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First Look: Mouse House
Mouse House is a very adorable and surprisingly complicated puzzle game from Plaid World Studios. At first look, it seems like a very simple game with graphics that appear to be on par with Super Nintendo games. But, it's actually surprisingly tough and addictive. The game's premise is simple -- eat cheese and progress through the unlocked doors once they open. Along the way, you have to dodge bees, evil rats, crumbling floors and try not to get pinned in a corner by pushing balls the wrong way. It looks simple, but isn't. After completing the 8-level tutorial, it took me a few retries to get through the next few levels. The sound effects are truly what make this game stand out. The little noises from eating cheese and getting through an open door successfully are quite adorable. The controls are easy to use -- tap the screen in a vertical or horizontal line from where the mouse is and he'll move to that spot. There's no game soundtrack other than the sound effects. Instead, you can listen to the music already loaded on your iPhone or iPod Touch and the sound effects will play over the music. However, I enjoy the effects so much I simply play without the music. Mouse House (link opens iTunes) is currently available for US$.99
First Look: Word Flow
I'm always on the lookout for applications to keep me entertained when I have little snatches of time that need filling: Waiting in a long line at the post office or for a movie to start, or being caught out at lunch without a book to read while eating. Word Flow is an interesting puzzle game that allows you to slide letters around a board to create words. Once your word is ready, tap the beginning and last letter of the word you've created. It's like Boggle with the ability to control where letters go. You have three timed versions you can play: One minute, three minutes and 10 minutes. Three minutes is the sweet spot for me. With the one minute version, you barely have time to string some words together before time is up. With the 10-minute version, I lost interest after about five minutes. Overall, Word Flow is a fairly decent game, but definitely not my favorite of available word games on the iPhone. The graphic response is not as smooth as other programs, and two versions of the game are either too short or too long. Word Flow (link opens iTunes) is currently available for $.99USD.
Tweetie: Twitter client with "oomph"
Yesterday, Dave published an awesome gift guide for the Twitter addict. It wasn't meant to be an all-encompassing list, nonetheless, the omission of Tweetie [iTunes link] -- one of the newest Twitter clients to hit the iPhone -- generated a ton of response via the comments, our inbox and of course, via Twitter. Because Twitter is my crack, I decided to take Tweetie out for a spin. Developer Loren Brichter was even nice enough to get me in on the Tweetie beta so I could take a sneak peek at some of the features coming in future releases.My initial thoughts are very, very positive; I now know why so many of you were so vocal about your Tweetie love. No sooner did I crown Tweetsville the current champion in the Twitter for iPhone Battle Royale, Tweetie shows up with some serious moves. At this point, I don't even know if I can adequately name a "champion." Another Twitter client?As I've said before, Twitter and the iPhone are a perfect combination -- they just go together. That said, Dave makes a solid point: the number of available Twitter clients for the iPhone is getting a tad ridiculous. I have tried almost every Twitter application available for the iPhone/iPod touch (see below) and they can tend to blur together. And these are just the apps I've purchased or downloaded for free Twitter's brilliance is in its simplicity. Twitterrific is my favorite desktop Twitter client, in large part because of its commitment to that simplicity. Having said that, Twitterrific for the iPhone is starting to strike me as too simple. I love the interface, I just often want to be able to do more. A simple interface coupled with lots of features is what makes a great mobile Twitter client. This is where Tweetie really stands out. On the features front, it is pretty similar to what Twitterlator Pro, Tweestville and Twitterfon offer, but its interface is extremely clean and unobscured. In fact, it took me a little while to figure out where some of the more advanced settings for the app are. They are actually in the main "Settings" panel, rather than inline the app itself. That makes sense, and is apparently something Apple recommends, but it's worth noting because otherwise you might miss where some of the features actually are.%Gallery-39588%
Primo Sguardo (First Look): Cucchiaio d'Argento
