2011 Iphone App
2011 Iphone App
2011 Iphone App
the 201 1
Revealed! The best social, gaming, travel, entertainment, sport and creative apps of the year
241
All you need to know about filling your iPhone with the very best apps
www.techradar.com
12.99 2010
Create
Explore
Enjoy
Work
Play
Future Publishing Limited 30 Monmouth Street, Bath BA1 2BW, UK www.futureplc.com Phone +44 (0)1225 442244 Fax +44 (0)1225 732275
All email addresses take the form [email protected] Editor Designer Operations Editors Art Christian Hall Chris Hedley Jo Membery, Kate Evans Kate McDonnell, Alvin Weetman, Seth Singh, Sally Henderson Production Editor Richard Hill Images Chris Hedley, iStock Photo, Future Photo Studio, Apple
FUTURE PUBLISHING LIMITED Publisher Charlotte Morgan Group Publishing Director Nial Ferguson UK Chief Executive Mark Wood Group Senior Editor Group Senior Art Editor Creative Director Editorial Director Paul Newman Steve Gotobed Bob Abbott Jim Douglas
MARKETING Brand Manager Daniel Bruce Campaign Manager Sharon Pillai Promotions Executive Joanne White CIRCULATION Trade Marketing Manager Stuart Brown Trade Marketing Director Rachael Cock PRINT & PRODUCTION Production Co-ordinator Craig Broadbridge Production Manager Rose Griffiths Head of Production Richard Mason LICENSING International Licensing Director Tim Hudson Phone: + 44 (0)1225 442244 Fax: + 44 (0)1225 732275 Printed in the UK by William Gibbons on behalf of Future. Distributed in the UK by Seymour Distribution Ltd, 2 East Poultry Avenue, London EC1A 9PT. Phone: 0207 429 4000
Welcome
Make more of your iPhone or iPod touch with our pick of the most essential apps for work and play
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he joy of the iPhone and iPod touch comes from the hundreds of thousands of apps that can be downloaded from the Apple App Store, either from your PC or Mac, or while youre out and about on the iPhone or iPod touch itself. Apple recently said that over 200 apps are downloaded every second from the App Store, totalling more than 6,500,000,000 downloads to date! While having thousands of apps to choose from makes the App Store a rich resource of multimedia content for your iPhone or iPod touch, it inevitably means that there's plenty of poor apps out there as well as the really good ones. That's why we've sampled the very best from the App Store to bring you over 240 outstanding apps, with star ratings and both UK and US pricing for your convenience. We also tell you which iOS version is required and what's new in the latest versions. Weve reviewed dozens of apps from each category on the App Store and rated them accordingly. Whether youre looking for a shopping app or photo editor, or a fun game or music-making tool, weve got all you need to know about the very best apps available right now. If youre keen to give app-making a go, then weve covered the process of developing iPhone apps as well. Well show you how to get started with our expert advice; weve also got the lowdown from developers who are making cash from the worlds biggest provider of downloadable content.
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TechRadar is the largest UK-based consumer technology news and reviews site. We will tell you about the coolest new stuff. Well work hard to bring you original quotes and exclusive access. Well review it more thoroughly and carefully than anyone else. Well explain how it works and why you should care (or not). The 2011 iPhone app guide 3
Discover the appeal of the iPhone and iPod touch ... page 6
6 16 Meet the iPhone and iPod touch 25 things to do with your iPhone
YOUR iPHONE
EXPLORE
TUTORIAL
ENJOY
CREATE
WORK
Say hello
to iPhone
Discover the appeal of all the iPhone and iPod touch models you can buy today
here are over a quarter of a million apps you can use on your iPhone, providing everything from the simplicity of tip calculators and fart noise generators to the sophistication of augmented reality tools that present live information on your iPhone screen based on what youre looking at through its camera. And, of course, there are tens of thousands of games, from solitaire and quizzes to 3D virtual worlds and racing games of the kind you normally expect to see only on a PC or PlayStation. But you cant have apps if you dont have an iPhone. Over the next 10 pages, we introduce you to the complete iPhone family. We start with an overview of all available models, explaining the key distinctions and offering a full run-down of every iOS device you can buy. Then we go in depth to look at the iPhone 4 and its pocket-sized siblings, the iPhone 3GS and the new iPod touch. Although iPad apps arent covered in this guide, we round out the iOS range by briefly introducing you to the potential of this magazine-sized device. Whether youre getting your first iOS mobile or upgrading from an older model, weve got everything you need to make an informed buying decision. Lets get started
Whether youre getting your first iOS mobile or upgrading, weve got everything you need for an informed buying decision
A LONG WAY Launched as recently as 2007, the original iPhone (left) has inspired three subsequent models, as well as the multi-touch iPod and innovative new iPad. iPhone users have over 250,000 apps to choose from
E
iPhone pricing
The iPhone prices we quote are typical if you take out a Pay & Go tariff. You can get any iPhone model for much less or even for free if you get a pay-monthly contract. Visit your local phone carrier store for details.
ach iOS device that Apple offers has a distinctive set of characteristics that define it, but its just as important to look at what unites them. What are the key attributes that all three iOS products iPhone, iPod touch and iPad share? Every iOS device design is dominated by its screen, a sheer glass plane you can touch to activate controls. Inside the case is the processor that runs the device, solid-state storage to hold your data and apps, and a highly efficient battery. Theres also wireless networking, enabling each device to connect to Wi-Fi networks in your home, in The iPad can be used in landscape or portrait mode, with the screen rotating automatically. your office or in hotels, coffee shops, pubs and transport hubs Building on this foundation, each iOS The other pocket-sized device in while out and about. product within the range offers a the iOS range is the iPhone 3GS, which Then, of course, theres the combination of further features to suit preceded the iPhone 4 and remains iOS itself: this is the name of different needs and budgets. The available as a more affordable option. the operating system (the iPhone 4 is the most complete package, Although its a very capable phone, its equivalent of Windows or Mac with call and messaging functionality built-in processor is slower than its OS X on a computer) that all alongside wireless networking, plus a successors and the display offers a these devices run. Formerly high-resolution display thats more like lower resolution. known as iPhone OS, iOS reading from paper than a screen. The final iOS device is the iPad: a provides the framework that Theres also GPS, the technology thats wholly different proposition from the enables anyone to write apps for more colloquially known as sat-nav, others. This magazine-sized machine is you to use, as well as offering a enabling the iPhone 4 to feed your more suitable for using around the set of built-in apps you can run from the first time you switch on your iOS device. iOS is periodically updated to offer new features: the latest release is iOS 4. All the iOS devices shown opposite are able to run this version, although iOS 4 wont precise location to relevant apps, like home or office than on the street. Its be available for iPad until Maps and Camera, with the latter much larger screen means that apps November. iPhone 3GS slower logging where you are while taking look and behave more like they do on processor means that it isnt able each photo, for example. a computer. All iPads offer wireless to support some of iOS 4s Alongside the iPhone is the iPod networking, but you can also choose features, such as the Camera touch, which looks very similar to its a model that can use a 3G mobile apps HDR exposure system. sibling but has a few important phone network although only for differences. Theres no phone or GPS data use like the internet rather than inside, although wireless networking is making phone calls. Unlike the iPhone 4THOUGHT The iPhone 4 offers a new form supported. The display is not quite as and iPod touch, the iPad doesnt have factor and some exciting new features, such as a front-facing camera for video chat good as the iPhone 4s, either. a built-in camera.
Building on one foundation, each iOS product offers a combination of further features to suit different needs and budgets
iPhone
iPad
iPhone 4 16GB
499 (Pay & Go) Available in black or white 3.5-inch widescreen 640x960 pixels Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n) Quad-band GSM, tri-band 3G Assisted GPS Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR Photo and video geotagging Battery lasts up to 40 hours (audio) / 10 hours (video) / 14 hours (talktime) 58.6x115.5x9.3mm 137g Requires Windows XP SP3, Vista or 7 / Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later
iPhone 4 32GB
599 (Pay & Go) Available in black or white 3.5-inch widescreen 640x960 pixels Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n) Quad-band GSM, tri-band 3G Assisted GPS Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR Photo and video geotagging Battery lasts up to 40 hours (audio) / 10 hours (video) / 14 hours (talktime) 58.6x115.5x9.3mm 137g Requires Windows XP SP3, Vista or 7 / Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later
iPad 16GB
429 (Wi-Fi) 529 (Wi-Fi + 3G) 9.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen 768x1,024 pixels 1GHz Apple A4 processor Up to 10 hours surfing on Wi-Fi, watching video or listening to music 3.5mm stereo headphone jack Built-in speaker Microphone 189.7x242.8x13.4mm 68g (Wi-Fi model) / 73g (Wi-Fi + 3G) Requires Windows XP SP3, Vista or 7 / Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later
iPod touch
iPad 32GB
499 (Wi-Fi) 599 (Wi-Fi + 3G) 9.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen 768x1,024 pixels 1GHz Apple A4 processor Up to 10 hours surfing on Wi-Fi, watching video or listening to music 3.5mm stereo headphone jack Built-in speaker Microphone 189.7x242.8x13.4mm 68g (Wi-Fi model) / 73g (Wi-Fi + 3G) Requires Windows XP SP3, Vista or 7 / Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later
iPad 64GB
599 (Wi-Fi) 699 (Wi-Fi + 3G) 9.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen 1,024x768 pixels 1GHz Apple A4 processor Up to 10 hours surfing on Wi-Fi, watching video or listening to music 3.5mm stereo headphone jack Built-in speaker Microphone 189.7x242.8x13.4mm 68g (Wi-Fi model) / 73g (Wi-Fi + 3G) Requires Windows XP SP3, Vista or 7 / Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later
iPhone 4
Reception issues for some dont stop the new iPhone being the best mobile you can get
MOBILE PHONE
ollowing all the hype and hysteria we have come to expect with the launch of Apple products, the iPhone 4 has landed in the UK. For the first time, its been launched simultaneously with the US and has appeared on most UK phone operators rosters straight away. As you may know, the arrival didnt go as smoothly as Apple might have wished, with a troubling signal loss issue for anyone holding the iPhone 4 incorrectly. Who even knew prior to iPhones June debut that there was a correct way to hold mobiles? You live and learn There is no denying, though, that the iPhone 4 is a stunning-looking piece of tech. Its 24 per cent slimmer than the 3GS at just 9.3mm thick; beautifully compact, but with considerable heft; and has a hard-edged industrial sexiness instead of the more curvaceous, tactile charms of the earlier iPhones. The glass front and back is very tough: weve dropped ours a few times, and its come up smiling so far. A more contentious design feature is the steel band that separates front and back not for aesthetic reasons, but because its also the aerial, and the cause of the iPhones well-documented reception issues, seemingly something to do with contact between it and human skin. Weve found we can live with it. You may take a different view. Bizarre reception flaws aside, the iPhone 4 is a great showcase for Apples technological and design prowess, with the new iOS 4 operating system and a noticeably faster processor than the 3GS, making operation a smooth and enjoyable experience. It all chugs along nicely, from the media player to the apps to the web browser. The latter app is better than ever, despite the lack of compatibility with Flash for web
The details 1
2 3
KEY INFO
Volume controls: These are now individual buttons bigger and easier to locate with one hand Stainless steel band: This band acts as part of the iPhone 4s antenna. You can blame it for all those pesky reception issues
4 5
59mm Price 16GB, 499; 32GB, 599 Screen 3.5-inch, 640x960 pixels Processor 1GHz Apple A4 Storage 16GB or 32GB solid-state Connectivity 7.2Mbps HSDPA, Bluetooth 2.1+ EDR, 802.11b/g/nWi-Fi, GPS, 3.5mm audio Battery 7 hours 3G talk, 10 hoursWi-Fi browsing, 6 hours 3G browsing, 10 hours video, 40 hours audio Camera 5 megapixels with tap to focus; LED flash Video 720p; up to 30fps Size/weight 59x115x9.3mm/137g
115mm
Two cameras: Five-meg cam with LED flash on the back, and a front-facing cam for video calls using FaceTime
9.3mm
Micro sim: Insert your smaller SIM into this space-saving slot
These all come as standard on the iPhone 4, and can also be applied to the iPhone 3GS. Some features also work on the 3G and iPod touch
iBooks
The iBooks app and store have been available since the launch of the iPad, which is obviously ideally suited to displaying books. The iPhone is less ideal, but it makes a decent fist of ebookery. Reading from the 3.5-inch screen is only bearable for short periods of time, but its great for short commutes. Apples iBookstore offers over 60,000 new books along with free out of print titles, which you download to a virtual bookshelf. The choice is piddling compared to Amazon Kindle, but the user experience is better, and theres a Kindle app should you want more. Attention to detail is fantastic: as you turn pages, you can even see the copy through the page.
video. Thats just not going to happen, according to Apple, so get used to it. And in any case, more websites are starting to use iPhone-friendly alternative technologies. The processor is the same sprightly Apple A4 chip found in the iPad. Youd think that this much power would drain the battery at speed, but we can confirm the new iPhones battery life is slightly better than the 3GS. The 3.5-inch Retina Display is a big improvement over the 3GSs screen and those of all other mobile devices, for that matter. With an 800:1 contrast ratio and 960x640 resolution, it sets a new benchmark for mobile displays, being a joy to use indoors and at most outdoor light levels. It becomes reflective and difficult to admire when in direct, bright sunlight, but its still far superior in this respect to the displays found on most new Android phones, for example. The only downside is that older apps and their icons can appear dated and grainy on the Retina Display app developers will have to improve their wares for the iPhone 4. Another area theyll have to look at is multi-tasking. As expected, iOS 4 brings this to the iPhone table but at the moment, by no means all apps support the feature: they have to be updated. Itll be interesting to see if iPhone purchasers start clamouring for all apps to support multi-tasking, or whether theyll conclude that its really only music and social networking apps that require it Apples iOS 4 has other tricks up its sleeve. You can create folders for your apps a great addition and set your own home screen image, scrapping the any-colour-as-long-as-its-black approach of previous models.
In just 12 months since the iPhone 3GS launch, Steve Jobs and his band have again redefined mobile handsets
iBooks makes the jump from iPad to iPhone with the arrival of iOS 4 and offers up text of impeccable clarity, thanks to the Retina Display, although obviously the type is of insufficient size for anything more than half an hour or so of comfortable reading. Crystal-clear, well-defined fonts similarly enhance web browsing, email and all other textbased functionality. The on-screen keyboard is visually unchanged and still excellent. We would have liked to have seen support for numbers and punctuation on the same keys as the letters, as on the HTC Desire, but auto-correction of your spelling seems even better than in the previous iOS. The cameras been improved, too. Dont get your hopes up too high: stills are not suddenly of compact camera
quality, but they are much better than on the 3GS (as well as the HTC Desire) and also bigger at five megapixels, with the welcome addition of an LED flash. Video has undergone an even more striking improvement. The 720p HD footage looks pristine, both on the Retina Display and when uploaded to your computer, although some detail seems to be lost when compressing for direct uploading to YouTube. In-camera editing is also straightforward, and you can add the iMovie app (3) if you want more sophisticated editing. In addition to the main camera on the rear, theres a second, front-facing one. This is to facilitate Apples attempt to popularise mobile video calling with its Skype-style FaceTime app. Its more fun than essential it needs to work over 3G rather than just Wi-Fi, for a start but its a worthwhile addition. Finally, iPhones have always been great media players, and thats still true. Should you choose to use Cover Flow, it seems slightly quicker to us, as do syncing and copying tracks, though improvements are minimal. The iPhone 4 is another classic slice of Apple. In just 12 months since the 3GS launch, Steve Jobs and his band have again redefined mobile handsets. From the simply beautiful Retina Display to the addition of HD video, and from the idiot-proof user interface to the attempted reinvention of video calling, the Apple iPhone 4 is a majestic piece of kit that will no doubt steal hearts. As long as that signal-loss issue doesnt prove to be a killer, anyway.
2 FaceTime
Remember when everyone thought that video chat would be the future then it arrived and nobody used it? Apple hopes to change that with FaceTime, the iPhone 4s video-calling function, which uses a frontfacing camera to facilitate 30fps video conversations. You activate FaceTime via your Contacts; for it to work, the person youre calling must have both Wi-Fi and an iPhone 4 (or new iPod touch) of their own. You cant yet make video calls to other devices not even iChat
users on Macs. Quality is far better than existing 3G mobile video calls, displayed at a decent resolution. The option to switch to the rear cam to show your chat buddy what youre looking at is a nice touch, and theres no noticeable lag if youre both on a decent broadband internet connection. FaceTimes a nice idea, but it needs to work over 3G and with other devices if its ever to take off. Video callings been tried before and made little impact: were not convinced anyones clamouring for it now.
3 Camera
One regular complaint about earlier iPhones was the mediocre camera. Apples upped the quality of the iPhone 4s one and also hiked the resolution to five megapixels, letting you produce 13x10-inch prints, if youre that way inclined. Composing pictures on the sharp screen is so natural and enjoyable, and tapping the screen is a simple way to focus. Theres still no solid shutter, but response time is quick, and you can also switch from stills to videos in a trice.
Sharp, with decent contrast and bright colours, results are better than the iPhone 3GS. The LED flash means you can finally use the camera in poorly lit areas. We would have preferred a xenon flash, of course. You also get a 5x digital zoom not a lot of use, in truth and the ability to geotag. The iPhone 4s camera is great for taking snaps on the go. Theres no way to adjust settings, so its no challenge to a compact camera but in terms of general quality, its easily in the top rank of smartphone cams. The 2011 iPhone app guide 13
Price 419 Screen 3.5-inch, 320x480 pixels Processor 600MHz ARM Storage 8GB solid-state Connectivity 7.2Mbps HSDPA, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, GPS, 3.5mm audio Battery 5 hours 3G talk, 9 hours Wi-Fi browsing, 5 hours 3G browsing, 10 hours video, 30 hours audio Camera 3 megapixels with tap to focus; no flash Video VGA (640x480); up to 30fps Size/weight 62.1x115.5x12.3mm /135g
KEY INFO
SUBTLE The iPhone 3GS looks identical to the previous iPhone 3G model not great for show-offs!
MOBILE PHONE
A great introduction to the world of iPhone, but get iPhone 4 if you want a better display and a more capable camera
robably the most technically advanced smartphone available today, iPhone 4 is a highly capable device: so capable, in fact, that some people may feel that it provides more power than they actually need. If you expect your app use to be too infrequent to justify an iPhone 4, Apple maintains its predecessor the iPhone 3GS as a more affordable option. The 3GS is essentially an enhanced version of the iPhone 3G, which was released in 2008. Thanks to a faster processor, it feels much snappier than the 3G. In a side-by-side test over Wi-Fi, the BBC News site loaded in seven seconds, compared to 12.5 seconds on the 3G. The battery life is much improved, too: we can last a whole day without going low on power. Apple isnt claiming any increase in talk time over the previous model, but video, music playback and web browsing all show improvements. The iPhone 3G was rightly criticised for its poor 2.0 megapixel fixed-focus camera without a flash. The new iPhone
3GS still lacks a flash, but brings a 3MP-resolution camera with a macro lens to the party. Focussing is automatic, but you can also tap on the area of the screen to focus on that spot. The white balance and exposure are automatically adjusted too, which is pretty clever. The extra megapixels help enormously in picture quality, but taking pictures in low light levels remain a problem. The macro lens takes good close-up shots, without the blurring that afflicted previous generations, but its still only
The iPhone 3GS is video-capable and can edit drag the start and end points of your clip, tap the trim button and youre done
comparable to a camera that some four-year-old mobile phones have. More importantly, the iPhone 3GS is video-capable. And the really clever thing is that it has capabilities for editing video on the phone as well just drag the start and end points of your clip and tap the Trim button and youre done. It all works surprisingly well. Once youve shot your video, you can upload it straight to your
MobileMe gallery or YouTube, or email or MMS it to a friend. Bear in mind that it takes a long time to send video, even on a Wi-Fi connection, so youre only going to want to send very short clips. Uploading to YouTube was flawless; MobileMe (perhaps slightly predictably) proved less reliable. The oil-resistant screen is fantastic: just wipe the screen on a piece of clothing and the smudgy fingerprints made during regular use are gone. Also new to the 3GS is Voice Control. Press and hold the Home button until you hear a beep, then call a contact from your address book by saying Call Graham, for example. Voice Control also works in the iPod app, where you can request music by voice command; however, this can be a bit hit-and-miss with exotic band names.
