Tweetie 2 makes long-awaited debut

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Social Networking, App Updates, New Apps, Reviews, $2.99

Tweetie 2 has just launched and is now available for the iPhone and iPod touch, and the popular Twitter app brings with it many, many improvements and feature additions. Some of the more notable additions include full app persistence, which means that if you leave the app for any reason and come back to it, Tweetie 2 will remember exactly where you were. There’s also a nice offline mode, that lets you read, favorite, and even write drafts of tweets. Once you connect to the Internet again, everything gets synced up.

Many users have been waiting for video support and push notifications to come to Tweetie as well, and Tweetie 2 delivers on both fronts, but we feel both are lacking. With video support, we’d love to see Posterous added as a hosting service, as opposed to just yFrog and TwitVid. As is pertains to push notifications, Tweetie 2 gives it to you, but only on a per-user basis. So you have to go into each user that you want to receive notifications from, and enable them in a menu that is buried a couple of levels deep. We’d love an option to get all mentions and direct messages pushed to the phone from Tweetie 2, rather than having to rely on another Twitter app that can do it (like SimplyTweet) or an app dedicated to pushing content (like Boxcar.)

Still, don’t let those two issues deter you. We’ve been playing with it for a while, and can say without hesitation that Tweetie 2 is now our iPhone Twitter application of choice. It is fast, elegant, and a great deal at $2.99. You can buy Tweetie in the App Store now, we’ve got a full feature list for you after the jump. Oh, and feel free to follow Gear Live and App.tapper on Twitter!

Click to continue reading Tweetie 2 makes long-awaited debut

Read More | Tweetie 2

• Tools:
• Permalink
• Comments (0)
• Digg This
• Share on Facebook
• Email this story

Preview: ngmoco’s new iPhone FPS: ELIMINATE

Posted by Drea Avellan Categories: Games, New Apps, Reviews

Oh, San Francisco. Home to the 49ers, majestic bridges, historic Alcatraz, cable cars and even countless videogame development studios. Amongst these studios, in a cozy restored building cloaked by the AT&T Park, lives Neil Young’s iPhone & iPod Touch game developer—NGMOCO.

ngmoco has been put out some of the most successful games for the iPhone & iPod touch, including the Rolando series, Topple and Word Fu. Ranging from puzzle, strategic and adventure, ngmoco knows how to create entertaining portable games. Now, they are set to release one of their most exciting titles yet, ELIMINATE. ELIMINATE is a 3G/Wi-Fi enabled First-Person Shooter (FPS) game, which takes advantage of micro-transactions, where you can upgrade characters, weapons, and the like.

Uncomplicated games currently dominate the App Store platform, due to their casual nature and mass appeal. The creation of more complex genres, such as FPS and strategic games, require a higher level of thought and consideration— a challenge ngmoco was more than willing to take on.  ELIMINATE brings with it an FPS online arena with intuitive controls that make it simple to jump in and play, and while the game might be a pick up and play experience, they haven’t ignored the importance of creating a story. ELIMINATE casts you as an employee of Arsenal Megacorp, a company in question for the use of humans in testing as a way of perfecting their gear. You and three other players are the guinea pigs of this project—SURPRISE!

Click to continue reading Preview: ngmoco’s new iPhone FPS: ELIMINATE

• Tools:
• Permalink
• Comments (0)
• Digg This
• Share on Facebook
• Email this story

Ping! brings iPhone-to-iPhone messaging to the App Store

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Social Networking, New Apps, Reviews, Free Apps

We were just alerted to a new iPhone and iPod touch app called Ping!, which aims to provide free iPhone-to-iPhone (and iPod touch) messaging to users of those devices. We tried it, and thought it was worthy enough to give a shout out to.

Basically, once you download the free Ping! application, you set up a username, and you are set. You can invite others from within the app over email, letting them know your username, and also set up whether you want push notifications or not. Once you start a conversation, it’s very similar to SMS…except it’s free, and instant. You get the speed of an IM conversation with the persistence of SMS, all at no extra cost. Even better, it works internationally. So you can send and receive messages with people in other countries, and again, at no extra cost.

Go ahead and give Ping! a try, we think you’ll like it.

Read More | Ping! in App Store

• Tools:
• Permalink
• Comments (74)
• Digg This
• Share on Facebook
• Email this story

Gifters app review

Posted by Brandon Gribin Categories: Lifestyle, Reviews, $1.99

Gifters, currently available for $1.99, lets you create and manage gift lists. If you’re patient and comfortable with getting friends and family on-board, this may be for you. To some though, the app may be just a little too cumbersome.

After creating an account - where you’re forced to input your physical address, for some odd reason - you’re guided through a tutorial by means of several notification windows. Following that, you’re free to create and share lists. The app has no gift database though, so when creating lists you have to fill in several information fields all on your own.

Click to continue reading Gifters app review

Read More | Gifters

• Tools:
• Permalink
• Comments (0)
• Digg This
• Share on Facebook
• Email this story

Holograms for iPhone Review

Posted by Brandon Gribin Categories: Entertainment, Photography, Reviews, $1.99

I’m almost certain this is a one-of-a-kind app. It has to be.