If you like to cook and eat Italian cuisine, this iPhone app will make you very happy. Il Cucchiaio d'Argento (The Silver Spoon) has been the definitive recipe book for traditional Italian cooking for the past 50 years, and now it's available for iPhone.This cookbook, available in the App Store for US$9.99 or €7.99 (click opens iTunes), features over 250 classic and tested recipes. Updates will add more of the 2,000+ recipes in the cookbook. Many of the recipes include notes about their history or tradition, or provide hints on excellent wines to try as an accompaniment to your meal.Ingredients are listed in both metric and imperial measures. There's space to add your own notes to recipes; this is helpful when making variations to the standard recipes. In real-life usage, the app works well. My only complaint is that the "add to shopping list" button only adds the ingredients, not the actual quantity of each item. There's no Mac version of the application, but you can always purchase the analog version of Il Cucchiaio d'Argento from most bookstores and Amazon. Check out the gallery below for more screenshots of the app in action. Many thanks to the readers who corrected Google's lousy translation! %Gallery-39394%
First Look: iLava for iPhone/iPod touch
The lava lamp was an icon of 70s pop culture, and that same idea has made it into the 21st century, right on the iPhone. iLava [iTunes link] imitates both a lava lamp, and the demo that Jeff Han gave us at the TED conference. The iLava application is completely multi-touch, meaning that anything you touch will have an action. Touch the lava, move it around. When you tap and hold your finger in a specific area, you'll add heat and see the lava rise. You can also stretch the lava apart, or pinch multiple pieces of lava together. Shake or tilt the iPhone to move the lamp, just as you could a real lava lamp. If you're looking for a cool iPhone application that could bring a few minutes of enjoyment, then look no further than iLava. You can download it from the iTunes App Store for $0.99US. Update: The developer of iLava contacted us to let us know that this application is essentially the same thing that Jeff Han used at the TED conference. Both applications use the same codebase, and was developed by Llya Rosenberg (the same name mentioned in the demo video) over the past few years. Thanks to everyone who sent this in!
First Look: Sharecard for iPhone
Since the iPhone introduction, many users have wanted the ability to send an receive vCards. There have been plenty of vCard sending applications on the App Store, but one that recently caught my attention was Sharecard [iTunes link]. The application has a nice user interface, and allows you to easily send a vCard through email. When you first launch the application, you are able to set the default vCard to send. When you navigate back to the vCard tab, and tap the "Send Card" button, you will have the option to send the card via email. In the email section, you can either type in a new email address, or select an email address from your contacts.This application does make sending card very easy, but for the price I would like to see more functionality. For instance, it would be nice to send one card to multiple people. Also, the vCards are delivered through the developer's mail servers (which is a do-not-reply account) -- I would like the email to be sent from the default mail account on my iPhone, as the recipient would be more aware of who the card is from. However, as it is, the application is very useful, and just plain works. You can download Sharecard from the iTunes App Store for $1.99US. %Gallery-38779%
First Look: UNO for iPhone
If you've ever played UNO before, then you know how addicting it can be. You can now enjoy that same UNO [iTunes link] experience on your iPhone anywhere, which makes it much more addicting. Gameloft, creators of many other iPhone and iPod games, has really outdone itself on this game for the iPhone. UNO gives you many different ways to play. When you press Quick Play, you are able to choose your difficulty level, and instantly begin playing against a computer player. Single player allows you to enter either Tournament mode, or Custom mode. In custom mode, you can choose the difficulty, game type, scoring type, penalties, draw type, force play, UNO 7-0, and jump in. One of my most favorite parts of this game is the multiplayer abilities. There are three options: over Wi-Fi, on one device, or online. With Wi-Fi multiplayer, you can play someone with another iPhone on the same Wi-Fi access point -- you can either create or join an existing room. With one device multiplayer, you can have up to 4 people play on the same iPhone ... this is my least favored way to play UNO because others might catch a glimse of your cards (although cards are not shown until the specified player touches the screen). With online multiplayer, you can create and join a room for others around the world to play along with you.I wish I could rotate the screen and use online multiplayer over EDGE or 3G. With that being said, UNO is an awesome application for on-the-go playing, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes to play card games. You can purchase UNO for iPhone/iPod touch from the iTunes App Store for $7.99. %Gallery-38725%
