All Articles in Apps

Bottle Rocket sent us word of two new App Store releases, Proxy Pal ($1.99) and Wings ($0.99). One lets you glide over virtual scene-scapes, the other might just help people outside the US actually access Hulu! (Purty please?)

Wings brings the fun, excitement and relaxation of flying to everyone, not just pilots. Wings’ flight visualizer and virtual worlds have the most beautiful terrains and environments available on the iPhone. Tailor your flying to have fun or just relax and enjoy the scenery. Play your own music from your iPhone or choose one of the built-in tracks. Go searching for distant valleys or the endless river. Do barrel rolls and spins or keep it simple and just float along. Make Wings your own personal flying escape. This is a fun and entertaining time-passer for anyone and is 100% safe for kids. Both relaxing and fun, Wings is the best way to get away.

Proxy Pal provides working proxy server sites so that you can always access your go-to pages. New proxies are added weekly and automatically updated when you launch Proxy Pal. Works worldwide in any country so stop surfing on your Edge/3G network when you’re right in front of a computer that blocks your favorite site. Use Proxy Pal and get back on that high-speed connection. Mark your favorite proxies as “best pals” to use on Facebook, MySpace, eBay, Google, Craigslist, YouTube, ESPN, CNN, LinkedIn, Hotmail or any other web site. Never be caught again on a computer at work, the library or school without a proxy that works.

One of the highest profile iPhone games to state, EA’s Spore, retails on the iTunes App Store for $9.99. Now, however, you can also get a “free” version, Spore Origins Lite Edition (iTunes link). The catch? It’s teaser consisting of 1 level. Since Apple doesn’t (yet?) have a model for demoing apps (”try” instead of “buy”), it’s likely the only thing developers can do to give potential buyers a real preview. They hope, after one or a short number of levels, you’ll be hooked enough to pony up the bucks for the full blown version.

How’s this working? Well, Spore Origins Lite is not in the iTunes App Store Top 10… Pac Man Lite, which uses the same model, sits at number 5 in the free listings as of this posting, but it’s full blown counterpart in nowhere to be found among the top 100 paid Apps.

What does this tell us? That people would rather pay nothing for a Lite edition than something for a full game? Or is it simply that the whole App ranking mechanism still broken?

Have you downloaded any free “Lite” Apps? And if so, how many have convinced you to move on up to the full version?

[The Lightning Reviews are over, but from their ashes rise... the Forum Reviews! TiPb has assembled a crack team of App-aficionados, and every week we'll be bringing you a few of their very best reviews right here on the blog. And be sure to check out TiPb's iPhone App Store Forum for even more!]

Living Social Forum Review by msbaylor

Living Social is a very interesting app.

The LivingSocial app allows you to keep track of movies you’ve watched, want to see, didn’t like, etc. and the ratings you give them. It also does this with books, restaurants, beer, video games, & music. It will also give you recommendations in each category (provided you have entered a few entries). I personally like this because I can keep track of videos I’ve liked, what I want to see, books I want to read, places I want to eat at, etc. It is also somewhat of an inventory application because you can mark each entry as owned, want it, etc.

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To no one’s surprise, but perhaps to a few’s disppointment, Apple may have denied entry to the iTunes App Store to Opera Mini. Says the New York Times (via Daring Fireball):

Mr. von Tetzchner said that Opera’s engineers have developed a version of Opera Mini that can run on an Apple iPhone, but Apple won’t let the company release it because it competes with Apple’s own Safari browser.

Opera doesn’t state what the terms of rejection were, be it “duplicative functionality” like PodCaster, they dared touch Steve Jobs’ sacred dock, or whether they were trying to parse JavaScript against the terms of the SDK. Whatever the reason, however, there remains uncertainty for developers and a deafening lack of justification from Apple. (Perhaps even more ironic, given Valley Wag’s assertion that Opera was once considered by Apple to be the iPhone browser!)

For those not familiar with Opera Mini, on the Windows Mobile, Palm, and even Blackberry platforms that have been woefully under-served by the likes of Blazer and Pocket IE, Opera Mini has become one of the first things installed in a desperate attempt to get at least something closer to the actual internet on their devices (though this is changing with the likes of Android, and devices such as the Blackberry Thunder). Opera has also found a niche in embedded systems (e.g. video game platforms).

However, Opera Mini pre-crunching all data on their own servers before shipping it to handsets sets off a “Gibsonian response” in my central security core, so while it wouldn’t appeal to me on the iPhone, I would prefer to reject it myself rather than have Apple do so perfunctorily on my behalf.

What about you? Anyone seriously bummed there won’t be Opera for the iPhone any time soon?

Are you wishing you had iDisk on your iPhone? Bummed you don’t? Looking for an alternative? Then look no further! Arstechnica informs us thatBox.net has just released an app for the iPhone! For those of you that don’t know, Box.net is a free service that gives you online access to 1GB of storage. Now, you can access this information directly from your iPhone! 