Better camera
If youre a potential first-time iPhone owner who hasnt made the jump yet, then the time is now the iPhone 3GS has got everything youll need to become a paid-up member of the iPhone revolution.
For first-timers
Price 8GB, 189; 32GB, 249; 64GB, 329 Screen 3.5-inch, 640x960 pixels Processor 1GHz Apple A4 Storage 8GB, 32GB or 64GB solid-state Connectivity Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, 802.11 b/g/nWi-Fi, 3.5mm audio Battery 7 hours video, 40 hours audio Camera 0.7 megapixels with tap to focus; no flash Video 720p; up to 30fps Size/weight 58.9x110x7.2mm/101g
TOUCHTASTIC The new, thinner iPod touch has a Retina Display and cameras for FaceTime video calls
KEY INFO
iPod touch
A better screen, two cameras and video calling grace this updated device
here the iPhone leads, the iPod touch follows and the latest update brings the flagship iPod arguably closer to the iPhone than ever before. You get the Retina Display, A4 processor, FaceTime video calls and HD movie recording, all at a much lower price than the iPhone 4. And, of course, there are no extra costs like phone contracts involved. The Retina Display in the iPod touch isnt quite the same as the one on the iPhone: the viewing angles arent as good. This wasnt a problem when we were using it on our own, but when a group crowded round, there was a noticeable difference compared to the iPhone 4. That said, the display is still fantastic: text is crystal-sharp, and colours are bright and vivid. The iPod touch cant connect to a mobile data network, which means no phone calls, or web browsing outside a Wi-Fi signal. There are ways around this, of course, such as Novatels MiFi device, available in the UK via the 3 network. While the iPod touch supports location
services, theyre invariably less accurate than on the iPhone, because theres no GPS. Instead, the device uses Wi-Fi networks to work out where you are. The cameras are a welcome addition to the iPod touch, but theyre not the same as those on the iPhone 4. The rear-facing one shoots stills at just 0.7 megapixels (compared to 5 megapixels on the iPhone). Theres no moving focus either, so while this can do the job if youre out without your proper camera, any cheap compact model from the last five years will trounce it.
As a portable gaming device, the iPod touch is great, and will only get better as the new Gamer Center grows in popularity
When it comes to video, however, things are different. The iPod touch records 720p HD footage thats better in some ways than the iPhone 4. We preferred it for everyday point-andshoot footage, since panning was smoother. You can then edit and publish your work by buying iMovie from the App Store. Then theres FaceTime video chat, which until now was limited to the
Not so wireless
iPhone 4. Now, iPod touch users can join in the fun, because you no longer make a regular mobile call first. When youre connected to a Wi-Fi network, you call someone using their iPhone 4 mobile number or their FaceTime email address. Making calls worked without a hitch, although we found that we didnt get any notification if our recipients device wasnt connected to a Wi-Fi network. General performance is on a par with the iPhone 4, thanks to the A4 processor (which also powers the iPad). As a portable gaming device, the iPod touch is great, and will only get better as the new Game Center grows in popularity. If youre after a music player that can double as an internet device or phone when youre at home, look no further. Even if you do want to use the web when youre out and about occasionally, an iPod touch and a MiFi is cheaper than an iPhone. While wed like to have seen a lower price, especially for the 8GB model, and the camera is a disappointment, the new iPod touch is an incredible package, at a price far below the iPhone.
Get yourself iPhone 4 performance and some great features at a fraction of its price. The iPod touch just got even better
things you never knew you could use your iPhone for
rom the moment you turn it on for the first time, your iPhone can make calls, access the internet, send and receive emails, and even tell you what the weather is like in Kuala Lumpur. But it can do much more besides, thanks to the App Store This list highlights the ingenious applications that can transform your iPhone into a television, a plumb line, an atomic clock and more. Over the next eight pages, well show you the fun and possibly unfamiliar uses for your iPhone. Most of them will work with the iPod touch as well although the lack of camera and always-on internet may mean they become less useful or less convenient and all are available, either free or for a small fee, from the App Store. You can buy them through iTunes on your Mac or PC, or download them direct to your iPhone via its own App Store app. Turn to page 24 to find out how its done. So, lets discover some great new uses for your iPhone. Who knows what itll become next?
Radio & TV
PLAY TIME The iPhone-optimised iPlayer site from the BBC is a textbook example of mobile web apps
heres a bunch of ways of getting media on to an iPhone. The BBCs iPhoneoptimised iPlayer website (www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer) is very good, offering new and recent BBC TV and radio programmes to stream. Its high quality means that it requires a Wi-Fi connection, though, and you must be in the UK to access it. You could also record TV direct to your computer using, say, one of Elgatos TV tuners, then export the content to your iTunes library, ready to be synced to the iPhone. As far as apps go, try Tuner Internet Radio (2.99/$4.99), a centralised service for thousands of streaming radio stations from all over the world. It works over Wi-Fi and 3G. Also, Last.fm (free) is a brilliant service that creates personalised music stations tailored to your tastes.
Unit converter
hether its Celsius and Fahrenheit or gallons and litres, there are far too many different and conflicting ways of measuring the same thing. With Measures Unit and Currency Converter (59p/99) on your iPhone, however, youve got a great way of quickly converting between pretty much any measurement units that you can think of. Measures has a whopping 1,000 units in 38 categories to choose between. What makes the app a joy to use, though, is the great interface, which uses scroll wheels for selecting different options. You can also wipe to clear the input and start a new conversion. We also like Convertbot (1.19/$1.99), which is able to recognise mixed units; itll convert 5 feet, 9 inches into metres, for example.
CONVERT Turn your iPhone into a convenient unit converter with the lovely Measures application
Dictionary
STUCK FOR WORDS? Get your dictionary definitions in an instant with the Concise OED (and optional thesaurus) for iPhone
ou may have access to an internet-full of definitions with an iPhone, but web dictionary pages can be slow to load and are rarely optimised for the iPhones screen. Step forward, the Concise Oxford English Dictionary (11.99/$19.99). Its a native app, so once its launched, its much snappier than a website. The interface could be more elegant, and the quality of spoken pronunciations could be better, but its great to have the OED in your pocket. If 11.99 seems like a lot of money for an app, bear in mind that the equivalent print edition costs at least 16, even through bargain online booksellers and you cant carry the Concise OEDs 240,000 words and phrases around as easily with a 1,700-page hardback. You can get the same dictionary app with a thesaurus for 17.99.
Instant library
pple has launched its own electronic book app with iBooks (free), and Amazons Kindle app (free) is also popular, thanks to its huge selection. But Classics (1.79/ $2.99) offers something neither of these apps do: a ready-toread library of high-quality literature without you needing to browse through bookstores or spend time downloading. Offering over 20 of the greatest works ever written, from Homer to Kafka, Classics is polished throughout, with a bookmark that keeps your place when you switch between different books. You cant add your own books to it, but the developers are LOVE LITERATURE Become well read (or have it just committed to adding more. to look like youre well read) with a library of Classics If youre looking for a more extensible reader, Stanza (free). can read many text formats, so you could fill up your iPhone with copyright-free classic texts.
with CameraBag
Retro camera
GPS logger
BYGONE BAG Go retro with your photos by using CameraBag to emulate classic cameras of the past
sing CameraBag (1.19/ $1.99), you can apply special effects either to pics whether theyre taken directly with your iPhones camera or transferred over via iTunes to make them look a lot more interesting. All of the effects are based on the results generated by various camera models throughout the generations. You can apply a super-saturated effect called Helga, go mono, use a fish-eye lens effect, make it look like a Lomo shot, apply a Polaroid effect, or make the shot look as if it were taken in 1962 or 1974, if you really wanted to. The effects are remarkably convincing, and we like the fact that, if you set the preference, the app will save the original shot from the camera as well as the cropped, edited shot, ready to be emailed or transferred to your computer.
f you want to track where youve been while hiking or riding a mountain bike, Trails (2.39/$3.99) records your position at regular intervals, then plots the path you took on to a satellite or terrain map, complete with altitude data, for you to review. You can also export the waypoint data to use in other GPS devices or computer software.
Lightsaber
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ere happy to recommend fluff, and it doesnt get much fluffier than Lightsaber Unleashed (free), which whums and buzzes convincingly as you move your phone around. You can choose your light colour and hilt to emulate your favourite Star Wars character, and can even create a custom character with photos from your collection.
with Band
Rock group
guitar, an interactive appreciative audience, the drum kit shown below and a fun 12-bar blues creator. You can layer instruments together and overdub them as you start to put together your mini musical masterpiece. Its not perfect; the timings can be tricky to get right and the export options are a little limited, by the nature of the iPhone, but its good fun and is a great app to have to show off your iPhone.
Tape measure
ou can think about Band (2.39/$3.99) in two ways. Its either a little tinkering device for songwriters on the move, giving them a pad that they can jam with to try out ideas; or its a pretty meaty multi-track recorder that you could, in theory, use to create a whole piece of music from scratch. Theres a range of musical instruments included in the application: a keyboard, a bass
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10
Games console
O
MUSIC MAKER If you have the patience, Band is a great little creative app for making music on the move
ne of the first iPhone games to be seen in public before the App Store launched, Super Monkey Ball (1.79/$2.99) got iPhone gaming started. Now the gaming scene has exploded, with over 65,000 titles. Check out our reviews of the best games from page 114.
11
Digital housemaid
nique Automations Bathomatic (free) enables you to remotely control the companys bespoke bath management systems. This actually lets you turn on the taps and run a bath to your chosen temperature while commuting home. Sister app Rimote (free) controls your Bathovision network-enabled high-definition TV. The catch? Youll need a fully-automated home control system by the likes of Crestron or AMX, costing in excess of 20,000. Need a cold shower after seeing that price? Uniques iShower app (2.39/$3.99) has that covered.
12
Weight scale
with WiScale
ot content with measuring your weight, the Withings Connected Scale also beams the results for computer analysis. Itll weigh you, calculate your body fat percentage by running a low intensity current through your body where your feet make contact with the scales and figure out your body mass index (BMI), a rough indicator of whether you weigh what you should. With the accompanying WiScale app (free), information about the extent of your portliness is sent via Wi-Fi to your iPhone, where you can use the data to make graphs that track your weight, BMI and body fat percentage changes. This speak-your-weight machine for the iPhone era mirrors the stylish look of Apples device, with tempered glass over a curved metallic back. Hopefully itll help reduce the size of your curved, non-metallic front
13 Remote
control
14
Number pad
with NumberKey
TAKE CONTROL The Air Mouse Pro app gives you a virtual keyboard to remotely control your Mac
here are so many ways to use your iPhone as a remote control that we can barely fit them in. Apple makes two apps: Remote (free) controls your iTunes library over your Wi-Fi network, and Keynote Remote (59p/99) enables you to control presentations running in the version of Keynote that comes with iWork 09. Air Mouse Pro (1.19/$1.99) gives you a virtual keyboard and mouse on your iPhone that you can use to control your computer (using either Windows or Mac OS X). You can control the cursor trackpadstyle or by waving your iPhone around. LogMeIn Ignition (17.99/$29.99) lets you assume full control of your computer over the internet, so in theory you can access it from anywhere in the world.
T
15
he keyboard on a laptop is fine, but if you have to punch in loads of numbers using the horizontal strip along the top of the keyboard, its a pain. NumberKey (1.19/$1.99) connects to your laptop (or desktop computer if necessary) via Wi-Fi, so you can use the iPhone screen as a numeric keypad. It makes entering figures into spreadsheets so much easier.
Translator
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he iPhone is a life-saver when you need the right phrase for the occasion on holiday. Coolgorillas Talking Phrasebook series is among the best: French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish are free through a deal with lastminute.com; Dutch and Japanese are also available for 59p (99) each.
16 Storage
device
Ice-breaker
e have a soft spot for the slick FileMagnet app (2.99/$4.99), which lets you load docs onto your iPhone and view many popular file types when youre on the go. But it does mean you need a helper app installed on the computer you want to connect to. Air Sharing (1.79/$2.99) gets around this by effectively turning your iPhone into a little NAS (network-attached storage) device.
Launch Air Sharing, and it tells you what IP address your phone is on the network. You can then use Connect to Server on the Mac to mount it as a network drive. It works on Windows XP and Vista and Linux too, so it should be possible to connect Air Sharing from any computer. Performance is good, and while it struggles a little when asked to view complex documents on the iPhone, its mostly very robust.
with OldBooth
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hen the conversation lulls, just pull out your iPhone; with the right app on display, youll be the centre of attention. OldBooth (1.19/$1.99) is a brilliant app that enables you to put the faces of your friends and colleagues onto the heads of American yearbook-style shots, so you can all see how you might have looked in another era.
Atomic clock
W
NETWORK DEVICE Load files from your computer to an iPhone and view them on the go with Air Sharing
hen only the precise time will do the job, Atomic Clock Gorgy Timing (1.19/$1.99) syncs with Apples European or US time servers over the internet to get the most precise time possible outside the Royal Observatory, the London home of Greenwich Mean Time. Yes, its pointless, but we think its fun, and the display mimics that of a classic LED clock created by time-measurement specialist Gorgy Timing. You can also use the app to set really precise alarms.
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Shopping mall
20
Phone!
with Amazon et al
with Truphone
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ou can buy and directly download stuff with Apples App Store and iTunes Store apps, but thats just the start! Amazon Mobile UK (free) enables you to browse the giant store, check your wish list and place orders. You can also buy direct with apps from the likes of Next (free), Game (free) and Debenhams (free).
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es, you already have a phone (unless youre an iPod touch owner), but Truphone (free) could offer a cheaper alternative. It makes calls over the internet rather than your mobile phone network. Calls to users of Truphone, Skype and Google Talk are free, while a 8 monthly fee gives you unlimited international calls.
Seismometer
Arbitrator
with Seismometer
f course, Seismometer (59p/99) isnt much use for seismologists: theres no scale on the display, for a start. But its nevertheless quite fun seeing the accelerometer record jolts to the iPhone on the table; and features such as the ability to export data might encourage kids to explore geological science further.
f you need to make a decision but dont have a coin to flip, try iHandy Coin Flip (59p/99). Alternatively, the physics of MotionX Dice (free) will dazzle you as you roll them to make decisions. (Apparently, some ancient civilisations used dice to elect their governments.) Of course, you can use the dice for conventional purposes too.
23 Guitar amp
with AmpliTube
he AmpliTube iRig is a hardware and software combination that turns your iPhone into a fully featured guitar amp, complete with effects pedals. Just plug the iRig device into your iPhones 3.5mm stereo headphone minijack and the other end into your guitar, using a standard guitar cable. Theres another 3.5mm port on the iRig for you to attach headphones.
Then, using the AmpliTube app (the basic version is free, but you can pay up to 11.99/$19.99 to add more pedals), you can listen to your guitar with a variety of different effects, such as Chorus, Delay and Wah, or through different types of amp Lead, Bass and Crunch. Its all great fun. The dials on each effect pedal can be adjusted endlessly, and combined to form many variations. The app itself looks great and is intuitive to use, although the buttons for switching pedals are a little small to hit accurately. The effects themselves sound fantastic, and produce rich tones that sound just like the real thing.
24 Cardiograph
with ithlete
imed largely at serious runners and other sportspeople, ithlete (34.99/$59.99) measures heart rate variability, a researchproven way of getting all-important feedback about your bodys reaction to daily training and stress. It involves you spending one minute every morning following simple on-screen instructions, breathing in and out while a plug-in receiver (which you can get for free from ithletes publisher) picks up a signal from a chest-strap monitor (which you need to buy yourself). You can track daily changes in the health of your nervous system, indicating stress levels from training and daily life. As well as on-screen graphs, ithlete gives you a daily indicator that indicates whether you should train hard, train easy or rest up completely. Some expensive heart-rate watches perform a similar function, but we like ithletes simplicity of use and value for money, making it a great way to train effectively.
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Dial a Dominos Yes, Dominos delivers. And it has an ordering app (free) you can add to your iPhone. Deep-pan pepperoni pizza (other toppings available!) is a few taps away. Just remember to wipe your hands before you touch your iPhone.
Order Ocado Many supermarkets online ordering should work on your iPhone, but none offer optimised websites. Happily, Waitrose, through its Ocado brand, has an app (free). Use it to order, so long as you live in an eligible area.
Want Wagamama? You can order some light, tasty Japanese-style food from the Wagamama app (free). Sadly, the company doesnt deliver; once youve made your selection, youll need to leave the house to pick it up at your preferred time.
Or just Yell.com Of course, theres always the Yellow Pages. The Yell.com app (free) can determine your location so that when you look for local takeaways, it tells you which are nearest. Tap an icon in the app to call it directly, and save favourites to Contacts.
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TUTORIALS
efore you can use an app, you have to get it onto your iPhone. There are two ways to do this: by downloading the app direct to your iPhone via its App Store tool, or by downloading the app to your computer using iTunes, then transferring it to your iPhone when you next synchronise your computer and iPhone. Here, we walk you through both approaches, so you can choose the technique that suits your way of life better. Backing up your apps and their associated data is vital in case your iPhone is damaged or stolen. We explain how its done. Install apps with iTunes Install apps with your iPhone Back up your apps
DESKTOP INSTALLS
Find out how to download and organise iPhone apps using your computer
Any iPhone or iPod touch iTunes forWindows or Mac
1 3
Top Tip
To re-arrange your apps on an iPhone, press any icon until they all shake, then drag icons around. Press the home button to revert to normal.
ne of the main selling points of Apples touchscreen devices are the mobile applications, or apps, which can be downloaded and used on the iPhone or iPod touch. An app can be a game, a set of recipes, or the services provided by a website such as Google, repackaged in a standalone program. Some are incredibly useful, such as RadioBOX, which enables you to access thousands of internet radio stations, while others are entertaining time-wasters, such as the gloriously addictive Draw Race. Apps vary in price, and while theres an extensive free catalogue, many cost from 59p upwards, few go over 2.99, but some can be a fair bit more. You can use nearly all iPhone apps on an iPod touch, with the exception of a few that require the iPhones network access. Some apps written for the iPad also work on an iPhone; look for a + sign in the price label in the App Store.
1 Download iTunes
26 The 2011 iPhone app guide
Before you can do anything with your iPhone or iPod touch, you first need to download iTunes. This can be downloaded quickly and easily from www.apple.com/itunes, and needs to be installed on your computer. It then finds your music, and registers your iPhone so it can be used.
You can download and install apps from iTunes and put them on to your iPhone. All downloads are from the iTunes Store, so you need to click on the link in the left-hand pane of iTunes. Then you are transported into the magical world of downloadable content
Jargon buster
Download
Save a file from the internet onto your computer to use later.
App Store You have to visit the iTunes Store to download the apps. At the top of the home page is a link to the App Store, where you can find all of the available app downloads, free or otherwise. Virtual screen This is a representation of how your iPod touch or iPhone looks. You can drag the app icons around so theyre best placed for your needs. Device screen When your iPod touch or iPhone is connected, it shows up here. Click this option to start setting up your device, not only for apps, but for music, video, photos, podcasts and much more. App list All the apps youve bought or downloaded from the store are displayed in this list, and you can choose which are kept on your iPod touch or iPhone by simply ticking or unticking them.