First Look: Public Radio Tuner
Whenever I'm not listening to my iPod in the car, I'm usually have my radio tuned to National Public Radio, where I get my fix of classical and jazz music. American Public Media has created an iPhone app that caters to those of us who want to listen to a particular NPR station, but don't happen to be near a computer.Public Radio Tuner (click opens iTunes) is a free application that compiles the Internet streams from more than 150 public radio stations into a single list. You scroll through the list to your preferred station, then there is a screen with a play button and volume control. Over Wi-Fi, the station I picked came in clear with no interruptions. I can turn off the iPhone's screen and it'll keep playing. However, when I tried to launch Public Radio Tuner using a fairly strong EDGE connection, the application insisted that it wasn't connected to the Internet. I had to utilize another program that activated an Internet connection, then relaunch Public Radio Tuner, before it would work over EDGE. After that, it works as advertised, though American Public Media warns that some stations require a 3G or Wi-Fi connection to work properly.It's a simple application, and does what it does well. It still needs some improvement. I would love to see a search tool implemented so you can bypass scrolling through the long list of radio stations; search by station name or by location would be great. The ability to bookmark your favorite stations would be an additional bonus, as well as tweaking the application to recognize a connection over EDGE without having to launch another application.
Ziibii floats updates to your iPhone
Do you like keeping up with friends on social networks? Do you have an iPhone? If so, you might be interested in a new social networking application for the iPhone called Ziibii. Ziibii [iTunes link] brings an innovative approach to viewing your social networking sites and RSS feeds -- without ever leaving this one app. Ziibii allows you to see friend updates, videos, and photos from Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube.Ziibii's killer feature is its "River" feature, which depicts friend updates, photos, videos, and RSS feed headlines "floating" down a river on tiny rafts. You can interact with the river and rafts with gestures. Moving too fast? Move your finger left or right on the screen. You can even make the river flow in the opposite direction by swiping your finger against flow. Rafts too close together? Pick it up and move it. If you tap on a raft, you will be presented with a full screen view of the update and get the option to share that update via email or Twitter. If you get sea sick with River view, you can also give list view a try, which stacks updates on top of each other; swiping right to left loads more updates.Ziibii comes pre-loaded with some good blogs (TUAW is listed under the "iPhone Stuff" section), and you can also add your own RSS feeds via the "My Feeds" setting.Ziibii has a very nice user interface, and allows you to quickly see all of your friend updates in a unique fashion. However, we would like to see an option to post updates and photos to Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr. We would also like to see support for Pownce and Digg, among others. With the price of free, Ziibii is a must-have application for anyone that uses social networks. You can download Ziibii from the iTunes App Store. %Gallery-37595%
First Look: FlightTrack real-time flight tracker
Have you ever had one of those "damn, I wish I had waited a couple of weeks" moments? They usually happen when you buy an iPhone app you're not really thrilled about, but it's the only one of its type. About two weeks later, you're slapping your forehead when the app you really wanted ships.It happened to me this month. When I travel, I like to make sure my flights are on time, so I like to use FlightView's Flight Tracker. About two weeks ago I purchased another flight status app, and I've been underwhelmed with it ever since. Now Mac and iPhone Developer Ben Kazez has created FlightTrack, a real-time flight tracker for iPhone and iPod touch. The US$4.99 FlightTrack app (click opens iTunes) uses the same great FlightView data and maps, so it looks and works a lot like the online tracker. Not only do you get the cool real-time location of each flight, but weather is overlaid on the maps (see screenshot at right). You can track multiple flights, look at details, and search by a number of criteria.Thanks, Ben. Now I have to spend another $4.99 to replace that other app I'm using....
