Pro, so I will pick what I consider the highlights and direct you to Twittelator’s full feature list for more.

General Interface

Twittelator Pro has 3 different themes to chose from: Gradient, Dove, and Raven. Here are some screenshots demonstrating all three.

Big Stone Phone claims that each theme is ideal for different lighting conditions: Gradient for indoors, Dove for outdoors, and Raven for night.

The Tab Bar at the bottom has what you’d expect from any Twitter application: Friends, Mentions, Messages, Settings, and More. However, Twittelator distinguishes itself by making it customizable. When in the More tab, hit edit and you can now drag any item to any of the four locations next to “More”.

Reading Tweets

I absolutely adore the experience of reading tweets with Twittelator Pro. The above photo (stolen from Twittelator’s website) shows how much info is included with each tweet. Not shown in the picture, however, is that you can have both the username and real name of the tweeter displayed (as seen in my screenshots). This is great for people like me who want to see real names but are terrible at remembering usernames.

Tapping a user’s avatar brings you to their profile. If there were any other users mentioned in the tweet, then you will be asked who’s profile you want to view. The profile interface includes the typical info, including the option to follow or stop following. There is also a magnifying glass to quickly search for other screen names and what looks like a price tag to bookmark the user.

Tapping a username brings up a list of options for that tweet: reply, private, re-tweet, email tweet, copy tweet, favorite tweet, or copy link to tweet (more on copying later). You can save a tweet by tapping and holding for 2 seconds.

If there is a #hashtag or hyperlink included in a tweet, tapping the paperclip will take you to the the hash feed or website. When viewing a website, you can copy the link (again, more on this later). If there is a photo attached (with yFrog, Pikchur, TwitPic, MobyPicture, or twitgoo) there will be a thumbnail of it to the right. Tapping it will allow you to view it. When viewing an image, there is a little two-way arrow icon at the upper right which toggles between filling your screen vertically or horizontally. It’s nice to be able to view photos in full screen even if the photo wasn’t taken with an iPhone. Tapping on the photo will give an option to save it to your camera roll.

If there is a bubble around the time since the tweet was tweeted, then this indicates a conversation. Tapping the bubble will allow you to read the chain of replies. If there is not a bubble, then tapping the time opens a new @ reply to the tweeter.

Writing Tweets

Writing a tweet is an experience of its own with Twittelator Pro. There are many options, characters, and features that make writing tweets fast, easy, and fun. Twittelator does support landscape keyboard (and can be disabled from settings).

If you had previously copied a link or tweet, you can paste it into your tweet by tapping the bottle of glue. Even if you’ve exited the application, Twittelator Pro will remember what you have copied. To add a photo, tap the camera. Tapping the drop pin will add link to Google maps of your current location. Unfortunately, opening such a link will not launch the native Google maps application on the iPhone.

Underneath the current character count, you can tap on the icons to bring up 8 pages of characters. The characters are viewable with other twitter clients as well as on the web. Very cool.

At the upper right of the New Tweet screen, there is a button called “@friends”. Here you find a scrolling list of who you are following. Scroll to who you want to @mention, tap +, and Twittelator adds them to your tweet. I think this is a great feature, but feel as though it can be better. I only follow 93 people, and it can take awhile to scroll through the list. I can’t imagine if I was following 300+ users. I think something like Contacts with the alphabet on the side would be better. Ideally, I’d like to see an autofill feature.

Inside the tweet bubble, there is a # on the bottom right and two arrows facing each other on the bottom left. Tapping # will provide a scrolling list of all the #hashtags you have used before. Tapping the arrows will shrink your tweet (including URLS) with common abbreviations. This is nice for those situations when your tweet is 10 characters or so over the limit.

One of the coolest things I found about Twittelator Pro is the ability to tweet from Safari. First you must go into Twittelator’s settings and tap “Add Safari Bookmarklet”. This leads you to a website with the instructions for setting up this feature. It’s very simple – just save the page as a bookmark, then edit it by deleting the beginning of the URL. Once set up, just open the bookmark with Safari and it will launch Twittelator Pro with the URL of the website you were viewing added to a new tweet. Awesome!

Pressing Send does not immediately send your tweet. You are given the option to send, or save as draft. I do not like this, but luckily there is an option to disable it! If disabled, you must hit cancel to get the option to save the tweet. Twittelator Pro allows you to save as many drafts as you want. This is awesome for those times you don’t have reception, want to log a quick thought, or for iPod Touch users. If you have any saved drafts, you will see “tap for drafts” under “New Tweet”, so tapping here gives access to your drafts.

More

There is much more you can do with Twittelator Pro. Some of the highlights are:

• create subgroups
• view tweets of users you have bookmarked
• access saved tweets
• see just your tweets
• delete your tweets/messages
• play mp3 and video within Twittelator Pro
• search nearby tweets
• switch between accounts while creating a new tweet

Conclusion

Twittelator Pro is the best iPhone twitter client I have used. It is clear that the the developers put a lot of thought and effort into this app with its nice interface and many features. At $4.99, Twittelator Pro isn’t the cheapest client available, but it is worth every penny.

Pros

• Multiple accounts
• Auto-refresh
• Full-featured
• View conversations
• Link a page from Safari directly as a tweet (via bookmarklet)
• Copy/paste tweets and links

Cons

• GPS links do not launch Google maps

TiPb Review Rating

Twittelator Pro is available for $4.99 from the iTunes App Store.

This is a story by the iPhone Blog. This feed is sponsored by The iPhone Blog Store.

App Review: Twittelator Pro Twitter Client for iPhone