Home screen
The screen thats displayed when you first turn on your iPhone.
Sync Short for synchronise updating files on two devices, such as an iPhone and a computer, so the same files are on each. Touchscreen Technology that senses the movement and location of your fingers on a screen, which is used to control your iPhone.
Sync Once youre happy with your settings, click the Sync button to sync your iPod touch or iPhone with your iTunes library. If you dont want other media to be synchronised, you can deselect them individually.
3 App Store
The first screen that opens is the iTunes Store main page. Assuming that you can keep your credit card holstered, you need to click on the App Store link in the top bar, to be taken to a specialised store where a wealth of exciting apps is on offer to download.
There are loads of free apps available in the Apps store, but many cost up to 3, and some cost even more. You can find popular free apps by clicking Free Apps in the right-hand Top Charts pane, or browse the store for a selection of excellent paid-for ones. The 2011 iPhone app guide 27
5 Download an app
To download your app, click Get This. You are asked to confirm your iTunes user name and password (click Create New Account if you dont yet have a user name), then the app is downloaded to your iTunes library. See all your available apps by clicking the Apps tab in the Library pane.
If you havent already, you need to plug your iPhone into your computer using the supplied cable. Your device is then recognised by iTunes (unless its the first time, in which case the device needs to be registered), and you are ready to copy the app to your iPhone.
You need to make sure that your apps are synchronised with your iPhone. Do this by selecting your device from the list, choosing the Applications tab, and then ticking Sync Applications. Once its ticked, click Apply and your apps are copied across to your device.
In the Applications menu on your device page in iTunes, you can organise your apps, even if theyre already installed on your iPhone. You can tick or untick any of the apps from the list: only ticked devices will appear on your iPhone. Use the Sort By and Find option above the list to pinpoint apps.
Next to the list is a mockup of your iPhones home screen. Here, you can drag around app icons, positioning them so that the ones you use most are on the home page, and apps you downloaded for fun are on the final page. Click Apply to make the changes on your connected iPhone.
10 Play!
Once youve synced your applications, disconnect your iPhone. Congratulations: you can now use your apps wherever you are. Then you can have fun experimenting with applications, and see which ones make the biggest difference to your life.
There are over a quarter of a million apps on the Store; we nd and review the best!
Apps
Well review the best new games and go behind the scenes with interviews, guides and more!
Games
No matter how experienced you are, well help you get to grips with your iPhone or iPad!
Tutorials
Learn how to install third-party apps from the App Store with these tips
WHAT YOULL NEED
Any iPhone or iPod touch
Top Tip
Quite often therell be two versions of an app on the App Store the full paidfor app and a Lite version, which is usually free and enables you to try the program before you buy it.
There are more than 250,000 apps on the App Store, and more are being added
On the iPhone, you can access the App Store using its built-in app. In the Featured section youll find New and Whats Hot selections. The Top 25 section is also a great place to browse for the most popular apps.
To find out more about an app, just tap on its name when youre browsing. Youll get a text description of the app, written by its author. Scroll down for a screenshot and customer reviews, which are great for feedback.
To buy an app, just tap the price label of the app (or Free if its free), then tap Buy Now. The apps icon appears on your Home screen saying Loading and a blue progress bar indicates the downloads progress.
Updates for your installed apps improve stability or speed, and occasionally add new features. The App Store checks for updates every week, but it also checks every time you launch the Store. When an update is available, a number appears on the App Store icon.
2 Install updates
To install any or all of the updates, tap the App Store icon, followed by Updates at the bottom of the screen. Your updates are listed here. Tap an app to find out more. Updates are usually free: tap the Free button or the price label to install the update.
3 Update All
You can tap Update All at the top of the Updates list to have all your apps updated in one go. Itll be quicker to update them if youre connected over a Wi-Fi connection, but the process will still work over the cellular network. Your mobile phone network may charge for this.
Top Tip
4 Remove apps
You can delete apps from your iPhone. Normally youll restore them from your iTunes library when you sync with your Mac or PC, but if you delete a paid-for app before backing it up, then you can still retrieve it
5 Free restore
Make sure youre signed in with the account used for the original purchase and launch the App Store on your iPhone, or use the iTunes Store on your Mac or PC. Locate the app and click Buy App to download it for free.
There are many great applications that can help you navigate the underground transit systems of the worlds major cities, so you can plan your journey wherever you go. Have a look in the Travel category on the App Store for your options, then tap to buy.
TUTORIALS Backup
SAFETY FIRST If you lose your iPhone, fear not if youve got it safely backed up at home
Keep all your iPhones data safe on your computer and recover from disaster!
Any iPhone or iPod touch iTunes forWindows or Mac OS X
Every time you connect it to your Mac or PC, everything on your iPhone is backed up
32 The 2011 iPhone app guide
to your computers hard disk. It doesnt copy media such as songs and videos in your iTunes library, since theyre already there, of course. If you restore from a backup, first all your data (applications, their settings, SMSs, network settings and so on) is sent to your new iPhone, and then your media will be synchronised. It does remember which data to sync, though. This means that if you lose or damage your iPhone, once youve sorted out a replacement you can simply plug it into your computer and itll be exactly like it was the last time you used it. For this reason, if no other, its worth plugging your iPhone into your computer as frequently as you can daily, if possible.
Backing up isnt just useful for lost or damaged iPhones. If you upgrade, say, from an iPhone 3GS to an iPhone 4, then when you plug your new iPhone into your computer, youll be given the option of setting it up as a new device or restoring it from an existing backup, making it childs play to upgrade. It works with the iPod touch, too, so if you have an iPod touch and then decide to buy an iPhone, you can simply copy over all the data via iTunes using a streamlined procedure. For more information on iPhone backups and what exactly is backed up see the Apple Support article on the web at http://support.apple.com/ kb/HT1766.
Backup TUTORIALS
HOW TO Back up, restore, wipe and migrate your iPhone data
1 Automatic backup
The good news is that every time you plug your iPhone into your Mac or PC using the supplied USB cable or even passed through via a connection on another piece of hardware, such as a speaker dock your iPhone is backed up quickly and automatically.
2 Manual backup
If youre feeling a bit paranoid or, say, need to force a backup since you know youre about to migrate your data to a new device then rightclick on your connected iPhone in iTunes lefthand Source pane, and choose Back Up from the contextual menu that appears.
You can have multiple iPhones and iPod touch devices synced to a single iTunes library, and can check their backups from the Devices tab in iTunes preferences. Hover over an entry and check the phone number, serial number and hardware IMEI reference to identify it.
Top Tip
Youd do well to manage your backups through iTunes, but if you really want to, theres nothing to stop you from poking about in the backups manually. On a Mac, theyre stored in Library Application Support MobileSync Backup. Windows XP puts them in Documents and Settings [user name] Application Data Apple Computer MobileSync Backup; and if youre on Windows Vista, look in Users [user name] AppData Roaming\ Apple Computer MobileSync Backup.
4 Delete backups
From this same preferences window you can also delete old iPhone backups. You might only see your most recent backup if you have the one device, but if youre a bit of a power user then you might see backups for old devices too, taking up hard disk space.
Youll rarely want to wipe your iPhone unless youre selling it or giving it away but its easy to do. Select your iPhone under Devices in iTunes Source pane and click the Restore button in the Version section of the screen. Youll be given the option to back up first.
If you connect a new, blank iPhone OS device to your computer, iTunes will offer to restore to it from an existing backup. (See step 8.) You can also force this restore manually, perhaps because youve added an app thats causing problems and you want to roll back.
7 Pick a backup
You may have multiple iPhone OS devices backed up to the same iTunes library, so after youve right-clicked on the device you want to restore and picked Restore From Backup, iTunes will ask you which backup to use. Ensure your devices have unique names!
If youve bought a new iPhone or iPod touch, its easy to migrate your apps, settings and more from your old one. Plug the old one in, perform a manual backup (see step 2) then connect the new device. iTunes will ask if you want to restore from an existing backup. The 2011 iPhone app guide 33
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our iPhone unlocks a whole new world of creativity, egging you on to achieve things you might not have believed you were capable of. Now you cant just take photos with your iPhone: you can edit them on the move, making them look better or having some fun with special effects before instantly sharing the results with your friends. You can also sketch, make movies or even sculpt. And theres a huge selection of musical apps, too, with options for accomplished musicians who have an idea on the move or complete beginners looking for imaginative ways to make sounds. Edit photos on your iPhone Photography apps Art & Visual apps Music & Sound apps
CREATE
BETTER IMAGES
lthough the iPhone is primarily intended for consuming media, innovative developers and their apps ensure that an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad can also be used for many creative tasks. Currently, one of the most exciting creative sections of the App Store is the Photography area, where there are dozens of fantastic and affordable apps for editing and modifying photos on the fly often in a fraction of the time it would take to do something similar using a desktop app. In this tutorial, were using Photogene, a user-friendly, low-cost app, which costs 1.19 at the time of going to press. Photogene brings to your iPhone the kind of editing features youre more likely to expect on your Mac in iPhoto cropping, straightening, sharpening, colour
balance, levels and rotation. See www.mobile-pond.com for more on the apps capabilities. Photogenes intended as an accessible editing environment for iPhone photographers while theyre on the move; you can take a photo from within the app or you can grab one you took earlier via your Camera Roll in your Camera app. While you can also import images from albums in your Photos app (thereby ensuring iPod touch users, who may not have a built-in camera, arent excluded from using Photogene), be mindful that iTunes reduces the size of photos sent to your device, which means theyre perfectly adequate for sending in emails and viewing on a small screen, but not so great for printing out and sticking up as a poster!
THE FULL EDIT Photogene is a complete image-editing app you can carry in your pocket. Crop, rotate and straighten your photos, then adjust the colours or apply special visual effects
1 Get started
In Photogene, you start with a simple menu of options. Tap Take photo to snap a picture to work on, Continue last session to work on an existing in-progress edit, or Edit new photo to use a photo from the Photos app. 36 The 2011 iPhone app guide
2 Import a photo
Lets work on a photo youve already taken. Tap Edit new photo, navigate to your chosen image and select it. The photo will load into Photogene. Here, weve selected a photo of a fetching red postbox, but its wonky and dull.
Tap the toolbars Rotate icon. Use the buttons in the horizontal row to rotate or flip your image. Alternatively, drag the Straighten slider underneath to straighten your photo, assisted by the grid that appears.
4 Enhance levels
Tap the fourth icon down. Select Levels from the bottom toolbar and tap the Auto button. Photogene will automatically adjust the levels, adding punch to colours. Drag the sliders to fine-tune its settings to your preferences.
Tap Colors in the bottom toolbar and use the sliders that appear to amend saturation and colour. Boosting the former and dropping the latter produces a nice effect on most images. Tap RGB for channel-specific controls.
Tap the Scissors icon at the top of the main toolbar to access crop tools. Drag the crop areas corners for a live update of its dimensions. Tap Crop to confirm, or crop to a specific ratio via the depicted menu.
Changed your mind? To undo or redo multiple actions, use the icons towards the bottom of the main toolbar. Effects are nondestructive and can be removed by tapping Reset. Crop and straighten are reset as one.
Once youre happy with your changes, tap the Tick icon at the bottom of the main toolbar to enter the Done screen. Tap Save to save the image to the Camera Roll. Tap Resolution if you wish to amend the output size.
Photogene enables you to share images with your friends. Re-enter the Done screen. Tap Copy to clipboard to place the photo on the clipboard; otherwise, tap Share to share the image via Twitter, Facebook or email. The 2011 iPhone app guide 37
CREATE Photography
Qik VideoCamera
1.79 Get video recording on your pre-3GS iPhone!
FEELING BLUE Indulge your secret Smurf fetish during a tea break
KEY INFO
UK price 1.79 US price $2.99 Web qik.com
Download size 3.9MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 4.0 or later
ith Qik VideoCamera, anybody can add video recording to the 3G iPhone. It shoots up to 15fps .mov videos and is packed with features such as digital zoom, volume and brightness boost and fun video effects, which includes turning peoples skin blue, so they look like Avatars Navi. Video resolution is limited to 400x304 or 200x152 and it can be used in portrait and landscape mode. Qik contains its own gallery of clips, or you can export them to your Camera Roll or email them right from the app. Our favourite feature though is the IP address it generates, which you simply type into your Macs browser to download the videos wirelessly without having to sync them to your iPhone. Because of the inferior camera and slower processor on older iPhones, the videos Qik produces will never compare to the iPhone 3GSs quality. In fact theyre pretty poor, but its a lot better than having no video at all.
Probably the best app for adding video recording to old iPhones and good value at 1.79!
STEADY CAMERA
1Shoot
DELAY CAMERA
QuadCamera
ong before the iPhones original camera was being criticised, enthusiasts exploited the low-fi effects from Holga and Lomos cameras. All produced images with crazily saturated colours and prominent vignetting. Now, that ability and more has come to the iPhone, and it feels right at home. With QuadCamera, you set a delay between the shots, aim and press the trigger. The shots are taken and stitched together you can choose between a 2x2, 4x1, 4x2 or 8x1 grid then the vignette is applied to each one. You can use a range of other effects, and the sequential firing adds an element of time.
HOLD STEADY 1Shoot decides when your hand is steady enough to take the shot
UK price Free US price Free Web 1shoot.wuonm.com Download size 5.8MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.1 or later
KEY INFO
he iPhones Camera app is limited to firing the shutter when you press a button on screen. 1Shoot, however, has three modes. In its most basic it lets you tap the whole screen to trigger the shutter, and another mode lets you set a five- or 10-second timer. The most exciting feature, uses the iPhones accelerometer to gauge when youre holding the phone still enough to take a good shot, then grabs it. Pictures need to be reviewed and added to the camera roll. It could use some in-app help, though, and you cant use the 3GSs tap-to-focus feature to define a focus and exposure priority point.
Useful features, but the interface is cryptic and you cant tap to focus
The interface is a little odd, but the app exploits the camera well
UK price 1.19 US price $1.99 Web artandmobile.com Download size 1.0MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 4.0 or later
KEY INFO
Photography CREATE
PHOTO STITCHER
AutoStitch Panorama
1.79 Create stunning high-resolution panoramas
This is terrific fun and a great way to combat the iPhone cameras lack of wide-angle shooting
ou can measure how disruptive the iPhone and the App Store can be when an app that takes individual shots and stitches
them together to create seamless panoramas costs less than the price of a takeaway latte. To put it in perspective, a Mac app such as Stitcher costs more than a 32GB iPhone 3GS on a cheap tariff! And the results are good, especially as it really is all completely automatic. Sure, the differently exposed shots sometimes create a slightly patchy appearance, but were completely sold. The app keeps the originals so you can always edit them in another program and restitch. It can take a while (particularly since you can create high-res panoramas) but its easy, fun and cheap.
KEY INFO
Download size 9.1MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
PHOTO ENHANCER
Photo fx
IMAGE EDITING
UK price 1.79 US price $2.99 Web www.tiffen.com Download size 19.1MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 4.1 or later
KEY INFO
hoto fx is no Photoshopwannabe youre limited to applying edits and effects globally, and you cant add more than one effect at a time without saving the first round of changes to a new image and then loading and manipulating the second version but its spectacular stuff nonetheless. Effects are split into five sections, and you control how much each edit affects the image with an intuitive set of sliders and presets. They look good too, and while theres not much that can be done to fix the disappointing results from the iPhones camera, we happily recommend it.
Perfect for portraits, and some fun stuff too; useful and cheap
UK price Free US price Free Web mobile.photoshop.com Download size 6.6MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
KEY INFO
CREATE Photography
Liquid Scale
3D MODELLING
EDIT THE EX Cut out elements of your pic and merge the remainder without distortion
UK price 1.19 US price $1.99 Web www.savoysoftware.com Download size 1.3MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
KEY INFO
ake the hassle (and scissors) out of cutting your ex from your old photos with Liquid Scale. Normally, when you scale an image, everything scales in the same proportions. Liquid Scale lets you define areas faces, say that should be protected, and some that are expendable. When you drag the handles of the image to resize it, the expendable areas are collapsed, while retaining the subject. Photoshop itself only got this feature in version CS4, so its impressive to find it in an app. However, some details can go wonky, and, short of reverting to the original saved pic, theres no easy undo.
3DVIA Mobile
KEY INFO
UK price 1.19 US price $1.99 Web www.3dvia.com Download size 1.5MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
CameraMagic Effects
NOVELTY EFFECTS
CARTOON CAPTIONS
Comic Touch
UK price 0.59 US price $0.99 Web www.addfone.com Download size 65.8MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
KEY INFO
illed as delivering visual effects for the iPhone, this lightweight, novelty compositing tool comes with 214 objects that you can insert into your photos. All compositing is done with copies of your pictures, so your original photos remain untouched. It serves no serious purpose other than to fulfil the fun for five minutes clich. Despite boasting no less than 33 different royalty-free UFOs, miscellaneous cloud, smoke and fire effects, various aircraft, the space shuttle and several kinds of missile, even birds and animals youre unlikely to sit back and think that its the best 59p youve ever spent.
KEY INFO
ub nights out will never be the same again Comic Touch lets you add four different types of speech bubble (speech, thought, whisper or exclaim) to photos from your library or taken fresh with your iPhone. You can add a caption, control the size of the text, add as many bubbles as you want, and save or email the resulting image from your phone. You can also apply effects such as bulges, dents, pinches and light tunnel effects, and theres now a smudging tool, too; drag your finger around the screen to move the focus of the effect. Its easy to email the results to any of your contacts, too.
Its fun and inexpensive but the fun can only last so long
UK price 1.79 US price $2.99 Web plasq.com Download size 1.9MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.2.1 or later
A great, fun app tap witty captions on your photos for hours
Photography CREATE
FatBooth
FACE MANIPULATOR
SUPERSIZE ME Thinking of gaining a few extra pounds? Get FatBooth to see how youll look first
UK price 0.59 US price $0.99 Web www.piviandco.com Download size 6.6MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.1.2 or later
KEY INFO
emember AgingBooth? The app that takes a shot of family, friends and foes and makes them disturbingly wrinkly and old. Now comes FatBooth; its the same basic idea, but this time it appears to add a few stone of weight to people you shoot. Its easy too: snap a portrait shot, drag markers into place for eyes, mouth and chin, and it does everything else automatically. The results are genuinely rather good and the app copes well with glasses and beards though theyre best when working on especially thin people. Pictures can be shared by email, Facebook or Twitter. .
Face Melter
o on! Take a picture of someones face and shake it about a bit. Mess it up and stretch it out of shape using your finger to do the distorting on the face of your iPhone. Its wicked and naughty but its just so much fun. Make the boss look bugeyed or give your loved-one bee-stung lips. Just do silly things. When youve finished, save the result or undo your mischief with a quick shake of your iPhone. Your adjusted images can be animated to 25 frames per second, and the app offers morphing movies, too! A universally appealing app, just be wary about laughing too loud on the train home
Good results from the right photos. Guaranteed to get you to the gym
Buy it! You know you want to. Get some fun out of the iPhone camera
UK price 1.19 US price $1.99 Web www.facemelter.de Download size 6.4MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
KEY INFO
ADDON YEARS
AgingBooth
RETRO LOOK
UK price 0.59 US price $0.99 Web www.piviandco.com Download size 8.7MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.1.2 or later
KEY INFO
his app does one essentially frivolous thing, but does it well. Its job is to age your photo so you can see how youre going to look after the ravages of time have taken their toll. You either take a photo with the app (perfect for a night out with friends) or choose a picture from your iPhones photo gallery. Once the app has detected the face in the photo you manually adjust on-screen guides to fine-tune the position of the eyes and mouth, then let AgingBooth do its work The finished image is a terrifying glimpse into the future. The results are convincing but most faces get similar treatment.