FirstLook: beamME universal vCard exchange app
Developers rmbrME have come out with a novel take on the "beam your card" app. beamME is the first universal vCard exchange app that's supposed to work with any device, whether it's a BlackBerry, T-Mobile G1, Treo, a Mac or a PC.The app and accompanying beamMe Basic service are free, and it takes only about 10 seconds to sign up from your iPhone. However, "beaming" is really nothing more than sending an SMS that tells the recipient to go to the rmbrME website and download the vcf file. If the recipient's mobile browser doesn't support downloading vcf files, they're prompted to send the file to an email address from the website. You can also text the person's cell phone number to a special number.I tried sending a vCard to my T-Mobile G1 and gave up after 10 minutes of trying to receive the vCard. I could have typed in all the info faster than that. My personal opinion? Use one of the other Wi-Fi based beaming apps, such as iBeam or Fliq. While they're not "universal" apps, they work well with most other Wi-Fi devices.How do you transfer business card information between devices? Leave us a comment.
First Look: Tweetsville brings pro features to Twitter on iPhone
There are a number of Twitter apps available for the iPhone and iPod Touch -- and why not? Much like peanut butter and jelly, Twitter and the iPhone are a classic combination. Tweetsville [iTunes Link] from Tapulous is the newest Twitter client available from the App Store, and it offers up an interface and feature set that really gives the competition a run for its money. But wait, doesn't Tapulous already make a Twitter application? They do, and Twinkle [iTunes Link] is a neat app. Although the two applications share some interface similarities, the scope and focus are actually very different. Twinkle's real user hook is in its geo-location features, whereas Tweetsville is a full-fledged Twitter application. I'm a pretty addicted to Twitter, and have been searching for an app for my iPod touch that could help me monitor and manage my stream with ease. Tweetsville appears to be that app. I follow a lot of users and my biggest problem with some of the other Twitter applications (and with the m.twitter.com interface) is that I can't view a large number of tweets at one time. With Tweetsville, not only does it grab the last 200 tweets for me, if I leave the application and come back an hour later, it will pull up what I've missed. That means I can access 532 tweets at once, rather than just the last ten minutes or so. That's extremely handy. %Gallery-36828% Read on for more...
Starz broadens offerings by landing multitude of licensing deals
Aside from producing its own original series, Starz Entertainment is also looking to outsiders to broaden its content offerings. In a recent announcement, the channel discloses that it has just closed a multitude of deals that will net it a "bevy of first run and library titles from Summit, Lionsgate, Hallmark, IFC, the Samuel Goldwyn Co., First Look and Fremantle." Better still, that material can be distributed via a variety of methods including all 16 of its linear channels, Starz HD, Starz On Demand and Starz Play (its broadband video download service). Eager to know what titles these deals will bring? Try 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, By Dawn's Early Light, Call of the Wild, Bye Bye Birdie, Hound of the Baskervilles and Rear Window -- and that's just the tip of the iceberg.