Holograms, recently released on the iPhone and iPod touch, allows you to create virtual holograms in a flash.

Click to continue reading Holograms for iPhone Review

• Tools:
• Permalink
• Comments (0)
• Digg This
• Share on Facebook
• Email this story

Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor Review

Posted by Brandon Gribin Categories: Games, Reviews, Site Features, $2.99

I’d say finding a great game on the App Store can be like finding a needle in a haystack. Well, I’ve got your needle right here - in one of the best games yet available for the iPhone and iPod touch. Spider: The Secret of Brice Manor.

This came comes highly, highly recommended. Please, go buy it now. It’ll be the best $2.99 you’ve spent in some time.
...
Okay. Now that you’ve got that taken care of, you probably noticed that the game is over 50 MB, which is larger than average for an iPhone game - I’ll tell you more. And hey, if you haven’t clicked the BUY APP button yet, I’ll still tell you about it.

Click to continue reading Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor Review

• Tools:
• Permalink
• Comments (1)
• Digg This
• Share on Facebook
• Email this story

Cleopatra for iPhone and iPod touch Review

Posted by Brandon Gribin Categories: Games, New Apps, Reviews, $1.99

As I see it, there are three types of slots players:

• People who sit for hours on end at a single machine
• People who pull on a machine once, hoping for a lucky spin, as they stroll by
• People who refuse to touch a machine (they just don’t know they’re slot players yet)

Cleopatra is the perfect iPhone and iPod touch game for the first type of slots player. And possibly a fun diversion for the other two types of players.

IGT, International Game Technology - a slot machine manufacturer, recently released Cleopatra on the iPhone and iPod touch. The app is a portable version of the video slot game that’s in casinos all over the world. The iPhone and iPod touch version is a solid rendition and should be up your alley if you’re looking for a slots game.

Click to continue reading Cleopatra for iPhone and iPod touch Review

• Tools:
• Permalink
• Comments (1)
• Digg This
• Share on Facebook
• Email this story

Shoot It! photo app now available in App Store

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Photography, Social Networking, New Apps, Reviews, $0.99

We’ve been beta testing the Shoot It! app for the past couple of months, and we are excited to let you guys know that it is now available for purchase in the App Store for $0.99. Why the excitement? Well, Shoot It! is one of the apps we use very regularly, and it’s one of our favorite apps that we’ve ever used on the iPhone. So, What is Shoot It?

Shoot It! allows you to send high quality postcards to anyone in your iPhone or iPod touch Address Book, using images in your Camera Roll, or an image that you take from within the app using the iPhone camera. You can send a postcard to as many people as you like, and you also fill in a message that would be printed on the back of the photo. The end result is, as we said, a high quality 4x6 glossy postcard that has the image of your choice on the front, and your message on the back. Since you can send the message to any number of contacts, you end up with the ability to send one message to, say, twenty people, in just a minute or two.

Click to continue reading Shoot It! photo app now available in App Store

Read More | Shoot It!

• Tools:
• Permalink
• Comments (2)
• Digg This
• Share on Facebook
• Email this story

Harbor Master Impressions

Posted by Brandon Gribin Categories: Games, Reviews, $0.99

Confession: I’m hooked on Harbor Master. Sure, I’ve been hooked on a lot of iPhone games over the last year but Harbor Master has something to it that really keeps me constantly coming back for more.

The game’s slightly similar to Flight Control - where you’re tasked as an Air Traffic Controller and have to land as many planes as you can until they crash. You direct planes by drawing lines - ideally to a runway.

In Harbor Master, rather than directing planes, you’re in charge of boats. Rather, boats with cargo. You draw paths for boats to dock - and wait as they unload cargo. After the cargo’s unloaded, you direct the boats back off the screen into the mysterious off-screen sea. The game currently has five different levels with a new one promised every two weeks. Each level has a unique twist to it - one features pirates plotting to pillage your plunder, where you use a cannon to fend them off. In another, ships have different colored cargo that must be unloaded at different docks.

Click to continue reading Harbor Master Impressions

Read More | Harbor Master

• Tools:
• Permalink
• Comments (0)
• Digg This
• Share on Facebook
• Email this story

TapDefense: Free (and fantastic) tower defense game

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Games, Reviews, Free Apps

There are a few tower defense games available in the App Store, but we think we’ve come across the best in TapDefense. Aside from being a free game, it’s really well done. The gameplay progresses in difficulty just as you’d expect it to, and developer LL Group even worked in the iPhone accelerometer into the gameplay - not something you find in your typical tower defense game. One of the towers available is an earthquake tower, and when enemies approach it, you shake your iPhone or iPod touch in order to destroy them. Very nice. In all, you’ve got 42 levels, six tower types, and seven different enemies to combat. And like we said, it’s free.

Read More | TapDefense

• Tools:
• Permalink
• Comments (1)
• Digg This
• Share on Facebook
• Email this story