OldBooth Premium
ldBooths concept is an old one. Its a 21st-century re-imagining of the seaside cut-out that you stick your head through to have your photograph taken. The style here though is more vintage US yearbook. Pick a gender and choose a style for the photo. You can then select a shot from your library, or snap one with the iPhones camera. From here you can pinch to change the size of the shot, use the rotate dial to get the angle right, and adjust the brightness of both the shot and the template. Your efforts are saved to the camera roll, and can then be emailed or saved to your Mac or PC.
Good fun on a night out, but you might not like the results!
UK price 1.19 US price $1.99 Web www.getapp.net Download size 10.7MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.1 or later
KEY INFO
BACK TO THE FUTURE Travel back in time and see how you might look in another era
PAINTING TOOL
Layers
T
here are countless painting apps on the Store, but this ones special. Its not just that its surprisingly decent natural media brushes (you get 10 to choose from) produce some genuinely good results, aided by a slider to control opacity and an eyedropper to suck up colour. As the name suggests, its the fact that you can add up to five layers, and even export your creations as layered PSDs, which makes this app stand out. You can even choose a photo as a layer; just use the eyedropper or eraser and you can cheat at creating decent stabs at art. Download the Layers Replay Viewer and you can sync your drawings with your Mac, then replay your work, export as JPG and PSD, and create QuickTime movies for sharing online with your friends.
DIFFERENT STROKES Choose from 10 different brushes then start erasing and smudging
FINE LINE Its easy to adjust how fine you want the brush stroke to be
KEY INFO
Download size 5.4MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
The square canvas and fixed pixel dimensions can feel a bit restrictive, and the limitations of the iPhone platform a lack of pressure sensitivity, plus a small screen that necessitates controls having to be called up separately with a shake of the iPhone can be irksome, but its still a good app to satisfy those creative urges.
Limited by the iPhone itself, but accomplished and fun for artists and kids alike
PhotoKeys
PHOTOSHOP CONTROLLER
UK price 1.79 US price $2.99 Web mobilemouse.com Download size 0.6MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.1 or later
KEY INFO
his is ideal if you like the look of the Art Lebedev Maximus keyboard (www. artlebedev.com) but dont fancy spending $1,700 (1,183). Its designed as a companion to Photoshop and gives you access to many of the tools and commands from the main screen and the Edit screen, which controls selections, stroke and the like. It works well, although the concept is a little flawed; you have to look carefully before you can stab at the correct button, and you cant edit the layouts. Professionals should stick to learning the keyboard shortcuts, but it might help Photoshop newbies.
Sketchbook Mobile
PAINTING TOOL
UK price 1.79 US price $2.99 Web usa.autodesk.com Download size 8.1MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.1.3 or later
KEY INFO
PAINT POWER You get the same paint engine as you do in Sketchbook Pro
COLOUR COORDINATOR
Color Expert
D
Feature-rich and polished colour-picking app; proved remarkably accurate as a Pantone library, too
esigners across the world, rejoice! This app does two things. First, its a reference library of colour swatches. You can choose between HTML or web-safe colours, or access coated and uncoated Pantone and Pantone Goe swatches. Like us, youre probably suspicious of anything claiming to offer colour-accurate Pantone swatches on a display that hasnt been calibrated, but be prepared to be impressed. Viewed even under fluorescent lighting, the colours on-screen were very close to the chips in the reference swatches we placed next to them. Sure, you should check with a proper swatch book before pressing Print, but it proved plenty accurate enough on our test iPhone 3G. The meat of the app, however, is the colour mixing stuff. Youre presented with a colour wheel
and invited to spin around one anchor colour, while others change in relation to that colour. You can pick the relationship monochromatic, analogous, complementary, split complementary or triadic and you can choose whether the colour wheel use the artistic red/ yellow/blue or the scientific red/ green/blue system. The result: four other colours that match and complement your anchor colour in different ways You can then examine these colours optionally matching them to Pantone equivalents name them and save them. You can also send a rich email through the iPhones Mail apps. You can punch in RGB, Pantone or hex anchor values, or even use the iPhone camera to pick a colour. This last isnt a very accurate capture method, but its good to have the option.
BEAUTIFUL Complement your anchor colour then send the results via email
KEY INFO
Download size 3.8MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
FONT IDENTIFIER
WhatTheFont
FREE Find out if its Serif or Sans
PHOTO GRADING
Mill Colour
ondons VFX outfit The Mill has produced a photoediting app. Mill Colour is part calling card, part imagegrading mini-tool. In the Mills own words, it emulates primary grading techniques used in a high-end digital suite What this means in practice is that you can select an image from your iPhones photo library or take a new one, then apply predefined styles to it for example a warm golden tone, or a washed-out 1970s palette look. If none of the supplied filters suit your needs, you can always fiddle around with Lift, Gamma, Gain or Saturation to spit-and-polish your favourite snaps.
FONT FAQ The mobile service connects directly to MyFontsfont identification service
UK price Free US price Free Web www.myfonts.com Download size 0.2MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.0 or later
KEY INFO
ver looked at a page and wondered what font has been used? WhatTheFont turns your iPhone into a font detective powered by MyFonts service of the same name. The theory is sound, but a couple of things let it down. First, the back-end service isnt infallible, and because it cant know all the fonts in the world, youll sometimes slip one in that it cant identify (it does offer close matches though). The main problem is the iPhones camera. It works fine with the iPhone 3GS, but if you have the older 3G or 2G then the lens cant focus enough to take usable images of anything under 40pt.
Good attempt and decent service, but the iPhone camera lets it down
A very specific app but it does what it says on the tin very well!
UK price Free US price Free Web www.the-mill.com Download size 2.1MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.2.1 or later
KEY INFO
THROUGH THE MILL Give your photo a basic style, then fiddle further with the colours
Kineo
ANIMATION TOOL
ANIMATION TOOL
UK price 1.79 US price $1.99 Web www.kineoapp.com Download size 1.4MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
KEY INFO
here are dozens of sketching apps on the iPhone, but this one is a bit different its the digital equivalent of a flipbook. Draw a picture using your finger, tap the lifted flap (bottom right) to turn to a new page then draw the next picture, using the now greyed-out image from the previous page as a guide. You can flip through all your pages using the slider along the bottom, and tap the play icon to animate the series. Drawing fine detail with your podgy finger is tricky, though the shake-to-undo feature is quite nice. While you can save animations, unfortunately you cant export them.
Animation Creator
nimation Creator offers you a suite of sketching tools that enable you to draw and generate a short animated clip, frame by frame. The software supports frame positioning and rotation, zooming and panning, plus the useful onion-skinning feature (which gives you the ability to see the previous or next frame as a ghost image). However, there are no starting templates and its quite a fiddly operation just to get to the tools menu. At a push, its an app that might prove useful for prototyping or pre-viz experimentation. Although the ability to add sound would be a welcome feature.
UK price 1.19 US price $1.99 Web www.red-software.com Download size 2.4MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
KEY INFO
SIMPLE SKETCH A variety of options but some basic elements could be better
FlipBook
ANIMATION TOOL
3D CREATOR
UK price 2.99 US price $4.99 Web www.flipbook.tv Download size 0.9MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.2.1 or later
KEY INFO
lipbook sells itself primarily as a mobile animation tool and the results (in the right hands) can be impressive. Head to flipbook. tv to find The Flea Cannon Catastrophe, a shining example of just how professional the apps animated content can be. For computer animators, Flipbook has some merit as a pocket pre-viz tool; you can sketch a sequence from scratch or import photos from your iPhones photo library and trace over them. The toolset also includes an onion-skinning feature, which shows a ghost image of the next or previous frame. Theres a free Lite version to try out, too.
iTracer HD
KEY INFO
The options are impressive yet the app is surprisingly simple to use
UK price 1.79 US price $2.99 Web fabio.policarpo.nom.br Download size 3.3MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.2 or later
MOVIE EDITING
iMovie
Its good enough, and cheap enough, that its worth buying, but we hope for better later
ou can now shoot HD video, edit the clips into a movie with titles, transitions and a soundtrack, and publish it to the internet on a phone. Amazing. Its a shame then, that this app, technically only available for the iPhone 4 (though some have hacked it to run on previous models) is so basic. It reminds us of iLife 08; the revamped iMovie app was fast and easy to use, but it wasnt until the enriched iLife 09 version appeared that it became sufficiently capable for all but the simplest movie projects. And we suspect that this will be the case with this app; its a great basic movie-editing engine, but it will only become compelling with future updates. You can import video clips and still photos from your camera, or shoot directly into
the app, and then arrange them on a timeline. Tap a clip to bring up trimming handles; doubletap to add a title and remove audio. Clips can be rearranged on the timeline, and you can add a soundtrack from your iPod (copyright nightmare!). You can apply one of the themes with some cool transitions. Finished projects can be exported to your camera from where you can upload to YouTube, for example. Frustratingly, even though the videos are in 720p, they get downsampled to 568x320 pixels when published. Theres no option to split a clip though you could import it twice and trim and while soundtrack audio ducks, theres no control over levels, fading or looping. Also, it has a baffling interface; many reviews on the App Store criticise it for lacking features that are present
MOBILE MOVIE MOGUL Incredible ability yet wed still like to see more
KEY INFO
Download size 35.1MB iPod touch Yes Requires iOS 4.1 or later
ReelDirector
SCENE SETTING Storyboard Composer can help to flesh out your initial movie concepts
KEY INFO
UK price 2.39 US price $3.99 Web www.nexvio.com Download size 9.2MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.1 or later
KEY INFO
full-blown video-editing app on a mobile device? Yes with one catch: its only available for the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4, not the 3G. It enables you to stitch together video clips with an intuitive drag-and-drop timeline. You can add audio by importing your own music files or by recording a voiceover. You can also add text overlays using a variety of fonts and styles. One satisfied customer comments: Im a director of photography and last week I took some videos and stills on my 3GS whilst on a recce for a film location. In the half-hour Tube journey back to the office, I had a rough edit of the scene
UK price 11.99 US price $19.99 Web www.cinemek.com Download size 2.1MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
Storyboard Composer
toryboard Composer is one of the priciest apps here. But this mobile storyboarding and pre-viz tool is aimed squarely at professionals. The app enables you to build a storyboard sequence using photos, directions and pre-defined graphics. If youve taken location shots with your iPhone, you can import these images into the app, then drag them into a rough running order, then add traditional elements. You can export the storyboard and save
MOBILE STORYBOARD
it as a PDF. Its all very impressive, but Cinemek has missed a trick by not letting users export the rough-cut.
Quite simplistic considering its core audience but very useful for the ideas stage of a movie
The 2011 iPhone app guide 45
ZEN CREATIVITY
Artisan
PHOTO EFFECTS
Fluid FX
UK price 0.59 US price $0.99 Web www.eodsoft.com Download size 1.6MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.1 or later
KEY INFO
rtisans imagery is based on interacting with fractal webs that dance and swirl according to touch (similar to EoDs particle-based app, Spawn Illuminati). You can control the number of breeders to make the image more or less complex. However, if you slow the web movement down you can generate curvaceous, solidlooking 3D images, which can then be saved to your iPhones gallery (as long as youre quick; the images are constantly evolving) or uploaded to the dedicated Flickr group. Admittedly, its more of a novelty than a tool, but it proves an aesthetically pleasing way to while away the time.
utodesk is the biggest name in 3D animation software, making complex (and expensive) tools for the movie industry. Powered by some of the technology seen in programs like Maya, Fluid FX is simpler and fluffier in intent, offering a light-hearted way to play with photos. You just load a photo, choose your effect and run your finger across the image. One effects set warps the photo in various amusing ways, and works great on portraits. A second set adds assorted particle effects over your image, and can enhance, say, a landscape photo. You can save a still at any point or record a video (iOS 4.1 only).
KEY INFO
UK price 1.19 US price $1.99 Web usa.autodesk.com Download size 8MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.2 or later
PRETTY POETRY
MAGICAL MATHEMATICS
iFractal
UK price Free US price Free Web www.nanikawa.com Download size 0.3MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.0 or later
KEY INFO
his exercise in offbeat, monochromatic animation has been produced to such a professional standard that its well worth a look. Ported from the desktop version, For All Seasons applies various seasonal effects to a single page of black and white text and enables you to pan, zoom or rotate the view. For example, the Spring setting transforms the words on the page into blossoming vector flowers. The letters that form the words act as petals for each electronic flower and can be sent spinning into the air with a deft finger-flick. The app shows off the power of the iPhone for free.
ow you can explore the classic Mandelbrot and Julia sets on your iPhone, zooming in and in and in to the engaging equations, admiring the repeating fractal structures and the extraordinary levels of visual detail and response. Of course, this isnt just about the mathematical artwork nor is it about the various features, which include over 100 colour palettes, an animated zoom, screenshot capture (and export), plus a 3D view. Its also an amazing technology demo that shows just what Apples hardware is capable of. The ability to share and explore the fractals created by the users of the app is a boon.
Incredible effects but might only appeal if the poetry strikes a chord
Another addictive app that puts the power of the iPhone on display
UK price Free US price Free Web iphone.alpheccar.org Download size 2.8MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
KEY INFO
HIGH VIS Check out the demo videos on the Alpheccar website
MELODY MAKER
Bloom
A truly pleasant iPhone experience step into your own world of visual/ audio harmony
loom is an endless music machine a music box for the 21st Century. You can play it, and you can watch it play itself according to its co-creator Brian Eno. This is a neat summary for what is essentially an interactive generative music application from Eno and Peter Chilvers. The musical landscape is represented
NO ABILITY REQUIRED You dont need to be a musical genius to create digital melodies
by a full-screen subtly-coloured backdrop. Pressing the screen triggers the playing of lightly clangourous tones the nearer the bottom of the screen you press, the lower the pitch and an expanding circular ripple effect graphic. The application is effectively on a short recordable loop that allows you to add more notes to the piece, while a continuous drone plays in the background. Pitches are restricted to notes within a pre-defined scale, very much in the style of Enos ambient works as you would expect. A little more mood variety would be appreciated This app may not be very useful in the studio, but it is a beautiful piece of sound and art work nonetheless. However, it would only really be worth the money for fans of Eno and generative music.
MESMERISING MOOD See if youre you in tune with your creative side
KEY INFO
Download size 12.2MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.2 or later
INTERACTIVE SCREENSAVER
Spawn Illuminati
INTERACTIVE VISUAL
QUEUE UP! Youll be looking for a queue to stand around in just for an excuse to play!
UK price 0.59 US price $0.99 Web www.eodsoft.com Download size 4.6MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
KEY INFO
he idea behind Spawn Illuminati is that it displays particles on the screen that move around and make pretty patterns, but you also have some control over their behaviour. By pinching various parts of the screen you can affect the particles size, colour, speed and tail length, and if you tap and hold, they swarm towards and around your fingertip. A double-tap causes each one to burst into a head of new trails. The iPhones accelerometer is used to determine which way is down and so the particles are affected by a kind of weak gravity, consistently dropping towards the ground.
UK price 0.59 US price $0.99 Web www.RGB.nu/pulsar Download size 1.1MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.2.1 or later
KEY INFO
SLIDE SHOW Use your fingertips and the slider to play with your particles
PLAY ALONG Tap out your own tune to the harmony provided
T
GENERATIVE MUSIC
Spoke
Euphonics
KEY INFO
UK price 0.59 US price $0.99 Web www.frozenape.com Download size 8.5MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.2.1 or later
KEY INFO
Even those with limited talents can create music with this affordable app
UK price 1.19 US price $1.99 Web thestrangeagency.com Download size 1.1MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.2.1 or later
PATTER ON THE PLATTER Theres no restrictive grid to adhere to, just freeflowing beats
Trope
MUSIC GENERATOR
UK price 2.39 US price $3.99 Web www.generativemusic.com Download size 25MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.2 or later
KEY INFO
o you love Brian Enos ambient music? And do you wish you had access to an infinite Eno soundtrack in your pocket? Welcome to Trope. As you tap on the screen or drag whirls of colour around, you can create a soundcape that builds, loops and repeats in an Eno-esque way. And its not surprising really, as this app was developed in collaboration with the man himself. It can take some getting used to and it doesnt help that the different moods and drawing shapes are so fancifully named that you struggle to work out how to create specific sounds or even particular moods but its a pleasant way to zone out.
Gliss
KEY INFO
Freeform music creation. Its really easy to create some excellent sounds with this app
01
02
03
Sweep your finger across the screen and see what happens to the sound and Bebots expression
01 02
04
Move the Pitch slider up 03 or down to access higher or lower notes How can you not fall for Bebots charms? This is one supercute robot
04
UK price 1.19 US price $1.99 Web www.normalware.com Download size 4.5MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
KEY INFO
POLYPHONIC SYNTHESIZER
Bebot
1.19 Part robot, part polyphonic synthesizer
ometimes the simplest applications are the best, and Bebot is no exception. Opening this app, you are presented with a retrographic robot in a tux. Touch the screen and he emits a talking robot tone, with pitch changes as you move from left to right, and a variable formant filter as you move upwards. Tap the screen for one short note or keep it down to make the sound last longer. Double-clicking on the bottom right of the screen accesses three other synth modes (including Sawtooth, Pulse, Sine and PWM) each with a small set of editing parameters. For more accurate pitching Bebot can show a graphical note grid (with zoom). Autotune mode snaps
pitches to the nearest note and can restrict playback to a certain scale and multi-touch lets you build chords. Basic effects include a variable feedback delay and overdrive section and whats more the synth is polyphonic. The app is highly customisable; you can make adjustments to effects (echo, chorus, and a warm, buzzy overdrive) or the scale itself. The ability to customise the scale makes it easier to use other instruments, and you can save presets. Bebot really scores in its immediacy and yet its sophisticated enough to be used on commercial projects. Working musicians rate the app highly. You may see it as an inventive musical
instrument or simply an amusing audio toy either way youll find it addictive. The quality of animation, by graphic designer Lily McDonnell, is excellent (T-shirts are available), and certainly broadens the apps appeal. Its unlikely, but just in case you are struggling to get started with Bebot, check out the user manual (www. normalware.com/bebotmanual) although it does advise to put the manual aside and just play around! Alternatively, Jordan Rudess, keyboardist for the progressive rock band Dream Theater, has put together a video, that may well provide the inspiration you need (check it out at www.youtube.com).
4
May seem like a gimmick but this is music creation with plenty of possibility and personality!
Ocarina
WIND INSTRUMENT
POCKET THEREMIN
Thereminator
UK price 1.79 US price $2.99 Web www.yonac.com Download size 1.6MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
A
KEY INFO
UK price 0.59 US price $0.99 Web ocarina.smule.com Download size 5.1MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.1.3 or later
EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE Use your breath or cover the holes to make music
s Lon Theremins eponymous instrument approaches its 100th birthday, it seems fitting that it should be brought into the 21st century with an iPhone tribute. You can drag your finger across the screen to play the instrument horizontally to change the pitch, vertically to change the volume but the real fun comes from switching on accelerometer control; waving the iPhone around to play a song seems to make perfect sense. Built-in reverb and tremolo effects make Thereminator our pick of the virtual Theremins.
Select a wave and start playing or select a wave and start waving the iPhone around!