First Look: Classics
Have you ever been stuck on a train, plane, or bus and wanted a good book to read? With Classics [iTunes Link], you can easily pick up your iPhone and begin reading a small collection of classic literature and novels. As I mentioned last week, Classics takes a new approach to reading books on the iPhone. The book selection interface reminds us of Delicious Library, as it has a wooden bookcase with the library of books stacked on it -- the developers will add new books with future (free) updates. You can re-arrange your books by tapping on a book and dragging it around. Once you select a book, it will load, and you will see the reading view. If you are continuing where you left off, a bookmark will appear and slide off the page; otherwise, you will presented with the first page of the book. To turn the page, you simply slide your finger in a page-turning motion (right to left or left to right, depending on if you want to go forward or backwards respectively). The page turning is really addictive, and you'll find yourself reading quickly through the text just so you can flip to the next page -- yes, it's really that addictive. By tapping on the list icon in the top-right corner, you will be presented with an index of the chapters; you can tap on any of these chapters to jump to the beginning of the section. When you tap the back button in the top-left, a bookmark will slide onto the page, saving your place for later. After extensive testing over the past two weeks, I have become addicted to reading in Classics. But, there are some improvements I would like to see. There is a good selection of books to read, but I would like to see this list expand (and bring more recent books to the bookshelf). I would also like to be able to search through one (or all) of the books to find a single passage. In addition, the ability to control the font size would be nice. Overall, this application is stellar, and while there is some room for improvement, I would have to agree that this is a great way to read older books on the go. Classics is definitely not a mainstream eBook reader, because you cannot add your own books. So, if you're looking for a reader that gives you more flexibility, you might want to try Stanza [iTunes Link].You can download Classics from the iTunes Store for an introductory price of $2.99. Be sure to take a look at our gallery of screenshots.%Gallery-35909%
First Look: Handshake for iPhone
How many times have you been away from your computer and wanted to give someone your contact information? With a new app called Handshake [iTunes Link], you can send another iPhone (or iPod touch) user any contact information stored on your iPhone. The application works by using Core Location coupled with other technologies to send address book cards over the air.When you first launch Handshake, it will attempt to find your address book card; if it can't, it will ask you to specify a card. Handshake will then connect to its servers, and you will be able to send either your card, a contact's card, or a picture -- just by tapping on one of the main three buttons. You can also change your default card by tapping the wrench in the top-right corner of the application and choosing the blue arrow under "My Card." This is a very simple application, with a very simple idea, that just works. The application will send data over WiFi, 3G, and EDGE connections. Since the application uses Apple's Core Location framework, it relies on GPS, cell triangulation, or WiFi positioning. The lack of GPS on the iPod touch makes the app less reliable than the iPhone, but a new feature in version 1.1 hopes to fix this by allowing users to search for others who are sharing cards. Version 1.1 will also give users the ability to send industry-standard vCards through email to other people, regardless of whether they're using an iPhone or not. Handshake is currently at version 1.0.1, and can be downloaded from the iTunes Store in two flavors: free or paid. The paid version removes the ads. Version 1.1 should be out sometime this week. You can look at our gallery of screenshots to see the additions to version 1.1.%Gallery-35905%Thanks to Kyle Richter and Ian Baird for the information, and their help!
First Look: Shelf Life
There are many iPhone applications geared towards helping you shop at the grocery store, but none of them can track how old your food in the fridge is. A new application called Shelf Life [iTunes link] hopes to help you out in this area. Shelf Life keeps an inventory of your perishable groceries and, based on the date each is added to the list, displays either a green or red bubble beside it. The color will let you know if the item is okay to eat or not. Adding an item to the application is as easy as taping the "+" button in the upper right-hand corner -- once you start typing a name, the application will predict what you are trying to add. The predictive typing is based on other user input, as are the expiration times. Overall, this application is extremely solid, and allows the user to quickly input items and see what food is about to expire. With the economic times we're in, everyone is trying to save, and this application could definitely help you achieve this goal. Shelf Life is now available on the App Store for $1.99. You can also check out our gallery of screenshots.%Gallery-35152%
First Look: Logbook for Mac
If you frequently use 37Signal's Backpack web software, then chances are you don't like having to open a new web browser tab/window each time you wish to update your Journal. Logbook hopes to ease your woes by updating your Backpack Journal directly from your Mac OS X Menu Bar. The application gives you a simple user interface with which you can update your status and add completed tasks. If you're having a hard time remembering to update your Journal, have Logbook remind you every x number of minutes, and only between certain hours. In addition, you can set a keyboard shortcut for showing/hiding the application in the menu bar. Your updates are sent using 128-bit SSL encryption.You can purchase Logbook from the developer's website for $12.99. A demo of the application is also available.
