All Articles in Apps

TechCrunch is reporting that sales of the iPhone app iFog [$0.99 - iTunes link] have shot up following a T-Mobile commercial for the myTouch (their rebranded Google Android Magic, which in no way is meant to glom any mind share from i(Pod) touch), where Saturday Night Live alum, Dana Carvey demonstrates a similar Android app.

Given Apple’s much vaunted 85,000+ apps, it’s interesting to see that iPhone owners will look to the App Store, rather than competing platforms, even when competitors show off apps. Congrats to the developers for the boom-by-proxy.

Maybe Carvey should have shown off Google Voice?

One of TiPb’s favorite iPhone games, indeed the game that cost some of us fingerprints on our index fingers, StoneLoops! of Jurassica has been pulled from the iTunes App Store following a copyright infringement complaint from Luxor-maker MumboJumbo. According to the developers’ blog Casual Games Harmony:

About 3 weeks ago we have learned that MumboJumbo supplied Apple with a formal complaint and a request to remove StoneLoops! from the AppStore. The reason? Infringing Luxor copyright, confusing customers, stealing Luxor’s look & feel and even stealing their source code! This might sound absurd to anyone who knows both games but apparently Apple decided otherwise as we’ve been requested to prepare a formal response, which we did. We described how ungrounded each claim is and supplied various materials to back our claims.

The developers responded, denying all but one complaint (the word Luxor appeared in the text of a quoted review, which they offered to remove). Apple, it seems, removed StoneLoops of Jurassica anyway. This led to the developer further pondering that:

if Apple stands by its decision this will create a dangerous precedence. If you are a developer and have an application in the AppStore you should quickly request Apple to remove the apps of your competition, before someone else requests to remove you! I don’t believe this can get any more absurd, but this is exactly where this reasoning is getting us.

Copyright and infringement is a messy, litigious business, one which Apple puts itself squarely in the middle of by virtue of acting as sole App Store custodian. How can they determine merit all on their own, and avoid action by either affected party regardless of what they decide?

We love StoneLoops! We want it back immediately, but more than that — we need a better way for these disputes to be handled. Is there one?

[via AppAdvice, thanks Tyler!]

With Star Wars: Trench WarsTHQ Wireless is finally giving all of the Star Wars fans what seems to be a quality game based off of the classic films. To us it looks like a nice remake of the classic Star Wars arcade game.

Use the Force to overthrow the evil Galactic Empire as they attempt to destroy the small Rebel base on Yavins jungle moon. As part of the Rebel Alliances Red Squadron you dogfight with TIE Fighters above the Death Stars surface before heading into a trench where you are inundated by cannon fire. Dodge obstacles, and stay out of Darth Vaders sights as he tries to gun you down before you have the chance to fire your proton torpedoes into a thermal exhaust port the size of a womp rat. If successful, a direct hit will cause a chain reaction that destroys the Death Star, thus saving the Rebel base from impending doom.

While no price or exact release date has been given, the game is showing promise. I’ve grown up a fan of the Star Wars films and yes, the last three films were unfortunate but hopefully games like this will make us all feel a little bit better. Maybe?

[Via Touch Arcade]

One of the many, many “great unknowns” of Apple’s iPhone App Store is how the top-grossing list is calculated, specifically whether or not it factors in revenue from in-app purchases. While we could theoretically wait and see if, now that they too can use in-app purchase, a free app makes its way up the list, the folks at Freeverse wanted an answer now. And they think they’ve found it:

Top Grossing Freeverse Apps are Skee-Ball (#17), Flick Fishing (#97), and Top Gun. Now, interestingly, the Top Paid Apps Chart lists Top Gun as #60 and Flick Fishing as #72. How does this happen? The games are priced the same…but Flick Fishing features DLC. This leads us to conclude that the Top Grossing Apps list seems to include In-App Purchases in its calculations.

What if anything does this mean for developers? Will they be able to land on the Top Free and Top Grossing lists at the same time now? And so what if they do?

Interesting times…

[via Daring Fireball]

my6sense [Free - iTunes link] tries to solve one of the biggest problems of the information age — with so much data coming at us so fast, how do we sift through it and find what we need, when we need it? Using what they dub “digital intuition”, my6sense pays attention to the news you read, and then tries to figure out, and present to you, what’s more important.