MUSIC GAME
Leaf Trombone
ELECTRONIC INSTRUMENT
TROMBONE CHALLENGE You may start in a casual style, but things will soon turn competitive
UK price 1.79 US price $2.99 Web www.smule.com Download size 5.3MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
KEY INFO
his app turns your iPhone into a trombone. Albeit, of the forest variety You blow into the microphone at the bottom of the phone to produce a note, and move the slider on the on-screen leaf (a bit like a party blower) to change the pitch. The community is working to create more music for your leaf trombone; its similar to Guitar Hero in that little leaves stream into view telling you where to position the slider and when to blow. The result is dependent on the skill of the player. The best bit is that you can perform on a world stage where other users can log on, listen to you, and rate your performance.
Melodica
ou may not have heard of the electronic musical instrument called Tenorion, but you can get a not-quiteas-good software version for your iPhone. (Which is just as well, as a real one costs around 750.) It presents you with a grid of squares; tap them to light them up. It plays in a loop, from left to right, sounding a note when the playhead hits one of the activated squares. Its no good for serious composition, of course, and though you can save creations within Melodica, theres no way to export them. But its almost impossible to create a tune that doesnt sound great in a quirky Japanese way.
Who cares if soaking your dock connector in spittle voids your warranty? Its fun!
Fun for kids of all ages; would be great to get tunes out of the app
UK price 0.59 US price $0.99 Web www.candycaneapps.com Download size 29.7MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.2 or later
KEY INFO
LIGHTS, ACTION! Go random or draw a shape then listen to the musical interpretation
ELECTRONIC DRUMKIT
iDrum
ELECTRONIC DRUMKIT
CHOOSE YOUR STYLE iDrum editions include contributions from some big-name musicians
UK price From 0.59 US price From $0.99 Web www.izotope.com Download size Varies iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.1 or later
KEY INFO
rom 59p, iPhone users can get a mobile taste of iZotopes excellent iDrum, a simple and customisable drum-sequencing program for Mac and Windows. The app is available in several versions to suit a variety of genres, from club to 8-bit. Theres even a beatbox edition! The editions by big-name producers are particularly worth checking out; the Wu Tang Clans RZA contributes a New York hip hop version, while Major Lazer offer up their blend of electro reggae. The option to export drum patterns as ringtones is also a cool touch, and you can exchange projects with the desktop version of iDrum.
InstantDrummer
ore fun than playing along to a metronome but not quite as flexible as a full drum machine, InstantDrummer allows songs to be pieced together from a selection of patterns. Each section can be adjusted using controls for ambience, variation, intensity and gain. Like iDrum, this app is offered in a choice of editions. Heartbreaker includes drum patterns recorded by Death Cab For Cuties Jason McGerr, while AirWrench and Combustion feature Nashville session drummer Tony Morra. You could use InstantDrummer for backing tracks, but we think its best for keeping you in time during practice sessions.
Great quality, especially if youre looking for dance and club beats
UK price 1.79 each US price $2.99 each Web sonomawireworks.com Download size Varies iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
KEY INFO
VARIETY ACT The six editions on offer range from rock to country
A GRAND IN YOUR POCKET Just slide your fingers to roll along the keys
iShred
GUITAR SIMULATOR
Virtuoso Piano
KEYBOARD
ith seven octaves of sampled grand piano ready and waiting at your fingertips, Virtuoso Piano is one of the most authentic piano apps on the market. A built-in metronome, basic reverb and recorder (with overdub capability) add some reasonable extra functions. Theres nothing particularly groundbreaking about Virtuoso Piano, but its a solid piano app at a great price. Its also worth checking out the Virtuoso Piano Celesta for iPhone, which offers similar features but with four octaves of celesta samples instead of piano.
A really good piano sound, some useful features, and a truly affordable price
UK price 2.99 US price $4.99 Web frontierdesign.com Download size 20.4MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
KEY INFO
reat for those infuriating moments when you have a killer riff in your head but no guitar to hand, iShred: Guitar & Effects is an all-in-one guitar simulator app that allows you to play an on-screen axe through virtual stomp boxes and an amp simulator. A huge built-in library of chords, scales and songs provide the inspiration, while effects including distortions, delay, dual chorus and a wah are all on hand. Once youve finished punishing the fretboard, hit Record, play your song and then share it online or save and export as an audio file. Also offers support for left-hand guitarists, too.
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The piano might only be two octave but it sounds great, and the Multi-Touch display means you can play complex chords
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As well as the cheatersFunky Drummer module, theres a pretty complete drum kit as well
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Use Bands recording features to layer up a rich recording, or just bash down a few notes for on-the-hoof inspiration
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Band lets you create your own tracks easily with the instruments it puts on your iPhones screen, including piano, bass guitar and drum kit
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UK price 2.39 US price $3.99 Web moocowmusic.com Download size 8.9MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.2.1 or later
KEY INFO
Band
2.39 Not the most useful app, but guaranteed to bring a smile to your face
Do not buy this app to make great music. Do buy it to keep you and your friends entertained!
nyone who watched the iPhonecentric keynote at WWDC (Worldwide Developers Conference) back in 2008 its at www. apple.com/quicktime/qtv/wwdc08 if youre interested will know about this stunning little app. Its not, well grant you, the most useful of tools, but its huge amounts of fun and is a great way to show off the iPhones tech. Essentially, it puts a bunch of different instruments on the screen that you can play, record, overdub and more. Some the piano, bass guitar and drum kit are facsimiles of real instruments, but our favourite is the 12-bar blues instrument with which you can build your own 12-bar blues track
in minutes. The multitrack recording means you can layer on more detail the audience instrument is perhaps our favourite here, overdubbing the sounds of cheering and applauding fans on your mini-masterpiece and keep re-recording until you get it right. The instrument recording and management system is a little clunky, and wed like to see a little more care taken over the polish of those screens that arent instruments, but these are quibbles. The one criticism that really matters here is that it can be difficult to get your timings right. Work with the system for an hour or two, and youll anticipate the beat correctly, but we did get frustrated when we first picked it up. Judging by
comments found online, its a problem experienced by other users. Professional drummers and musicians, beware: this is not a tool that you can use to keep your hand in when youre on the road, but the ability to knock out and save a tune is handy for when inspiration strikes. You might want to check out MooCows other app options, such as Pianist or Guitarist, if youre looking for more accurate instruments. Its easy and fun, though, and while its unlikely ever to be more than a diverting novelty, we reckon its a couple of quid well spent. If youre not sure about splashing your cash though, you can always check out the video at moocowmusic.com.
bleep!Synth
2.99 Top technology thats surprisingly ease to use
Offers the kind of features youd expect to see on expensive software synthesizers
he interface offers navigation of sound generation, motion control, global parameters, live playback and sequencer. Parameter editing is cleverly arranged to make the most of two-handed input; a virtual scroll wheel fits under your thumb, while a trigger pad can be used to play sound. The three-voice synth is great; its ability to work polyphonically suits gated strings and evolving pads, and it includes excellent routing possibilities. Switch between editing the parameters for the two oscillators, three two-stage envelopes, single filter or modulation options. Each set of parameters appear as a list of sliders, and while theyre easy to modify, the program doesnt seem to recognise more than two touches at a time. The highlight of this app is the user-defined matrix in Play mode. Notes are triggered from a grid of buttons, and when combined with one of the 21 different scales on offer, the output can sound unusual and fantastic.
KEY INFO
Download size 12.9MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
SWING FOR IT The 16-step sequencer includes trigger probability and swing and we like the user-defined matrix of the Play mode
MONOPHONIC SYNTHESIZER
Argon
1.19 Create new sounds with fantastic editing control
With so many features to choose from, Argon is one of the best monophonic synths for iPhone
rgon is a three-oscillator subtractive monosynth. Oscillator waveforms include sawtooth, square wave, sine and white noise, plus a formant oscillator for vocal-style effects. Frequency modulation, three LFOs and a resonant multi-mode filter with low-pass slopes allow thousands of timbres. There are 64 presets, with a further 512 user preset slots available. Argons step sequencer allows complex patterns to be set up and played like a customisable arpeggiator. Its a great way of creating riffs with ease. The clipboard feature allows Argon audio data to be copied and pasted into compatible apps. The copy and paste function is finally starting to emerge as an inter-app standard, allowing you to create loops and patterns and then send them to Beatmaker for use in your sequences. Once you start doing it, you wont believe you ever managed without it.
KEY INFO
Download size 0.9MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
MODULAR SYNTHESIZER
Jasuto
3.99 (Pro); 1.79 (Classic) Fully functioning modular synthesizer
PITCH PERFECT Put the time in to learning what to do (download the PDF manual from the website) and you will be rewarded for your efforts
KEY INFO
Download size 9.1/8.2MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
f youre looking for a synth app with instant results, youre going to be disappointed. However, once you get the hang of the basic structure, youll find that Jasuto is capable of creating incredible sounds. The mixture of subtractive, additive and granular synthesis plus sample playback, effects and sequencing make Jasuto one of our favourite iPhone apps. Jasutos huge range of modules (known as nodes) includes samplers, oscillators, filters, envelope generators, effects and sequencers, so youll need to know the basics of synthesis to get the best results. Its easiest to start by modifying some of the demo patches, but youll soon figure out how to construct from scratch, linking nodes and moving them around. The range of sounds is mind-blowing and the sequencer allows you to trigger patterns from within the app. We strongly recommend the Pro version, which pushes to the next level.
Truly remarkable to find such high-end technology working so well on the humble mobile phone
INSTRUMENTAL Not just a piano face The Pianofly app offers a huge bank of instruments
SESSION MANAGER technoBox comes with a session manager which allows you to load or save work in realtime without stopping the sequencer
SCROLLING KEYBOARD
Pianofly
technoBox
KEY INFO
UK price 1.79 US price $2.99 Web minimusic.com Download size 0.5MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.0 or later
VIRTUAL STUDIO
ianoflys very simple interface hides a surprisingly powerful FM synth with plenty of editing options. You can either pick a preset to play with or create your own sounds from scratch. One of the apps cleverest features is the way that it overcomes the limitations of the iPhones small screen. Dragging your finger along the screen slides the keyboard along, meaning that you can move up or down the piano as you play rather than being limited to a single octave or having to stab a tiny button. Its a neat solution, if occasionally a little fiddly. 54 The 2011 iPhone app guide
KEY INFO
We like the ability to play an entire keyboard although its easy to slide accidentally
303 bass, 808 smooth and 909 punchy a great combo for easy to use sequencing
MUSIC PRODUCTION
Music Studio
8.99 Complete music production sequencer
Search the internet and you wont find a bad user review for good reason, theres a lot to this app
his is a fully fledged sequencer with a slick interface. The Keyboard page enables you to play two instruments simultaneously by splitting the screen; the iPhone touchscreen excels here and you can play some surprisingly complex parts. Music Studio uses sampled instruments rather than synthesized sounds, with a selection of 21 presets to choose from (including pianos, drum kits, organs, brass, guitar, etc). The drum sounds are good, although its a shame they use a keyboard interface pad-style input wouldve been preferable. The Tracks page offers mixing and editing of up to 128 tracks, and Music Studio has excellent sequencing capabilities with great attention to detail. Finally, the Effects page offers a basic but useable reverb, tempo-synced delay, three-band EQ and amp simulator with adjustable overdrive. Each of the effects can be applied to the master out or used for FX sends.
KEY INFO
Download size 228MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
PLAY IT AGAIN When inspiration strikes capture the sounds on Music Studios intuitive yet comprehensive sequencer
ReBirth
3.99 Relive the early days of computer music
here are two ways to view Propellerheads port of the seminal ReBirth. The first is as a new music production benchmark for the App Store. The second is as a rather ill-fitting fingermare that users will frequently find frustrating. Both are right The interface scales smoothly but not pleasantly its bitmapped rather than vector-based, resulting in blurry text and fuzzy knobs at high zoom. And no concessions have been made in terms of making it fit the iPhone its literally the Mac/PC version shrunk down. But ultimately, and considering the price, none of that really spoils the party. This is ReBirth two 303s, an 808, a 909, the Pattern Controlled Filter, the compressor, the delay, the step sequencing, the song mode There are even five user mods included with the software (the mighty PBE among them), while you also have the ability to share your projects online.
KEY INFO
Download size 16.5MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.1 or later
Cue Play DJ
MOBILE DJ SOFTWARE
SCRATCH THAT Stuck in a queue? Why not perfect your turntable technique while you wait
TURNTABLE
Flare Scratch
T
KEY INFO
UK price 5.99 US price $9.99 Web www.capsulatedsoftware.com Download size 76.9MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.1.2 or later
MIXING MADE EASY Cue tracks on your iPhone
KEY INFO
The iTunes access has really upped the ante on this fun app; Facebook upload next please
Touch DJ 2
AUDIO/MOTION MUSIC
RjDj
KEY INFO
UK price 11.99 US price $19.99 Web amidio.com Download size 186MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.1 or later
his is not your conventional DJ app! Reality Jockeys gamechanging RjDj is an augmented reality music app unlike anything else. Load a scene and discover how the music reacts to inputs such as finger gestures, phone movement and ambient sounds. No musical knowledge is required. Each scene has its own set of sounds, allowing you to create your own unique arrangements of everything from hip hop to dub. Downloadable packs allow you to add new scenes. Youll find that music becomes software and software becomes music in an inspirational multisensory experience.
UK price Free US price Free Web www.rjdj.me Download size 53.4MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.1.2 or later
KEY INFO
SET THE SCENE You can download more free and paid for scenes from the RjDj store
CHORD LIBRARY
Chordmaster
GUITAR TUNER
Guitar Toolkit
KEY INFO
UK price 1.19 US price $1.99 Web www.planetwaves.com Download size 8.2MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.1 or later
DONT FRET Chordmaster will show you the correct finger position
UK price 5.99 US price $9.99 Web agilepartners.com Download size 9.1MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
KEY INFO
THE RIGHT NOTE The Guitar Toolkit interface looks really professional
TAB READER
TabToolkit
5.99 A vital tool for the aspiring guitarist
If youre a guitar player and iPhone owner then the TabToolkit app is a vital purchase
he internet is awash with free tab files showing you how to play your favourite songs on a guitar, and TabToolkit does a good job of bringing them to life on your iPhone. You transfer tab files to your iPhone via Wi-Fi. TabToolkit does a decent job of displaying plain text tab files, but the fun starts with the Guitar Pro and Power Tab files, which it can play. They contain both tab and standard musical notations and a guitar fretboard or keyboard shows you which frets to finger as the song plays. At any moment you can pause to move forward and backward, should you need extra help with the difficult bits, or select a different instrument. The concept works beautifully on iPhone just plonk yourself down on the sofa with your guitar and prop the iPhone on a cushion. Being able to loop a section of tab would be a welcome feature, but were impressed with whats offered here already.
KEY INFO
Download size 9.8MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
SWITCH IT With the Tab Toolkit, you can switch between instruments you can also hear as many as 112 instrument voices simultaneously!
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EXPLORE
Sat-nav on the iPhone Apps for out and about
hether its the daily commute or a trip around the world, travelling has been changed profoundly by the iPhone. Now you can check train times or plan your route through the London Underground as you travel, not before you leave. You can also get up-to-the-minute weather forecasts, plan a day out or carry a phrasebook in your pocket. But the biggest impact the iPhone has had on travel is its ability to use satellite-based navigation. Here, we test several of the major sat-nav apps you can buy, as well as finding out what theyre really like to use
Theres a healthy choice of apps that promise to turn your iPhone into a sat-nav. We test five options to find out how they, and the iPhone itself, perform while on the move
healthy choice of location-aware navigation aides for iPhone, from simple free tools like OffMaps to the full-blown counterparts to sat-nav devices that were looking at here. iPhones built-in Google-powered Maps app shouldnt be overlooked, either; updated for iOS 4, it offers directions for routes by car, by public transport or on foot, with the GPS chip monitoring your progress along the route. All the same, most serious travellers and motorists in particular will look to specialist apps that fulfil the role of a sat-nav device. The map graphics are designed for clear legibility while driving; there are
SUCK IT AND SEE The EasyPort window sucker, part of the TomTom Car Kit for iPhone
often services such as speed camera databases and live traffic alerts; and the maps are typically stored on your iPhone, so you dont need the constant internet connection that Maps requires. Many of this class of app are adapted from proprietary products where the software is built into the device you buy: TomTom is the best-known example. That means the hardware is specifically geared towards sat-nav, whereas the iPhone is designed to be a phone first and foremost. So if youre considering a navigation app, its worth being aware of how the iPhone performs as a sat-nav device. There are, you see, some significant issues before you make the sat-nav
SIGNAL STRENGTH Mounting the iPhone above the dash is best for reception
Its worth being aware of how the iPhone performs as a sat-nav device. There are some significant issues HOW WE TESTED... On the road, in the car
As well as testing the five apps here, we set ourselves a challenge. We defined five different waypoints around the city of Bath, beginning at Royal High School. Then we asked the system to find a local petrol station as a point of interest (POI), which they all did. Next, we wanted to test postcode look-up, so we entered the postcode of Prior Park, a local landmark; here, some stumbled through, not supporting full postcode look-up. Then it was off to the train station: the TomTom and Mobile Maps apps tried to take us down a road that was closed except for access. From the station, we tried an address in our contacts; some failed to parse it, and some tried to route us via a road thats always closed to traffic between 10am and 6pm. Of course, it would be wrong to extrapolate performance for other locations based on this sample, but it does indicate some of the problems you may encounter with some apps.
leap. Although the iPhones screen seems a generous size when its in your hand, it can seem a little on the dinky side in the interior of a car, and wed be happier if the screen was just a little bit brighter The biggest issue, however, is that you need to position your iPhone in your car in a safe position where you can see it comfortably. The problem is that there are relatively few iPhone car mounts available, and some of those that weve tried are ungainly and inelegant for sat-nav. General-purpose in-car solutions such as the otherwise excellent Belkin TuneBase FM with Hands-Free are fine, but because the cradles plug direct into the lighter socket, its unlikely that youll be able get the screen into a position thats safe to use when driving.
Voice prompts could be the answer but sadly, the built-in speaker on all iPhone models to date is too weedy to be used. Its fine for hands-free calling at your desk, but at the volumes necessary for spoken instructions to be heard above the noise of the engine and the tyres on the road, the audio can get unpleasantly distorted. Power is also an issue. Any iPhone fulfilling the role of a sat-nav needs a constant supply of power for all but the shortest of journeys. The big, backlit screen itself is pretty power-hungry: you dont normally keep it on continuously, but youll notice significant battery drain when its displaying a map constantly. And, of course, it takes a lot of power to drive the GPS circuitry thats keeping a lock on the satellites. Standalone sat-nav
19.99/$32.99 Frankly, were impressed. At half the price of bigger names, youd be forgiven for thinking that it had fewer features. In fact, this was one of our favourites. The basic route-finding functionality worked great, though it did try to take us up a road that was closed to cars at the time. We liked how, at the end of a journey, it asked us if we wanted to add another destination, and that it ducked background audio during spoken instructions. The user interface is gaudy, but well engineered to save on-screen clutter.
39.99/$69.99 This app was a real disappointment, even though its provision of maps Western Europe makes it seem like good value. Its not just that the interface is clumsy; it also fails in some pretty basic tasks. You cant enter postcodes, for example, making entering of destinations unwieldy. Although it was tested in the same circumstances as the others, it sometimes lost its satellite lock. Instructions were often confusing, and we had to take the iPhone out of our car kit to relaunch the app.
devices use a lot of power as well, of course but you dont expect your satnav to be ready to make calls and send emails when you get to your destination.
