Articles by Staff
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!
Pocket Tunes Radio Forum Review by cjvitek For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum!
Coming from a Palm Zire/Treo background, I am familiar with Pocket Tunes (or Ptunes) – the default media and streaming audio player that came with both my Zire 72 and my Treo 680. So when Pocket Tunes came out with a streaming audio player for the iPhone, I said sure, I will review it.
Just a quick note, Ptunes (as I will refer to it) does not actually play media files on the iPhone – that is the exclusive domain of the iPod aspect of the iPhone (don’t touch Steve’s dock!). But it does act as a streaming media player. Also, although I briefly used a few of the other streaming media players for the iPhone, I haven’t used them exclusively – so I won’t be comparing Ptunes to those, but instead looking at Ptunes by itself.
Hero of Sparta by msbaylor. (Visit the thread for video and more pics. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum!
While this app came out some time ago, I have been meaning to write a review for this app, but I always end up getting distracted playing the game, then running out of time. So finally I have distanced myself from my iPhone to bring you this review. 
This is easily one of the most addicting games I have come across. ngmoco:), the developer of this game has undoubtedly created a unique gem of a game.
The point of Rolando is to roll the Rolandos (characters) around the screen and move them from one point to another while avoiding deadly monsters, fire pits, etc. In order to get them through you might find that you have to push things around, climb across boulder, drop bombs, build bridges, etc. The easiest way to describe the app is to say that it is a cross between Touch Physics for the iPhone and the old Lemmings game.
Hero of Sparta by msbaylor. (Visit the thread for video and more pics. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum!
Hero of Sparta came out a few weeks ago around the time of Brothers In Arms and it is also done by gameloft. I’ve come to realize that gameloft has really been putting out some awesome games and this is no exception.
Hero of Sparta brings the “Hack n’ Slash” genre to the iPhone.
Touch Physics Forum Review by cjvitek (For msbaylor’s take on it, check the link. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum!
Touch Physics is a strategy/puzzle game, where the goal is to get the purple circle to touch the yellow star. As the game progresses, you are presented with an increasing array and diversity of obstacles in your path that you need to navigate the purple circle around. The circle is moved by forces of gravity, friction, and elasticity. For example, if a large object falls on the circle on the left side, the circle will move/roll/bounce to the right.
Guitar Rock Tour Forum Review by msbaylor. (Visit the thread for video and more pics. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum!
In the game you play a “guitar” or a “drum set” along with songs. There are a total of 17 different songs, some of which are fairly recent, but also include songs such as “Smoke on the Water.” Each song can be played within three different difficulties and of course on each instrument.
Frenzic Forum Review by cjvitek (For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum!
A new game….just what the iPhone needs!
Actually, a little side note. I approach my iPhone as mostly an entertainment device. So while I will find, use (and review) useful productivity, utility, or lifestyle apps (or other categories) by far the category I am most interested in is games. I would guess that at least 70% of my downloads are games. Anyway, on to the review.
The Weather Channel Forum Review by cjvitek (For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum!
Okay, I am sort of a weather junkie. I didn’t used to be, but when I moved to Florida (with hurricanes), and the weather was directly related to my research activities, I became a little but of a junkie. Not as bad as some, but definitely more than most.
That’s why I was a little disappointed with the iPhone default weather application. Sure, it gave you temperatures…but what if I wanted more! I tried the Weatherbug program, and that was okay…but I still found myself going to the Weather Underground site often. Then I found The Weather Channel program.
Read on for the review, after the jump!
[Confession: I've been a little slow in getting the usual twice-weekly Forum Reviews up, and cjvitek and msbaylor, as if sensing my slacktivity level, put their production into turbo mode. So what's an editor to do? Come up with an angle, of course! So, from now until we catch up -- or I mess up again -- we'll be presenting lots more Forum Reviews. How many more? Well, we're calling it our Holidaily Double, so howzat for a clue? - Rene]
SimCity Forum Review by msbaylor. (Visit the thread for video and more pics. For more Forum Reviews see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum!
My main concern before getting this application was – would it be able to handle all the animations on the screen, or would it just be an expensive crashing app? After a brief setup and I selected the tutorial, I got a white screen. I thought this was a glitch (First thought – “NO, Not the white-screen-of-death!”), but after about 15 or 20 seconds, the main Sim-screen came up and walked me through the controls and what everything meant. That alone was very nice to have – major kudos for the help explanations.
Read on for the review, after the jump!
Brother’s In Arms: Hour of Heroes Forum Review by msbaylor. (Visit the thread for video and more pics. For more Forum Reviews, see the TiPb iPhone App Store Forum!
This new game from Gameloft has raised the bar yet again on their games. After finding out that this game has in the App Store I immediately downloaded it and started to play it. The graphics are that of Nintendo64, but the detection, Audio and AI are better than that of the N64. For those of you that remember the ‘ol N64, do you remember shooting the wall and the bullet holes didn’t show up? Or when you would attempt to run over someone with a tank and they wouldn’t die? Well unlike the N64, you can do that in this game, as well as get run over, bombed, shot, or punched in the face.