Transparent on the user end, and displayed in the built-in, full featured RSS reader, my6sense “just works” (we’re guessing using a combination of artificial intelligence algorithms and mythical news pixies). If you give it a try, let us know how well it predicts what you want.

Tap Tap Revenge 3 [$0.99 - iTunes link] is scorching up the charts, and so to thank their fans the fine folks at Tapulous are tripling up on the give-aways.

First, if you’ve already got the app, they want to give you the TTR3 version of #1 hit on iTunes, “Fireflies” by Owl City for FREE for the next 7 days! That’s right, just fire the game up and download away!

Second, for those who haven’t yet upgraded from Tap Tap Revenge 2, buy the game in the next 2 days (through midnight Friday, PST), gets a FREE credit for a premium two-pack bundle (by top artists like Foo Fighters, Fall Out Boy, Blink 182, Smashing Pumpkins, and more being added every day). To get your free tracks,just email your iTunes receipt or screenshot to freemusic[at]tapulous[dot]com with your Tap Tap Revenge 3 username (and nothing else) in the subject line. Clear?

Third, they’re giving away a chance to win the entire premium catalog of Tap Tap Revenge 3 for FREE (over 100+ sensational songs). Want that chance? Drop a comment below (through midnight Sunday, PST), telling us who you’d most like to challenge on TTR3. Anyone in history, any where, any when. Who do you most want to play off the TTR3 stage and leave begging for music mercy? (Me, I’m claiming Shatner! He tasks me and I will have at him!)

Note: You’ll need a copy of your TTR3 iTunes receipt to claim your winnings, so keep it handy. Also, be sure to leave a valid email address so we can contact you. Now get going!

For today’s TiPb Top 5, we are catering to all of our iPhone and iPod touch wielding readers who enjoy sports games and sports apps. Just like our other TiPb’s top 5 must-have posts, all of these applications are available in the App Store. For the full run down, follow us after the break! Read the rest of this entry »

Earthworm Jim [$4.99 - iTunes link], an iPhone and iPod touch remake of the classic Sega and Nintendo game of the same name, has just landed in the App Store.

Confession: I was a huge Earthworm Jim fan back in the day. The animation sold me instantly, and that animation looks just as good on the iPhone. I’m downloading it now. If anyone else gives it a try, especially old-school fans, let us know what you think.

Sean Cooper Games and MEDL Mobile have created a highly addicting gem of a game, Boxhead: The Zombie Wars. [$0.99 for the next two days - iTunes Link] Playing this game makes me feel like I’ve died and gone to zombie heaven.

Boxhead: The Zombie Wars is a extremely fast paced action-shooter where you get to play as Jon Bambo, a mercenary with a kick butt arsenal of weaponry which includes – pistol, shotgun, C4 explosives, minigun, turret machine guns, etc…

The premise is simple, kill as many zombies as you possibly can without dying. The more zombies you kill in a row, the higher your points multiplier will go. The higher you get your multiplier, bigger and more destructive your weapons will be at your disposal. Zombie destruction on your iPhone has never been so enjoyable.

Enjoy!

As part of the commentary on Jamie Zawinski leaving the Palm Pre for the iPhone (linked in the previous post), Daring Fireball adds:

Apple had a similar idea to WebOS for the iPhone, where certain apps would run as Dashboard-style widgets, written in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. Apple abandoned the idea in the six months between the iPhone’s January 2007 announcement and when it went on sale at the end of June, concluding that performance for such apps was unacceptable and that they should go native Cocoa across the board. And Apple was only going to do it for small apps, like Weather, Stocks, and Calculator, not the flagship apps like Calendar and Mail.

Of course, web technologies have improved since 2007, especially JavaScript rendering. Usability and performance complaints aside, Palm embracing web developers in order to incentivize adoption of their platform was a smart strategy. Still, it’s interesting to see Apple’s reaction to it back then, and their decision to go 100% native. (Especially considering they’re now being criticized for not having widgets).

Did Apple make the right choice, do we still want widgets on the iPhone, or is HTML5 and SQLite in Safari making them redundant?