Kitted up
Happily, these problems can be easily solved, albeit at a price. The receptionboosting TomTom Car Kit may cost an eye-watering 99.95, but for our money its an essential purchase. The locking window-sucker, which is the same EasyPort device used in the current crop of TomTom sat-navs, is smart and reliable, and enables you to place the iPhone exactly where you want it. It lets the whole thing pivot through 360 degrees, so you can flip your iPhone easily into portrait or landscape orientation. (This has the bonus of allowing the power cable to trail the correct way; usually, right-hand drive cars have to double back the cable.) The Car Kit also has a built-in speaker: spoken sat-nav prompts have plenty of volume, although music sounds no more than workmanlike. You can use it for hands-free calling too it includes a microphone, and does a decent job. The only real drawback with the TomTom Car Kit is its price. Given that youre going to have to add a sat-nav app as well, its a costly proposition on top of the iPhone itself, given that you can get an all-in TomTom device for 120 or less.
If all of this sounds overly negative, its just because we want you to be aware of the drawbacks. The experience of using your iPhone as a sat-nav is generally excellent, especially if you invest in a proper car kit; and anything that means we have fewer individual
devices cluttering up our lives gets our vote. Its great to arrive at your destination with a fully charged battery, and unexpected perks such as the ability to navigate to contacts already synched to your device rather than laboriously entering them by hand is most welcome. Whats more, this is just the beginning. Although some apps use the iPhones wireless 3G internet connection to supply live traffic updates (a service you normally have to pay extra for), none of them really take advantage of the facility as much as they could. Were looking forward to
competition driving innovation, with price comparisons for nearby petrol stations and even local advertising promotions, giving you a discount for a local restaurant, for example. iOS 4s in-app purchasing is already leading to useful add-on services and features, and the pace of iPhone development means we shouldnt have to wait too long for much better sat-nav.
U-TURN No matter how efficient your GPS system is, theres bound to be the occasional error
The experience of using your iPhone as a sat-nav is generally excellent, especially, if you invest in a car kit
34.99/$59.99 The first GPS app to launch remains one of the best. The spoken and visual instructions are clear and helpful, and it gently ducks background music so voice prompts are clearly heard. A textto-speech engine effectively reads out road names. Annoyingly, though, postcode search is an extra 1.19 via in-app purchase, so you cant rely on inputting postcodes to get you to your destinations. Despite this, however, it made the best decisions about how to route us through Bath during our challenge.
29.99/$49.99 The strong, graphic interface of this app from Sygic is more than just cosmetic: its easy to follow the clear on-screen map. Its just a shame that the text in the menu systems and indeed even in the information bar at the bottom of the screen is on the small side, making its legibility poor. Happily, it does full postcode searching and contacts look-up, though it can struggle to parse non-standard addresses. It made one bad decision in our routing challenge, but it also picked a good route that no other app found.
42.99/$74.99 By far the most polished of the apps here, but also the most expensive, TomToms system feels like the app Apple itself would make. Menus are clear and data is easy to enter with copy and paste, while the crisp, reserved on-screen graphics are a joy. But although its capable of some brilliant insights about which route to take thanks to its IQ Routes technology, we assume, which knows at what time of the day certain roads are busy it did make a couple of bad mistakes in our route challenge. The 2011 iPhone app guide 63
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As well as this portrait view, 01 you can use TomTom in landscape orientation IQ Routes knows where and when congestion hits and it routes accordingly
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To stop the iPhones screen dazzling you at night, the screens brightness adjusts
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SATELLITE NAVIGATION
Doubtless the slickest sat nav app for the iPhone, but expensive; and the iPhone car kit costs 99.99
hile it took some time to welcome turn-by-turn sat nav devices to the list of gadgets the iPhone can transform into, thanks to term changes to the iPhone SDK there are now plenty of navigational apps to choose from the TomTom brand probably has the biggest cachet right now though. The app itself is superb. Its polished, very easy to use and features TomToms smart IQ Routes system, which changes its route recommendation at different times of the day, since it knows when particular roads get busy. Other facilities include being able to email a route to a contact, an emergency menu, Google powered search for local
businesses, and fuel efficient routes. Sure, there are things wed like to see added exploitation of the iPhones always-on data connection for fuel prices, for starters but its the slickest, most complete solution weve used. Its better than the cheaper Navigon offering, which is hampered by not enabling full postcode look-ups. Theres no doubt that its expensive, though, especially compared to, say, CoPilot Live. The dedicated car kit costs a further 99.95 and, while the handset itself is well made and offers a decent speaker, GPS chipset and hands-free facility, when youre talking about 180, youre talking about a lot of money to spend on an app and an accessory.
KEY INFO
UK price 79.99 US price $74.99 Web www.tomtom.com Download size 1.85GB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
SATELLITE NAVIGATION
Good, and good value, but lacking polish; auto-volume control would be useful
ygics Mobile Maps UK & Ireland satellite navigation app for the iPhone has a very distinctive look almost cartoon-like, almost like youre looking at someones mock-up of what a sat nav system could look like. You may or may not like the style of screen, but it does mean that some of the interface elements are rather small, and they can be tricky to read when driving. There are plenty of features it can do a full postcode search, and the view zooms in and out as your speed changes as you need to see less or more detail. You can quickly search for addresses for contacts in your iPhone, get advice on which lane you should be in, and you can even get updates on how the weather might affect your journey. The app doesnt, however, duck playing music to let spoken instructions be clearly heard, so thats down to manual control, and youre dependent on finding a good, powered cradle for your car.
KEY INFO
Download size 297MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 4.0 or later
CAR CARTOON The visuals are quite appealing but details are quite small
SATELLITE NAVIGATION
Some nice features, easy to follow maps and userfriendly interface; again, youll need a decent cradle
avigon might not be as recognisable a brand as Garmin or TomTom but it has a good pedigree. It contains maps for the whole of Europe a UK-only version is available for 53 so is a hefty 1.83GB. Before we pick away at the edges, its worth saying now that it works. The overall feel is, while theres room for improvement, Navigon has put a lot of effort into getting things right; the iPhone display toggles happily from portrait to landscape, you can easily find addresses for anyone on your contacts list, and theres the handy Points of Interest facility. So, the problems. Some are not the fault of the app itself;
youll need a cradle like Griffins WindowSeat, and the iPhones speaker is a little distortionprone at sufficient volumes for the spoken directions. GPS plus the always-on screen eats battery life so youll need a power adaptor. Then there are the app niggles; you can start music playing before launching the app, but it wont duck to let the spoken instructions stand out, and street names arent displayed in the 3D view. More seriously, you cant do full UK postcode look-ups, and theres no support for traffic updates, something that could easily be added (presumably for a cost) through the iPhones data connection.
BIRDS EYE VIEW The default aerial 3Dview helps you to get your bearings
KEY INFO
Download size 1.83GB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later The 2011 iPhone app guide 65
SATELLITE NAVIGATION
NICE STYLING This app was designed by a splinter group of Navigon developers
KEY INFO
Download size 3.5MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 4.0 or later
ne of the compelling reasons to choose a phone running Googles Android OS over an iPhone is that some recent models include free sat nav. There are many sat nav apps for the iPhone 3G or later but they can be expensive. Now, we have a free alternative. The ideas solid: the expensive thing in sat navs is the map data, but skobbler uses data from OpenStreetMap, a communitycreated map to which you are invited to contribute bug reports. While this keeps costs down, it does mean that map data can be sketchy or flat-out wrong especially in rural areas. The app itself isnt a multigigabyte download because it
downloads and caches maps as needed; great for low-capacity iPhones, but it does mean that you need a data connection to get going. The app itself is good; it was created by a splinter group of developers from Navigon, and it shows both in the styling and feature-set. You get good voice prompts (including text-tospeech renderings of road names) and, as well as the option of controlling iPod audio, automatic ducking of the background audio when voice prompts are given. Its not yet iOS 4-aware for background navigation, however. Address look-up is poor too, and there are no points of interest.
Its free, so it might do if youre stuck, but wed think twice about trusting it for crucial journeys
LOCATION SERVICES
Vicinity
GPS TRACKER
WHERE AM I? Somewhere new and need a sandwich? Vicinity can help you
UK price 1.79 US price $2.99 Web www.activeguru.co.uk Download size 0.4MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.2 or later
KEY INFO
ot yourself lost? Need to know where the nearest cashpoint is? Want a quick coffee? Just want to find out more about where you are? Vicinity is for you. Once it has a lock on your current location it will provide you with a list of nearby amenities cafes, pubs, restaurants, taxi firms, takeaways, petrol stations, etc and optionally give you Mapsbased directions to what you need. Its surprisingly detailed were used to these kinds of apps being very US-centric though it isnt infallible. Some excellent extra features really add to its appeal, like viewing geotagged pictures through Flickr or Panoramio.
Trails
rails main feature is to record your position as you travel and plot it on to a map so you can see where youve been. It records speed and distance covered, and can show the results itself or email a standard GPX file that you can import into any app designed to work with these trails, such as Google Earth. Unfortunately, once you factor in the GPS, its a real battery hog. Worse, its unstable, but the developers promise improvements. You can also use it with another app on your Mac to geotag photos you took on a separate camera as you walked your route; it just matches up the timestamps for you.
KEY INFO
Find your way around a new town or get street directions instantly
Record maps while youre out on a hike and share them with others
UK price 2.39 US price $3.99 Web trails.lamouroux.de Download size 3.4MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
RAIL INFORMATION
UK Train Times
4.99 Route planning and live departure boards
Fairly pricey, but if you commute by train or often go on long distance journeys, its very useful
hen using Britains rail system, you need to be able to plan journeys efficiently and anticipate delays as far in advance as possible. Well, information from the National Rail Enquiries website is now available straight from the horses mouth with this, the official iPhone application. (It will work on an iPod touch, but its dependence on Wi-Fi
STATION MASTER Built-in Google Maps help you locate the stations you need
hotspots limits its usefulness.) When you first launch it, the app will prompt you to set your home station based on your current location. (You also have the option to add other stations, as well as journeys.) Planning a journey is simple and the live departures board is useful, showing a summary of the departing trains and any delays, but also enabling you to tap on any service and see its progress. Frustratingly, theres no access to this information when you plan a journey, or indeed any way to access it when youre already on a train and want to check progress or upcoming stations, but the other features are truly useful. Our favourite feature is Next train home that looks up your nearest station and checks the time of the next train you can catch to your home station.
TIMETABLE Plan for a long trip or just check the time of the next train home
KEY INFO
Download size 2..8MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
CAR FINDER
Sally Park
TUBE PLANNER
PARK IT The app looks great but isnt really what youd call a pinpointer
UK price 0.59 US price $0.99 Web www.doseido.com Download size 1.7MB iPod touch compatible No Requires iOS 3.1 or later
KEY INFO
his is a great idea: whip out your iPhone when you park in one of those vast shopping centre car parks, let Sally Park use your 3GSs GPS to pinpoint its location, and then easily find your way back. Despite a lush design and the addition of handy parkingspecific features a note field to record your zone, say, and the ability to take a photo Sally Park isnt an especially good tool. That arrow doesnt really seem point you in the direction of your car; instead it merely points north. You tap an icon to bring up a map showing you and your cars location, but its no different to dropping a pin in Maps.
London Tube
A good idea, and lovely design, but the built-in Maps app is as useful
59p isnt much for a perfectly decent Tube map, but the app could be better
UK price 0.59 US price $0.99 Web www.presselite.com Download size 2.8MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.1 or later
KEY INFO
MIND THE APP The trip planner helps you determine your route
SURVIVAL MANUAL
KEY TO SURVIVAL Take Loftys app on your next expedition and it could help out
KEY INFO
Download size 188MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
Theres lots of good info here; its just not presented especially well
STARBUCKS COMPANION
MyStarbucks
FREE Fancy a coffee?
ATTRACTION FINDER
National Trust
COFFEE TO GO Not sure what to ask for in store? Create your ideal drink on your iPhone first
UK price Free US price Free Web www.starbucks.co.uk Download size 7.5MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.1 or later
KEY INFO
e feel odd featuring an app that pushes you towards one company, especially when that company is, for some, controversial. But the Starbucks app is so good, were making an exception. It lets you find nearby stores, showing opening times and facilities. Best of all, though, it lets you explore the drinks menu, customising to your hearts content, and, happily, then telling you what mochaventi-frappa-demi-cappu-tastic incantation you need. Nutritional info is shown, too, though not for highly customised ones. Wed like to see prices and Starbucks Card integration added.
ith 200 houses and almost 1,000 square miles of land, many people can find a National Trust property nearby. This app enables you to browse a map that will show you properties on a Google map or list properties in order of proximity. It can ping you out to the Maps app proper to get directions, and you can browse all properties as well. Its handy and well put together, but theres nothing in the app for National Trust members; wed like to have been able to store our membership details in the app so we didnt have to remember to take our cards.
UK price Free US price Free Web www.nationaltrust.org.uk Download size 6.2MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
KEY INFO
IN YOUR AREA The app will pinpoint you, then provide info on whats around
WEATHER FORECASTER
he built-in Weather app on the iPhone is perfectly good enough for getting a quick overview of what the weathers going to get up to over the next five days. But, saying that, Met Office Weather
3
A
Its not the most visually appealing app but the datas good, and it is free
POOR OUTLOOK The interface could be a little better styled for iPhone use
is an app thats really worth installing, and not just because its free. Because its the official app of the UK Meteorological Office, the datas as good as youre going to get. (Yes, its often a bit off; but, as youll know, the British weathers a particularly tricky thing to predict.) You get forecasts and animated satellite maps of weather patterns. However, the interface feels ugly and distinctly un-iPhonelike, and, while our experience was fine, some have reported instability. The app will offer to set your location automatically, but tends to dump you over in London regardless. However, fret not, as you can set your location manually. For a five-day forecast in your area to decide on the best day for a barbecue or if youre planning a hike, this could be the app for you.
MET DATA The forecast may not be good but at least you can trust it!
KEY INFO
Download size 2.7MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.2.1 or later
TRANSLATION TOOL
Talking Phrasebook
Google Earth
INTERACTIVE GLOBE
vailable in many languages, including French, German, Italian and Spanish, these phrasebooks give you essential lingo to get by abroad. Theyre not as polished as some offerings the Lonely Planet ones are considered comprehensive but theyre pretty good. There are key areas, such as Travel, Food and Accommodation to Shopping, Beaches, even Romance, and youre not just limited to trying to read text and guess pronunciation; each phrase has a native speaker so you can repeat the phrase or just hold your phone up and have it speak for you. Many of the phrasebooks are free via Lastminute.com.
KEY INFO
UK price Free/0.59 US price Free/$0.99 Web www.coolgorilla.com Download size 9.1MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
PARLEZ VOUS? These phrasebooks are a must if you have an iPhone and you travel
oogle Earth was an application born for the iPhone and its free! It presents you with a globe, letting you search for places, businesses and more. All the images are satellite and aerial shots, and you automatically get the most recent pictures. You can spin the view around with two fingers and tilt the phone to change the angle. Geotagged photo links are shown, along with links to Wikipedia articles about what youre looking at; its a great way to explore an unfamiliar city. You sometimes feel a bit lost, and its a little sluggish and occasionally crashy, but we love it nonetheless.
UK price Free US price Free Web www.google.com Download size 13.4MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
KEY INFO
M
72 76 84 88 94
ENJOY
Can an iPhone get you fit? Lifestyle & Leisure apps Social networking apps Media & Entertainment apps Research & Relaxation apps
obile phones have already transformed the way millions of us live, thanks to innovations such text messaging and pocketsized cameras. Now the iPhone is changing our habits and behaviour to an even greater extent, with an app for almost every occasion you can think of. You cant just send texts and emails: you can tweet to Twitter and chat via Instant Messaging. Theres also a wide selection of apps to enhance your lifestyle including, as youll discover over the page, apps that promise to make you fitter
ENJOY Fitness
echnologys great but its part of the reason waistlines are expanding. These days, many people do little physical work, and rely on cars rather than their legs for getting around. As a writer, Im immersed in technology daily, but my morning commute only involves going upstairs to my office. Unless I specifically make an effort to exercise, pounds gradually creep on, even if Im not shoving a chocolate bar in my face every night. Lately, exercise has taken a back seat, and Ive noticed myself becoming unfit.
So I decided to do something about it and to get technology to help rather than cause. Im going to find out if the iPhone can help me get fitter rather than fatter. Instead of spending time playing iPhone games, Ill spend a few weeks trying out exercise apps. Since the iPhones expensive, the decision was made to restrict my app budget to a crisp (well, digital) tenner on the App Store the sort of impulse purchase sum most people would be happy to spend to get in shape.
Exercise has taken a back seat, and Ive noticed myself becoming unfit Im going to find out if the iPhone can get me fitter rather than fatter
72 The 2011 iPhone app guide
Getting started
After researching options on the App Store, I decide on five apps: four exercise aids and one weight tracker. The most expensive, at 5.99, is RunKeeper Pro, a GPS tracker for walking, jogging and running. Using
iFIT The iPhone isnt just about gaming and streaming video: it can also help you plan your exercise regime and gauge your fitness levels
ENJOY Fitness
Before you start exercises, learn how best to perform them. For crunches and squats, the correct posture is important for good results and to avoid strain. Also, remember to warm up and down and stretch before and after runs and other exercise. Dont do stretches without warming up first: you can do your muscles more harm than good.
2 Exercise properly
STRETCH Warm up and down before and after exercise to reduce the risk of injury hell per fortnight. If you need encouragement to keep yourself motivated, GymFu apps send regular challenges, and RunKeeper has online integration that enables you to create a street team, which can include RunKeeper-using friends worldwide.
the magic of technology, it logs where you go and integrates readings and progress with an online account. At 59p each, GymFu apps CrunchFu, PushupFu and SquatFu are designed to train you over a couple of months to complete a number of reps 200 crunches, 100 push-ups and 200 squats, respectively in a single session. That might sound easy to fitness gurus, but my arms tried to make a break for it on hearing the number 100 followed by the word push-ups. My chosen weight tracker, Weightbot, is a 1.19 app with a fun, noisy interface: even if pounds arent shed, at least youll enjoy inputting your weight. Although Weightbot initially proves the most fun to tinker with, RunKeeper and the GymFu apps are engaging enough to get me excited about the prospect of using them for serious exercise. The GymFu apps in particular seem designed for newbies, providing information about how to do goodquality crunches, push-ups and squats. Along with mentioning warm-ups and stretches, they note you should take 48-hour breaks between training sessions to give your body time to recover. My plan therefore evolves
TICK LIST The four GymFu apps track your exercise and encourage your progress towards the ultimate target
Figure out how each app best works, and adapt your usage. RunKeeper is more accurate when your iPhone has Wi-Fi disabled, so use General section in the Settings app to turn Wi-Fi off before you run. As for the GymFu apps, you may find they work better when your device is held in a certain way, so practise before training properly.
My first attempt with RunKeeper involves several wow moments. The app gets a GPS fix in seconds, and I scoot off to the local park
to working with the GymFu apps and using RunKeeper on alternate days.
Exercise regime
Doing a load of exercise one day and then nothing for two weeks is a bad idea. 20 minutes per day beats three hours of
By all means buy a sports armband if you get heavily into exercising with your iPhone. But to begin, hold your device or put it in a pocket; or use elastic bands to strap the device to your arm if youre using PushupFu.