First Look: i. TV brings schedules, trailers to your iPhone
There are a lot of App Store submissions and works-in-progress that trigger anticipatory drooling here at TUAW (Sling Mobile! Sling Mobile!), among them the program guide and movie finder i. TV; we first saw it a few weeks ago and I've been checking every day to see if it's shipped. Now you can download this free tool from the App Store and see for yourself what's so exciting. (The promo video on the i.tv site borrows heavily from Apple's 1984 ad and the Apple TV intro, so clearly there's an effort to brand this app as 'revolutionary.')The heart of i. TV (App Store link) is a TV listings browser, which connects to the free data feed from the i.tv site (registration is required), including synopses and cast info. You can select your zip code and programming provider (the app currently supports US and Canadian TV listings only) and the current schedules are there at your fingertips; you can rate, review, filter or flag shows as favorites and optionally share your feedback with other i.TV users.Along with the TV content, the movies section of the app lets you browse by title or by nearby theaters, and watch streamed trailers of your selected films. Trailers and previews of TV shows are also included. The UI is clean and the app is easy to navigate; I was able to find show listings quickly for several series.As cool as the initial version of i.TV appears to be, the development directions are exponentially cooler. Future versions of the app are planned that will include remote DVR programming (ooh!), IR blaster integration (yes!), DVD rentals (ahh!), movie ticket purchases and even the ability to watch full TV shows streamed from the programming source (hmm.).Note that there is another app with a similar name, ITV, which provides French television listings and goes for $2.99 US.
First Look: Grocery IQ for iPhone
Since most people travel everywhere with their iPhones, it is only fitting that an application would come along that would allow you to create a grocery list. Now if you want, you can shop in the store while listening to tunes and looking at your shopping list -- Grocery iQ [iTunes link] allows you to do this and more. To add an item to your list, just tap the "+" button in the top right corner. When you start entering the name of an item, Grocery iQ will start searching its database of more than 130,000 items. This is amazing, because everything that I threw at it, it recognized! The database even has brand-name items, if you prefer to search that way. You can enter the quantity of the items needed (from 1-100) and some notes about the item. Something that sets this application apart from others is the ability to sort items by aisles -- and the app automatically tries to match your item to an aisle (however, you will probably have to re-arrange this to match the layout of your preferred grocery store). Another nice feature added by the developer is the ability to email the list to yourself or someone else! It doesn't just email a plain 'ole list either, it formats it to look just like it does in the application (with sections and everything). The application also keeps a running history of the items you purchase -- from this list, you can easily re-add items to your shopping list. This application should be on any iPhone/iPod touch owner's to-buy list if you forget items at the store, or just want to track your shopping list a little better. It would be nice to see a simple calculator in the application, so you could add up your list as you go through the store (or perhaps cache the recent price of the item). This application costs $4.99 at the iTunes App Store and weighs in at 7.2 MBs. Be sure to check out our gallery of screenshots to see the application yourself. An application update is expected soon that will add support for multiple lists/stores, and add even more information to the item database. %Gallery-33490%
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First Look: Equivalence for iPhone
Keeping with the famous science teacher saying of "every number must have a unit," Equivalence (iTunes link) is the one-stop converter for all things units. Did we say "one-stop?" Why yes we did, because Equivalence can convert between over 260 units in 31 categories. Once of the nice features of Equivalence is the ability for the application to auto update the unit conversions over the air, instead of through the App Store. So, if the developer decides to add a unit, or if a unit were to change, updates could get pushed out to the application. The beauty of this application is when you flip your iPhone into landscape mode. Just like the built-in iPhone calculator, this application adds much more functionality when horizontal, including a calculator that can add units together. Bottom line: This is the best unit converter for the iPhone, hands-down. Be sure to take a look at our gallery of Equivalence screenshots. You can buy Equivalence from the iTunes App Store for $4.99 (US). Update: The developer has dropped us an email to let us know about a special promotion. Equivalence will sell on the App Store for $1.99 until October 6th. The pricing changes have already been submitted to Apple for approval and should appear soon. Also, we have added two new screenshots in the gallery showing off the landscape mode in Equivalence. %Gallery-32369%