After logging in you have access to your folders and documents; if the iPhone can render it, you can view it! You can even share folders with the handy “Share” button. You can also upload photos as well, but regretfully, only one at a time. 

One neat feature is that if you share a file, you will be notified of an update via the updates section located in the bottom left of the app!

This is a 1.0 release, and we are looking forward to what new features Box.net might bring us! I took some pictures from my iPhone below, enjoy!

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One of our favorite apps on the Mac — and the iPhone — is on sale for today only:

First, we have partnered with macZOT! to bring you a special deal! This Thursday, Oct 30th, for one day only, 1Password will be available for an incredible 50% off its regular price: 1Password Halloween Special!

The 1Password iPhone App is, of course, free, but the Mac app is usually $39 bucks, so this is almost a full $20 off. Of course, some people will complain it’s not “free” as well, but then these same people typically don’t work for free either, as trying to feed a family doesn’t work for “free”. Support great software and great developers will be here to support us with even more great apps.

Typically among the very first apps I install when I’m setting up a system, flawless password management and syncing make this not only a “just works” but a “must have”. (Plus, their UI and general graphic design work is awesome, and that hooks me every time!)

Get it before the stroke of midnight!

A few days back we mentioned how a developer claimed that his lighter application was blatantly ripped off by the lighter company Zippo. As you all know, there are always two sides to every story, eh… in this case 3 sides. Well TiPb received comments not only from Zippo but from Moderati as well.

Here is what Zippo had to say:

Zippo was approached by three different companies interested in developing our branded app for iPhone and the iPod touch at approximately the same time last summer. We evaluated each proposal and chose to pursue the opportunity with the partner that we determined to offer the best app, the best capability and that also shared our vision for the app’s distribution plan (including free download) and process. We’re confident that we partnered with the company, Moderati, that was best able to deliver the product that Zippo wanted. To make it clear, neither Zippo nor Moderati stole the idea for this app.

Shortly after I was contacted by Zippo I received a comment from Moderati as well:

Hi from Moderati - where we’ve been developing virtual concert lighters for mobile phones for a long time…in fact, check out this link in Wireless Week from 2005, when the iPhone was probably just a twinkle in Apple’s eye: http://www.wirelessweek.com/wallpapers-with-a-purpose.aspx

So there you have it folks. We now have 3 sides to this story. Who’s side will you be standing on?

[This is a TiPb AT WORK App vs. App Interlude! Last week, we ran our Remote Desktop/VNC Showdown, with Jaadu edging out Mocha for the victory. But which forum voter and blog commenter won copies of the winning App? Congratulations MSZATNY and GOS

This week, while the TiPb iPhone Forums vote on THE TWIST Casey steps in to look at Earthscape and it's major-league new rival, Google Earth! They're both FREE, but if you comment below (and make sure you leave a valid email address in the comment form -- it won't be made public, but it will be used to contact you), you'll still have a chance to win an iTunes gift certificate from TiPb! Check out the full contest details, then grab your iPhone and get ready to get things done -- the TiPb AT WORK Interlude: Earth vs Earth is on!]

Google has a certain love affair with the iPhone. Yeah, we know Android is Google’s baby but that doesn’t stop them from putting out top-notch applications for the iPhone. The Youtube App and Google Maps are both best in class and Gmail and Google Reader on Safari are setting the bar for web-based applications. So though Android is all Google, they’re still not ready to leave the iPhone.

Case in point, the release of Google Earth on the iPhone. Anyone a bit surprised that they released one of their more unique products on the iPhone before it got even as much as a sniff for Android? Luckily, as iPhone users we don’t have to worry about the politics of the situation and we get to enjoy the app for what it is.

But Google Earth isn’t the only player in town. Earthscape has been around, is free (used to be $9.99), and works admirably. So in this arena of mobile Earth based apps, is Google Earth the young challenger or the new champion?

Read on to find out in this special edition of App vs App!

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Right after we complete our contest for TiPB AT WORK: VNC, out comes a preview of LogMeIn Ignition for iPhone. LogMeIn is a free tool for remoting into your Mac or PC. Now, this functionality is coming to iPhone. 

This application has me rather excited since I already use this service; and it works well. I am currently hooked on Jaadu and Win Admin, but this could be a very viable option for replacement of these apps. The preview page discusses little about actual functionality, but based on the third image in the above graphic, you will be able to use multi-touch to zoom in and out of the screen. 

Also, by looking at the toolbar, it looks like you can search (a shortcut to Spotlight?) left/right-click, keyboard and even a globe (perhaps a shortcut to Safari?)

All in all, very exciting indeed! We will update you as we learn more!

[The Lightning Reviews are over, but from their ashes rise... the Forum Reviews! TiPb has assembled a crack team of App-aficionados, and every week we'll be bringing you a few of their very best reviews right here on the blog. And be sure to check out TiPb's iPhone App Store Forum for even more!]

Line Rider Forum Review by cjvitek

The Line Rider concept game is a simple one. You draw a line. A sled travel down the line as if it is a hill.

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