My first attempt with RunKeeper involves several wow moments. The app gets a GPS fix in seconds, and I scoot off towards the local park. Along the way, the app periodically barks my time and pace, and I can see how Im doing at any point via the welldesigned display. On returning home, the run is sent to the RunKeeper website; on logging in, its possible
to see my route within a Google Maps box, how elevation affected my speed, and how many calories Id used. I can also add my wife a long-time RunKeeper user to my street team. For the first time in a year, things are looking up for my sagging paunch. The following day with GymFu isnt so smooth, however. Ive tested CrunchFu before, but not the other apps, and it takes a while before I figure out how to best hold the iPhone so the apps dont keep barking Half! at me for incomplete reps. In the end, having the iPhone in my pocket for SquatFu works well, and holding my iPhone at a slight angle on my thumbs during crunches works better than having it at my chest. Over the following week, my routine continues with the occasional slip. Its during this time that RunKeepers one failing becomes apparent; although it
TAKE TIME Dont rush your reps: your form will suffer and the speed wont make you any fitter HARD GRAPH Weightbot enables you to view how your weight has fluctuated over the year, and whether youre on target
Fitness ENJOY
RunKeeper Pro
RUN CLUB RunKeepers online service keeps your info safe and makes it shareable with members of your group
provides weekly and monthly totals (activities, distance, time, calories), its not obvious how youre progressing if you stick to the same route and distance every day. By comparison, after a few days GymFus apps graph your reps from training and battles, which come via Twitter from the GymFu Fubot and, very sporadically, real humans across the globe. (You can challenge others by score or max reps, but I find in practice that few battle requests are answered.) Having a graph detailing progress is really encouraging and definitely spurs me on. RunKeeper falls further by the wayside as the weather dramatically
GymFus founders reckon that 40 per cent of people double their reps, and I can already comfortably do twice as many push-ups
deteriorates, but this simply demonstrates to me the importance of having a set of apps that enable indoors and outdoors exercise. And my effort in GymFu increases, even if my overall exercise level drops. A few weeks have passed since I began this experiment. Weightbot stubbornly refuses to say Im at my target weight; in fact, it doesnt think Ive lost more than a rounding error. But before this experiment is chalked up as a failure and I start eating too many Jaffa Cakes again, it should be noted that Im
Work in progress
exercising regularly for the first time in nearly a year and thats mostly down to the iPhone apps. Admittedly, Im a sucker for graphs and games, and seeing a downward trend in GymFu or an upward trend in Weightbot gets me doubly motivated to reverse them. Surprisingly, GymFus Twitter challenges also help, since my brain doesnt seem to realise that theyre (mostly) automated. Ive noticed changes in my basic fitness, too. GymFus founders reckon that 40 per cent of people double their reps after starting to use one of their apps, and I can already comfortably do twice as many push-ups and squats as when I first started. Granted, hitting the final GymFu targets is a long way off, but now Im confident that Ill eventually get there. Although RunKeeper isnt in the mix as much as Id like (due to my ongoing wuss out of running because of the rain syndrome), I now use it to track dog walks rather than just runs, and challenge myself to beat my walking times much to my dogs annoyance, it seems. So while Im not going to be running the London Marathon any time soon or joining an athletics team, I have got started on the path to better fitness, for the kind of money thats less than a weeks membership at my local gym. And whats more, I still have the princely sum of 1.05 left over to spend on a Mars bar. Er, protein bar. To spend on a protein bar
www.gymfu.com 0.59 per app The GymFu range comprises four apps: one each for crunches, pushups, squats and pull-ups. Each app provides tips on how to exercise, training routines, a graph showing progress and a way to challenge people. Voice packs are available if you fancy switching Fubot for a grizzled sarge or strict missy.
www.tapbots.com 1.19 There are various ways to track your weight a pad and Biro pen, Excel, the Notes app but only Weightbot makes it fun. The metallic interface is engaging and emits cute noises. Rotate your device one way to view your weight goal; rotate it the other to see your progress over time. Imperial and metric options are available.
Weightbot
Groceries
SHOPPING LIST
PACKAGE TRACKER
RETAIL THERAPY Organise your products into aisles and you can easily reorder them
UK price 1.19 US price $1.99 Web www.sophiestication.com Download size 8.2MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
KEY INFO
dd items to your Groceries shopping list jot things down as you think about them throughout the week and it automatically sorts them into aisles for you. As you walk round the store, tap items to mark them as got. The list of products isnt especially UK-friendly, but you can easily add your own, and we love that you can assign quantities (number, weight and so on) and also add notes to items. You can reorder the aisles to match your favourite supermarkets layout and create multiple lists. Shopping lists can be emailed and items marked as favourites. A calculator would be handy though
urrah for Delivery Status touch, Mike Pionteks iPhone version of the Dashboard widget that weve been using for years. It plugs into the delivery systems for Amazon, Apple, FedEx, Parcelforce, Royal Mail, UPS, USPS and more, and consolidates all your deliveries onto one screen. The level and precision of detail varies depending on the carrier, but you can simply tap the left-hand part of each line to flip up the page, Mapsstyle, to reveal the full tracking site; some even offer map tracking. It does sync with the Delivery Status Desktop widget, but wed like a Safari bookmarklet to make adding items a whole lot easier.
KEY INFO
Is it necessary? No. Does it make the weekly shop less stressful? Yes
Attractive and functional, recent updates make this app even better
UK price 2.99 US price $4.99 Web www.junecloud.com Download size 1.9MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
FINAL COUNTDOWN The main view counts down until your estimated delivery date
Limits
DATA TRACKER
AMAZON STOREFRONT
UK price 1.19 US price $1.99 Web www.juicycocktail.com Download size 0.1MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
KEY INFO
imits is essentially a system that can track anything quantifiable. The idea is simple: create a new tracking task, give it a limit or target, depending on how youre thinking about the task then enter the units youll be measuring in. Now all you need to do is enter your values hours worked, weight gain (or loss; negative values are allowed), whatever. Limits shows a simple bar to illustrate how close to your target you are. Its a decent system, though youre forced to think laterally about how to frame your limits, and you cant edit or remove items from the history or export the results.
Amazon Mobile UK
Flexible, but inelegant; even at this low price its a little expensive
UK price Free US price Free Web www.amazon.co.uk Download size 2.5MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.2.1 or later
KEY INFO
NEVER FORGET Amazon Remembers identifies products when youre out and about
BILL SPLITTER
Bistromath
T
It goes beyond anally retentive, but does a tricky job with elegance. A little US-centric, however
KEY INFO
Download size 0.6MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.1.2 or later
Tipulator
TIP CALCULATOR
A QUICK TIP The app now supports multitasking on newer iPhone models
UK price 0.59 US price $0.99 Web www.sophiestication.com Download size 1.2MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
KEY INFO
e dont obsess so much about tip calculators in the UK as our American friends, but this one is so pretty and well designed that were happy to feature it. There are free ones that do the same thing, but we love the attention that has been lavished here. There are options for adding percentage tips that are rounded up, down or left exact, and you can split the bill however you like. It picks up your localised currency automatically, based on your iPhones regional settings. Theres also a checksum/ palindrome function, to help you avoid fraudulent bills.
UK Cinema Times
CINEMA LISTINGS
ou could use a web app to find out whats on at the flicks, but this app has both flair and responsiveness. Pick a cinema from a list, or tap to display those close to you, and youll see the films and their times. Tap through and you can see a short description, a poster and even watch a trailer in some cases. The data isnt that detailed you cant see which performances are subtitled, for example. But you can tap on the phone number of the cinema to call it. Also, you cant tell the app what film you want to see and have it suggest local times. Updated graphics for the iPhone 4 are due soon.
A fast app, but it should be able to work from the film of your choice
UK price 0.59 US price $0.99 Web www.raptorapps.com Download size 1.1MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
KEY INFO
EN ROUTE Get your local cinema details and directions via Google Maps
FILE SERVER
WeightBot
o, as 2010 draws to a close, will you keep your new years resolutions? Luckily, the iPhone is here to help. This little app is designed to do one very simple thing: track your weight. Its not using your iPhone to weigh you we recommend you dont stand on small pieces of expensive consumer electronics so youll still need a set of scales. You can put your weight in up to once a day and then see your stats plotted on a graph, so you can gauge whether the general trend is up or down. You can get year-long and day-long graphs too, so you can see your performance over particular date ranges. You can set a target weight too, so that you have something to aim for. Once you input your height, the app will calculate your BMI Body Mass Index. This is a handy
KEEPING TRACK You can enter your weight in either kilos or stones and pounds
KEY INFO
Download size 5.4MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
way to categorise yourself as either ideal, overweight, underweight, or obese. It forecasts too, based on how much weight youre gaining or losing on average. So youll be able to see when, if you keep going the way you are, you will achieve your target weight. It uses the calculated average, so blips are ironed out. If youre trying to lose or gain weight by a particular date then its ideal. What really makes it stand out for us is the polish. Its a very pretty application, and feels very well thought-out. Entering a new weight is as simple as scrolling left or right to pick the day (today is selected by default) tapping the screen, dialling in your weight, then tapping again to save. You can edit weights or pick a day and shake to remove it entirely if youre feeling too guilty.
A beautiful, well rounded and well featured app, with passcode lock and remote secure backup
UNIT CONVERTER
Units
UNIT CONVERTER
GET JIGGY Simply shake to clear the screen and perform a new sum
UK price 0.59 US price $0.99 Web crossroad-solutions.com Download size 3.3MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.1.3 or later
KEY INFO
his is a useful little unit converter with support for area, currency, energy, temperature, time, length, weight, speed, volume and more. You can store three of your common calculations as shortcuts on dedicated buttons at the right, but there are buttons to help switch different units on the fly without having to flip the calculator round. We cant help but think the very pretty calculator skin isnt the most efficient UI paradigm, but its cheap. You can calculate a wide range of useful sums, such as the carbon dioxide emissions of your car. And currencies are automatically downloaded every day.
Convertbot
hile we love Units (see review on left), this fairly new tool is nothing if not charming. The interface is stunning, although its not the most efficient way of picking unit types and units themselves. Regardless, its pleasant to use; rotate the dial to pick currency, weight, area or whatever, then tap to pick the from and to units; then enter the value you want to convert. We found some more unusual units arent supported you cant convert hectares, for instance, and the currency list is small. Still, these could be added later, and in most circumstances youll be satisfied with the supported units.
Handy, but check the supported units if you need unusual ones
UK price 1.19 US price $1.99 Web www.tapbots.com Download size 4.4MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
KEY INFO
01
03
04
View your monthly expense 01 mileage and see whats left in the tank You can just as easily discover what youve been spending the most on
02
02
You can add little reminder notes to specific expense entries on the fly
04
UK price 1.79 US price $2.99 Web www.designbyaknife.com Download size 0.7MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.2 or later
KEY INFO
Pennies
1.79 Keep track of what youre spending in style!
he App Store is stuffed full of apps designed to help you track business expenses, but this one is a bit different. Pennies is designed to help you keep track of how much money youve spent from your personal bank accounts in a given month particularly important in these challenging financial times. You set yourself a budget and this is one of our only gripes as it can be hard to set the amount using the slider input method provided; wed have rather seen a plain keypad. Then every time you spend any money, you simply fire up Pennies, tap once to add an expense, enter the amount with a keypad, and pick the appropriate
expense category. You have the option of General, Food, Amusement, Travel, Household, Auto, Hobby, Personal, Electronics and Groceries, and while you may prefer the ability to define custom categories, were happy that the presets cover all the day-to-day outgoings youll need. How much money is left in your budget for that month is then shown on a simply fuel gauge-style display. In addition, the home page display shows you how much youve spent per day, and also identifies the top three things youve spent your money on so far. Each individual expense can have a note linked to it if you need to add extra details, and those expenses that have
a note attached in the expenses list are shown with a paperclip icon. There are only two minor criticisms; firstly, that you cant backdate any entries that you forget to enter on the correct day. Frustratingly, you also cant edit any of your existing expenses if youve made a mistake, so any incorrect entries have to be completely deleted and re-entered. Its a really slick application, and the ease with which you can enter transactions is commendable; handily, if youre travelling it also supports , $ and . Most convenient for when youre out and about, Pennies is a cracking little app, and we have no hesitation in recommending it.
A great way to keep track of your spending, and analyse your habits. The interface looks gorgeous, too
PERFORMANCE MONITOR
Awards
A
n app thats handy for using both at home and at work, using Awards you can track achievements for your children, workforce and more. With a range of tasks people around you have to complete from washing up and walking the dog, to completing a presentation and training a new employee youll find this invaluable for business and leisure. You begin by adding people from your Contacts list, which is handy since it means its easy to issue any awards theyve earnt to the email addresses saved on these entries. You then go on to award gold stars for any achievements. You can either add them manually or tap a task from the built-in list of Events and Awards tidied room or handed work in ahead of deadline, for example.
ON TRACK You can view Award details for each person in the system
KEY INFO
Download size 0.3MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
A handy, pretty system, but theres optimisation and enriching work to be done
AUCTION TRACKER
eBay Mobile
KEEP BIDDING Monitor all your watched items as the auctions near their end
UK price Free US price Free Web www.ebay.co.uk Download size 3.1MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.1 or later
KEY INFO
irst, the bad news: you cant use this app to create listings something wed like to have seen given the iPhones built-in camera but a recent update means you can now use it to pay for won items. The listing limitation is still irksome to say the least. Otherwise, its a great way to browse and search eBays auctions. Results can be filtered in the usual way, but mainly its a way to keep track of auctions youre involved in, either as a buyer or seller. The home screen summarises what youre watching, buying and selling just tap a button for a more detailed rundown of the auctions youre involved in.
eBay Selling
he joy of eBay is really how fast and efficient it is at listing items for sale. This has just got even faster with eBays latest iPhone app which uses the in-built barcode scanner to make listing an item a one-click process. As you might expect it doesnt include the full selling options from the website, but you can use the iPhone camera to snap your product, then upload it straight to the eBay website. Also, with iOS 4.0 you can also use the barcode scanner to identify items while out and about to see if theres any of those items for sale on eBay. A worthy addition for any keen iPhoneowning eBayer.
A handy way to keep tabs on activity but you cant list from here
UK price Free US price Free Web www.ebay.co.uk Download size 4.3MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.1 or later
KEY INFO
SCAN IT! Make use of your iPhones camera to sell and look up items on eBay
eScrap App
S
A fun interactive app, and some of the issues can be addressed with updates
CREATE AND SHARE You can share your creations via Twitter or Facebook
KEY INFO
Download size 96.6MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
SIMPLE CALENDAR
Years
BIRTHDAY REMINDER
DAYS GONE BY Relive the days of attaching a year-to-view calendar in your little black book
UK price 1.19 US price $1.99 Web www.zicronsoftware.com Download size 0.3MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 30 or later
KEY INFO
eres a sweet take on a calendar, with a less is more slant. You may be unlikely to abandon the built-in Calendar with its reams of scheduling and multi-calendar support, but yearn for the days when you marked birthdays, work and holidays by breaking out your highlighters. Years is one little app that will bring back those functions. Flip back and forth to show an entire years worth of dates on a mini calendar, then tap on a month to add highlights. You can choose from four different highlights, and once youve picked one, just tap on dates to mark them. Thats it! And at this price, it cant be knocked.
Occasions
ou may have trouble remembering the birthdays of family and friends, and Occasions promises to help. It integrates with Contacts, and automatically pulls in dates from the birthdays field. Even better, you can sign into your Facebook account and pull in the information from it too, as well as adding optional secular and religious dates. Best of all, if a birthday has the year of birth associated with it, Occasions will tell you their age, too. It does push notifications too, though wed like a better way of telling Occasions to give us, say, a weeks warning so we had time to buy a present.
No tie-in with Calendar and you cant add notes, but its charming
Its a bit complicated and needs polish, but its good, and cheap
UK price 0.59 US price $0.99 Web www.occasionsapp.com Download size 4.7MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
KEY INFO
PLAN AHEAD Via your Contact info, Occasions can remind you of your mums birthday
TimeTuner
he idea of using your iPhone or iPod touch as a clock radio isnt particularly original, but we like this little app because it manages to pack so much in but at the same time feels elegant and useful. Designed to sit vertically in a powered dock (such as a speaker system), it displays a clock that shows any alarms you have set plus, optionally, the time in your home time zone; its a boon for travellers. Tap the screen once and everything but the time display slides away. You can set multiple alarms and have them trigger on specific days. Opt for either an alarm sound or for it to open an internet radio station. Usefully, you can define a backup sound in this latter case so that if it cant pick up the station you defined, it still wakes you up with the alternative alarm.
SWEET DREAMS Wake up and fall asleep to your favourite radio station
KEY INFO
Download size 9.8MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.1.3 or later
Its also possible to listen to the radio at any time, or to hook into your iPods playlists to play your music through the app. A clever, unobtrusive slider at the bottom of the app will set a sleep timer that counts down so you can fall asleep to music. Sadly, the only browsing option is by playlist, so its hard to listen to podcasts or audiobooks. Although BBC radio stations are available through the service that provides the internet radio for TimeTuner, they dont actually show up in the app (with the exception of the World Service), presumably because they use an incompatible codec. The app needs to be running for alarms to sound. However, were paranoid, and always kept a backup alarm in Clock, although TimeTuner seemed stable, as well as clean and attractively designed.
Despite the BBC absence and some other glitches, TimeTuner is a recommended purchase
FlipTime
DESK CLOCK
ALARM CLOCK
ON A ROLL Watch time tick by with this retro clock and calendar
UK price 0.59 US price $0.99 Web www.omletworks.com Download size 1.5MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.2 or later
KEY INFO
he App Store isnt short on clock apps, but with SpoonJuices Night Stand being downloaded more than three million times, theres clearly an appetite. This one caught our eye, and though its hardly the most feature-packed app ever developed, its cheap and charming. Its essentially a software version of an old flip clock. As the seconds, minutes, hours and days march past, the cards flick down to update and all with a satisfying (though optional) clack. It overrides your auto-lock settings too, so you can dock it and use it as a sweet clock for your desk or bedside.
iHome+Sleep
UK price Free US price Free Web www.ihomeintl.com Download size 7.5MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.2 or later
KEY INFO
MR SANDMAN Track your sleeping habits so you can see how much shuteye youre getting
Remote
ITUNES REMOTE
Sky+
TAKE CONTROL You can create and edit the playlists, including your Genius playlists
UK price Free US price Free Web www.apple.com Download size 14.8MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.1.2 or later
KEY INFO
his is a remote control for iTunes and Apple TV. So long as the iPhones connected to the same network, you can just click the iPhone entry under Devices in the iTunes sidebar. You have full access to all the media on the connected Mac including all playlists, and it even pulls the album art across to your iPhone screen as well. A bonus if you use Apple TV is that you can use the iPhones keyboard to type onscreen, then tap to play, pause, rewind and fast-forward. The updates in version 2 include support for shared libraries in iTunes and Apple TV, and compatibility with the retina display.
ouve been able to remote record on your Sky+ box via a text message or the web for a while now; this iPhone app enables you do the same from your iPhone. Its quick and the searchable TV guide worked without a hitch. Once youve found a program to record, click on it, tap R and the instruction is sent to your Sky+ box via the Remote Record setup. The interface has been updated from the clunky original; the TV guide graphics are improved and you can choose between landscape and portrait modes. It also includes an HD section, and you can save your favourite channels.
With typical Apple panache, this remote control is a big hit at parties
Functional and easy to use, and the update has improved its appearance
UK price Free US price Free Web www.sky.com Download size 1.3MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
KEY INFO
DOUBLE UP Make use of the Other Airings option to avoid recording clashes
AirPhones
BARCODE SCANNING
CHECK COMPATIBILITY Try the free Lite version of the app to test functionality before you buy
UK price 1.79 US price $2.99 Web www.airphonesapp.com Download size 0.2MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
KEY INFO
ireless headphones can be pricey, so were glad to see this cheap app that turns your iPhone or iPod touch into a wireless audio receiver. Just plug in some headphones or dock it and your iPhone becomes a speaker set. It needs a server app to run on an Intel Mac or, soon, a PowerPC Mac and PC, but once thats running they discover each other instantly. It claims to need a Core Duo, but we ran it on a 1.5GHz Intel Core Solo, with only a little stuttering when changing volume. There were occasional latency issues, too, but this was only when watching video. A free trial version is also available.
