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In app purchase now available for free apps

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: App Store News, Free Apps

Free in-app purchase

It took Apple a while, but finally, in-app purchases are allowed to be used in free apps. Why is this exciting? Well, previously, only apps that had a price were allowed to include an in-app purchase model. That means that games like Tap Tap Revenge 3 has to cost at least $.99 if the developer wanted to sell you add-on packs. This is also the reason that you see so many demo, or “Lite” versions of apps in the App Store. Now, you can download a demo version of an app, and upgrade to the full version while playing the free version. We’d love to see apps like Shoot It! get on board with this as well, as we think the freemium model is the sweet spot in the App Store.


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Tweetie 2 makes long-awaited debut

Tweetie 2

Tweetie 2 has just launched and is now available for the and , 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

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Monkey Island Comes to the App Store

Posted by Brandon Gribin Categories: Games, New Apps, $7.99

Monkey Island SEThe Secret of Monkey Island is now on the App Store! The classic point-and-click adventure game was originally released in 1990 on the Atari ST, Macintosh and PC systems. The Special Edition version released on the iPhone/iPod touch is also available on PC and .

The Special Edition features updated graphics, music, and voice recordings. You can switch between the new and old versions simply by swiping your fingers across the screen.

The game seems to be an excellent update although there have been mixed reactions to the controls. You move the cursor around by sliding your finger on the screen and using it like a track-pad. The game does not allow you to simply tap on a part of the screen to interact with it but hopefully LucasArts will adjust that in a future update.

All in all, Monkey Island coming to the iPhone is only a sign of more good things to come. From LucasArts, hopefully other classics will be revitalized soon - like Sam and Max and Day of the Tentacle.

This big App Store release clearly shows how much of a player the iPhone is becoming in the gaming world - even if not all hardcore gamers want to admit it.

Read More | Monkey Island: Special Edition

Resident Evil 4 released for iPhone and iPod touch

Posted by Brandon Gribin Categories: Games, $7.99

Resident Evil 4 iPhone

Talk about big iPhone releases! Resident Evil 4 has hit the iPhone. It’s going for $7.99.

No word on how the game is. On the one hand, it is Resident Evil and the graphics don’t look bad. On the other hand, it is a port.

Read More | Resident Evil 4

Beejive 3.0 goes live, supports push notifications

Beejive 3.0Our favorite instant messaging app for the and , Beejive (pronounced bee-hive,) just got updated to version 3.0. While there are a few nice additions, the biggest is that Beejive now supports push notifications on the iPhone.  If you are unfamiliar, this means you can tell Beejive to stay persistently connected to Apple’s push servers, even when you close that app. So you can keep a conversation going, while you also check your email, surf the Internet, and more. If you get a new IM, you will get a text notification telling you so, which you can simply close, or use to launch Beejive and take you directly back to the conversation.

Seriously, if you want a downright amazing IM app on your iPhone, consider BeejiveIM.

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Tap Tap Revenge: Dave Matthews Band edition launches

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Games, Music, New Apps, Tapulous, $4.99

tap tap revenge dave matthews band

Tap Tap Revenge has really become an iPhone staple, and today it just keeps on coming with Tap Tap Revenge: Dave Matthews Band. If you’re a fan of Dave Matthews Band music, and also happen to love rhythm games, you’ll want to grab this game, which costs $4.99 in the App Store. Here’s the track list:

  • Funny The Way It Is
  • Shake Me Like A Monkey
  • Tripping Billies
  • Everyday
  • Ants Marching
  • American Baby
  • Crash Into Me
  • What Would You Say
  • So Much To Say
  • Two Step

See? A lot of the Dave Matthews classics. Tap Tap Revenge: Dave Matthews Band is available now in the App Store.

Read More | Tap Tap Revenge

Apple App Store passes one billion downloads

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: App Store News, Apple

App Store Billion Downloads

If you had any doubt of the success of ‘s App Store, the fact that one billion apps have been downloaded in nine months should be enough to change your opinion. At 1:52 pm today, the App Store officially sold its 1,000,000,000th app for the and platforms. As exciting as that is, we have the iPhone 3.0 SDK currently in beta, which will allow apps with new capabilities that aren’t yet available. Exciting times.

Read More | Apple

iShoot Tank Game App

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Games, Videos, $2.99

When Ethan Nicolas’ iShoot hit #1 on the App Store list, he quit his day job to further develop applications. That meant he was making about $21,000 a day from 10,000+ downloads after Apple’s cut. Although it has dropped to #6, the $2.99 artillery game seems to still be making the bucks. There can be up to 4 players at a time, either human or computer, to see who can be the last tank standing. There are 25 weapons, including a mega mortar, dirt ball, stinger missiles and planet buster, realistic sound effects and authentic landscapes for destroying the planet, piece by piece.

 

Read More | iPhone Savior

Apple announces that 500 million apps have been downloaded

Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: App Store News, Apple

iPhone 500 million downloads

Okay, look, if you are still a hater who is of the mindset that the is no big deal, today’s news out of should seriously put all that to rest. This morning, the company announced that there have been 500 million apps downloaded from the App Store. With all the iPhone and iPod touch owners out there snapping these things up, it really comes as no surprise to us - especially considering that you can get some really great software for free, or for as little as $0.99.

Good on them, we say. Now can we get a few more pages allowed in the iPhone home screen area? We are three downloads away from completely filling our 9 pages, no doubt.


Vote For Best Apps

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Sales, Site Announcements

Best App Banner

The 2008 Best App Ever Awards is the first for iPhone OS Applications. The goal of the competition is supposed to be to draw attention to the best available from the App Store, but it certainly won’t hurt sales. Although the nominations are over, you can still vote in 34 categories with 10 apps in each this week.The winners of the achievement awards will be announced January 7 at the 2009 MacWorld Expo.

 

Read More | Best App Ever

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