RedLaser
canning barcodes may be a geeky kind of fun, but it also has the potential to save you a packet. RedLaser works by using your iPhones camera to read a barcode and then asking the net for matching prices. But, surprisingly, results are more competent on the original iPhone, over the 3GS. Results from Amazon are prioritised, but it also uses Google Product Search to match results from other vendors. Its parsing of the barcode is flawless, though the back-end systems from Amazon and Google sometimes fail. Overall, however, it can save a fair bit of cash.
Harsh on the battery, but adds a handy string to your iPhones bow
UK price Free US price Free Web www.redlaser.com Download size 2.2MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.1 or later
KEY INFO
QUICK SCAN Now part of Amazon, this is an incredibly useful free iPhone app
MULTI-PROTOCOL IM
Meebo
W
ith everyone focused on Twitter, its easy to forget that instant messaging is still around and still popular. However, IM on the iPhone has always seemed a bit pointless to us. Its not just that the flow of conversation can be interrupted by having to peck out a message on the iPhones on-screen keyboard, but, much more importantly, because older iPhones inability to run apps in the background had meant that unless you kept your IM app open on the screen, youd be offline and unreachable. Meebo changes that, because it uses the push notifications framework that Apple introduced in iPhone OS 3.0. Rather than apps running in the background, Apple maintains a persistent connection with your iPhone over Wi-Fi or the mobile network, and developers can
FREE CHAT Meebo stays connected so you can receive messages at any time
KEY INFO
Download size 5.7MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.1.3 or later
Suddenly, IM on the iPhone becomes useful. Can get a bit messy with lots of accounts, though
AIM
INSTANT MESSENGER
IM & SKYPE
TEXT ALERT You can also send a message to a contact via SMS
UK price Free US price Free Web www.aim.com Download size 5.7MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
KEY INFO
lthough this IM client from AOL is limited you can only add one account and it is, of course, limited to AIM and .Mac/ MobileMe sign-ins it is slick and easy to use. Unfortunately theres no tie-in with your address book on the iPhone so all your contacts are shown by their screen names; you can, at least, add new buddies, and it connects to your Facebook friends too. It proved a little more crashprone that wed have liked, but unchecking then resyncing sorted it out. Updates have also reduced this occurrence. A version without any adverts is available, for 1.79 ($2.99).
Fring
UK price Free US price Free Web www.fring.com Download size 18.6MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
KEY INFO
MULTIPLE CHOICE If you use a SIP service for VoIP as well, it enables you to hook into that
TWITTER CLIENT
An app that repays the time you spend exploring it; a firm favourite for fans of tweeting
e were thrilled when the cuddly folk at The Iconfactory brought us Twitterrific the first proper iPhone Twitter client. But, recently, its simplicity in the face of burgeoning competition was beginning to hurt it. However, Twitterrific 3.0 has now arrived with a beefed-up features list, including the ability to control the font size. At first glance, it looks less rich and more complicated. We recommend watching the tweetorials at twitterrific.com/ iphone/tweetorials. Even some of the really cool and basic stuff conversation threading and profile lookups need to be
configured via the settings. The interface is lovely, though, and the Twitterrific model your tweets, mentions and messages colour-coded and all in the same view feels completely natural. You can also filter the list (temporarily only) to show favourites, mentions and more. And theres now finally support for multiple accounts, trends and searches. Theres little Twitterific cant do, although reposting between accounts can be a bit tricky. But it has so many neat little touches that, taken together, make it a real joy to use for avid tweeters. A free ad-supported version is also available.
UNIFIED SCREEN The display shows replies, retweets, direct messages and more
KEY INFO
Download size 6.6MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
Birdhouse
TWITTER NOTEPAD
PLAN AHEAD Prepare your tweets as drafts and edit before you publish
UK price 1.19 US price $1.99 Web www.birdhouseapp.com Download size 0.7MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
KEY INFO
t first glance, the Birdhouse app might seem pointless. If you thought Twitter was vague, indulgent and useless, look away now; Birdhouse is a notepad designed to enable you to draft multiple notes for Twitter and publish them when you choose. Frankly, we think the idea has some merit; you may not always want to publish immediately to check facts or spellings, for example or you might want to organise thoughts for multiple accounts. As it stands, this app performs its stated function well. You can rate drafts and even unpublish notes that were added from Birdhouse.
TWITTER CLIENT
KEY INFO
A well executed app, but dedicated to a task few people will need
This lacks push notifications coming soon, were told but it has all the basics
The 2011 iPhone app guide 85
IPHONE JOURNAL
Momento
he idea of keeping a proper diary has tremendous appeal; if you blog youll know the joy of wandering through old posts, wallowing in the nostalgia of past highs and lows, and learning from your mistakes. It all takes effort, though. Momento is a brilliant little idea, allying the idea of a traditional journal with modern notions of metadata and social networks. Its all wrapped up in a smart interface for a device that you carry with you everywhere. You can input diary entries easily, even retrospectively, and each entry can have a slew of metadata associated with it, such as a rating, people tagged from your contacts database, places, pictures and more. You can browse your events in a list, though frustratingly you cant go directly from one day to the next
KEY INFO
Download size 2.7MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
without tapping back to the overview then back in again to another day. You must use the calendar view, or drill down by place, people or tags. The brilliance, though, is that it hooks into four social networks, automatically pulling in tweets, Facebook statuses, pictures on Flickr and tracks youve loved on Last.fm. Even if its not opened for days, itll look back through activity on these accounts and add any updates made in the intervening period. A system of icons and numbers beside each days entry shows you what sources are pulled in. Momento is making good use of Flickrs API to pull in the picture itself. Its not so smart as to parse in pictures posted on Twitter to popular services such as Twitpic in the body of tweets, and doesnt make any links tappable. Still, a terrific idea.
A lovely mix of traditional diary and modern social network and metadata integration
FACEBOOK CLIENT
UPCOMING CLIENT
IN THE LOOP Status updates can be refreshed by pulling down at the top of the screen
UK price Free US price Free Web www.facebook.com Download size 3.5MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
KEY INFO
acebooks iPhoneoptimised website is one of the best around, so we had high hopes for the native application. Its certainly faster than the web app, and it feels slicker and more consistent with the iPhones user interface. Theres a dedicated photo capture button that can upload your photos directly to Facebook. The push notification server has now been rolled out too, making it even better, and Facebook Chat enables you to message anyone on your Friends list. Places is currently only available in the US, but should be compatible with UK accounts in the next update.
Happening
This latest version adds even more functionality to a top iPhone app
Little to criticise about the app, but it relies on data that can be patchy
UK price 1.19 US price $1.99 Web www.happening-app.com Download size 1.0MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
KEY INFO
KEEPING BUSY Check full details and a list of wholl be attending for each event
POSTCARD MAKER
Postman
1.79 Send an instant postcard from your iPhone
A nice idea, executed with charm and polish; you may prefer the alternative Postage app, however
ostman makes little virtual postcards on your iPhone, and enables you to share them using Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, email and more. You can snap a shot with your iPhones camera, load up a saved photo or choose from a small catalogue of stock landmark shots or even grab your current location on a map in Map, Satellite or Hybrid view, and then add some text. Flip it over on to the back and you can write in a message; you can also disable the front or back. The interface is lovely, and theres a range of themes you can add. Changing the text size, style and colour is easy, but at the moment you cant resize images coming soon, though. You can now tap and drag text to reposition it anywhere on the card, and use a slider for text resizing. Its easy to share your cards too, but theres currently no way to send directly via MMS; you have to save it as a photo, then MMS that instead.
KEY INFO
Download size 8.7MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
GET CREATIVE Design your postcard using a range of styles or take a camera snapshot!
Skype
A great improvement on the earlier versions of the app; it now works on 3G and with multitasking
n the Mac and PC, Skype enables you to make free voice and video calls to other Skype users, and to make calls to regular landlines for mere pence its great for international calls. Despite the initial incompatibilities, on the iPhone version you can now make calls over 3G, as well as when youre in range of a Wi-Fi hotspot. You still cant make VoIP calls over the cellular mobile network, however. Skype also has an instant messaging service system, which works well you can message individuals or more than one person at once. Older iPhones dont allow apps to run in the background. With the newer multitasking models, however, you can still be contacted by your Skype callers while other tasks are
running on the iPhone, or when its turned off and locked. Another issue has been fixed too; previously unless you had stored all your contact numbers in international format, Skype wouldnt recognise them as it automatically starts each number with +44. 01225 442244, for example, converts to +4401225 442244 and that zero would cause the call to fail. This has been resolved, and calls are made with no problems. While the long-promised notification server is now out, Skype still doesnt use it yet. Any missed calls or messages are simply listed on a red New Events badge on the tab for the particular missed event. Despite this small niggle, its a great app. Add a microphone to a second generation or above iPod touch and it also enables you to make calls over Wi-Fi.
FREE CALLS Call other Skype users for free, or save money on landline calls
KEY INFO
Download size 7.4MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later The 2011 iPhone app guide 87
MOBILE TV
SlingPlayer Mobile
17.99 Watch live TV on your iPhone over Wi-Fi
KEY INFO
Download size 9.8MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
ook up a SlingBox Solo or Pro to your home network and TV equipment, and it takes your television signal, encodes it, and streams it over the internet. Then install this app on your iPhone or iPod touch to do the same. SlingBoxes integrate with almost any domestic television equipment Sky+, Apple TV, cable boxes and can control them remotely. But the set-up is expensive: its 130 for a SlingBox Solo, rising to 250 for the Pro-HD model, plus the cost of this app and your internet access. On an iPod touch you can only receive broadcasts over Wi-Fi, but on the iPhone 3G, 3GS or 4 you can also now use 3G. The quality is good and solid, but the interface is sparse to the point of confusing you have to swipe across to see more options and channelchanging is sluggish. The fact that you can stream over 3G on compatible iPhones, however, is a great addition.
4
Live TV on your iPhone sounds great, but this is pricey cheaper alternatives are available
EYETV CONTROLLER
EyeTV
P
KEY INFO
Download size 2.6MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.1.2 or later
Theres little wrong with the app, though bandwidth can make the experience quite frustrating
TV STREAMING SERVICE
If it worked on 3G it would be better of course, but even now its a brilliant iPhone app
ky Sports is pretty expensive a subscription costs 20-40. With Mobile TV Sport for iPhone, all of Skys Sports channels (Sky Sports 1, 2, 3, Xtra and News) plus ESPN, At the Races and Sky News, are available to watch on Apples device. And you dont even have to have Sky Sports at home all you pay is a 6 per month subscription. Curently if you already have Sky Sports 1&2 at home then viewing is free with this app and then just 5 per month from January 2011. Compared to regular Sky Sports, the app is cheaper. Obviously you dont have the channel choice this is just
news and sport, and unless you have an Apple Component AV cable, youre limited to the small screen. But you do get all the live Premiership and Football League games from Sky and ESPN, as well as cricket and tennis. The other app, Sky Sports Live Football Score Centre is free and is the perfect companion for any footy fan on the move, with live scores and commentary, The electronic programme guide is well put together you can see whats on now and next, and by hitting the arrow next to the listing, you can browse whats on in the next 12 hours. When youre watching, picture quality is incredible!
SKY PLAYER Use your iPhone to watch a variety of events from Sky Sports
KEY INFO
Download size 1.3MB/1.7MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
RadioTimes
TED
INSPIRATIONAL TALKS
UK price 2.99 US price $4.99 Web radiotimes.click365.tv Download size 0.9MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.0 or later
KEY INFO
hile the programme guide in the Sky+ app doubles as a listings guide, its not ideal if you only have terrestrial TV. Its time to put the queen of listings in the palm of your hand You can tell it what channels you have and preset them, or you can scroll through by channel or time, read a description with RT ratings, and search for the show on Wikipedia, YouTube and iPlayer. You can even mark shows as favourites to create a schedule for yourself. Its a little sluggish, and sometimes confusing, but it has a good help system, and you can build customised channel groups.
UK price Free US price Free Web www.motherapp.com Download size 1.6MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
KEY INFO
he annual TED conference brings together smart people from all kinds of disciplines. This app lists all the talks available for you to watch, wherever and whenever you want. The videos are streamed to your iPhone, and will happily play over the mobile network; you just might have to be a little patient as they buffer. The app itself is fairly basic the running times arent listed and theres no way to mark your already-listened-to talks as watched, although you can select favourite episodes. We really cant complain though, as both the app and the talks on offer here are free, and theyre simply brilliant.
Some of the most brilliant minds, in the most inspiring talks, for free
The 2011 iPhone app guide 89
INTERNET RADIO
TuneIn Radio
SUITS YOU Pause and rewind live radio to listen at your convenience
KEY INFO
Download size 8.2MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
hile there are plenty of internet radio apps for the iPhone, youd be hard pressed to find one as fully featured as TuneIn Radio. Yet despite its bells and whistles, the interface doesnt feel cluttered in fact its very Apple-like, showing a logo for the station with a mirrored reflection which, when tapped, reveals some artwork for your currently playing artist. The interface also makes it easy to browse stations by genre, bookmark your favourites, and visit the artist station for the current artist on Last.fm or buy their music on iTunes. In addition, you can pause live streams for 30 minutes, rewind and fast forward, or record any station you like to listen to it later. You can set a station to wake you up in the morning and help you
drift off at night with the sleep timer, or you can get it to play in the background while you use other apps. TuneIn Radio gets around Apples multitasking ban on older iPhones and the iPod touch by opening the stream in the Safari browser. This means you cant use Safari to browse at the same time while doing this, but the app does contain its own basic web browser. TuneIn Radio makes use of the Radio Time directory, with over 30,000 stations. At the same time it makes it easy to find the better stations. It also knows your location and can find local radio stations with ease. Playback on Wi-Fi, EDGE and 3G was flawless. There are many other radio apps on the App Store, but at this price TuneIn Radio offers great features in a slick interface.
A wonderful implementation of internet radio on the iPhone. Well worth every penny
RADIO STREAMER
MUSIC PLAYBACK
ON THE MOVE Stream high-quality internet radio from your iPhone to your car stereo
UK price 2.99 US price $4.99 Web www.nullriver.com Download size 0.3MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.2 or later
KEY INFO
ffering radio for your iPhone, this handy little app lists thousands of radio stations that are broadcasting on the web, broken down by genres such as Classical, Dance/Electronic and Golden Oldies. You can bookmark your favourites, search, browse the top 500 as decided by whom, it doesnt say or add your own streams. The interface is clean and simple, and because many of the streams will play even over EDGE, youre never, in theory, short of something to listen to. Its a great partner to Last.fm. Its also now been updated to work with multitasking on newer iPhones.
KEY INFO
Supports AAC+, MP3, PLS and M3U streams, but sadly no BBC content
UK price 0.59 US price $0.99 Web atticapp.com Download size 3.8MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
LOOKING GOOD The attractive interface makes it an alternative to the iPhones built-in music player
MUSIC SERVICE
Spotify
G
The app and service work well, but you may balk at a tenner a month with nothing to keep
one are the days when you had to take your music around with you on tape or CD, as you can carry thousands of tracks on an iPod wherever you go. And whats next? Now you can take nearly all the music in the world with you to listen to. Spotify is now on the iPhone and it gives you access to a huge library of music from the major labels, plus a bunch of indies. As with the Spotify app for Mac and Windows, the catalogues not exhaustive, but it is immense. First, however, the bad news: though the app for the iPhone is free, you cant simply use it to stream music as you can on the desktop apps we wish theyd let us pay for the iPhone app if it meant we could enjoy the ad-supported streams and youll need to be a premium member. It costs 9.99 a month
(119.88 a year); the 99p day passes dont work here. The good news is that not only can you stream music from Spotify onto your iPhone, you can also cache up to 3,333 tracks locally. Its a bit like downloading tracks except you dont get to keep them and it means you can listen to the playlists you or others have created even if you dont have a data connection. The app itself is generally well built, though theres currently no support to scrobble your listening to Last.fm. Sadly, clicks on a connected headphone set try to control the iPod, not the playback in Spotify. Neither will the app play music in the background. This is great if youre happy to consume your music on subscription, without ever actually owning it; if not, then Spotifys not for you.
ALWAYS READY In Offline mode you can listen even when theres no connection
KEY INFO
Download size 4.4MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
Last.fm
FREE MUSIC
Shazam
MEDIA IDENTIFIER
KEEPING BUSY The app is now compatible with iPhone multitasking so it can run while you work
UK price Free US price Free Web www.last.fm Download size 2.2MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
KEY INFO
ith over five million tracks available to listen to for free, Last. fm is a bit of a phenomenon. Since those in the UK are denied the superb Pandora app, Last.fm will have to do. Its not a great hardship, though, as Last.fm is fantastic. Give it a tag or an artist name and it will stream their music and and this is the clever bit similar artists, creating your personal radio station. You can then share these with your contacts. It remembers the tracks you like and its generally very good at finding similar artists; it offers lots of additional info too such as tour dates and the ability to buy.
The ideal way to find new music; complements the Genius feature
NAME THAT TUNE After identifying a track, Shazam gives you links to buy it
UK price Free US price Free Web www.shazam.com Download size 3.8MB iPod touch compatible With mic Requires iOS 3.0 or later
KEY INFO
hats the name of that song you can hear? Now you need never ask that question again. Fire up Shazam, let it listen to the music for a few seconds and then itll tell you whats playing. It might stumble with obscure tracks or when used in noisy environments, but its generally pretty accurate. Youre also given a direct link to buy the track from the iTunes Store (if its stocked), see YouTube videos, and read biographies associated with the track, view discographies and album reviews. It needs a mic and an internet connection, however, so on an iPod touch youll probably be a bit stuck.
Augment your world of sound and youll always know whats playing
The 2011 iPhone app guide 91
01
02
04
Darkslide is quick at 01 grabbing the thumbnails of your Flickr photos You can share a photo easily via Twitter or email, or even view its Flickr page
02
03
Darkslide fully supports geotagging of photos, so you can view location data
03
You can edit the full range of tags and descriptions when uploading a photo
04
KEY INFO
UK price 2.39 US price $3.99 Web connectedflow.com/darkslide Download size 1.5MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 4.0 or later
FLICKR PORTAL
Darkslide Premium
2.39 Is that three billion images in your pocket?
How to make an iPhone app a front-end to a web service; essential purchase for any Flickr user
ormerly called Exposure, and now available as both a paid-for and free ad-supported version, Darkslide is the daddy of the iPhone Flickr apps. At its most basic, its a portal to access your own Flickr pictures; its not as convenient as the iPhones builtin Photos app, simply because it has to pull the images down from Flickrs servers. It does a superb job of caching thumbnails, however, so even if youre only using an EDGE signal it doesnt feel agonisingly slow. Tap an image once to load it full-size, or double-tap to bring up the Info screen where you can add your comments. From either screen, you can also tap an icon to post a link to your
Twitter feed (Twitterrific, Tweetie, TwitterFon and Safari are all supported), email a link to the photo, or open the relevant Flickr page. Its much more than that, though; it gives you access to all Flickrs features in a way thats been optimised for the iPhone. It can use the iPhones location services, for example, to show you those images on Flickr that are geotagged as nearby marked as Near Me. You can also search the entire universe of Flickr photos. When youre uploading your shots you can access all the details within Description, Tags and Location. Similarly, tap the More icon to browse your contacts photos, look at featured
photos, explore places, groups, sets, tags and favourites. You can comment on pictures and add them to your favourites. You can also upload photos from your iPhone, complete with permissions, tags, descriptions and embedded location information. Theres also the Explore section, where 500 images are featured every day. You can view them on your iPhone, or mark them as favourite or share them with just one tap. Wed recommend using the free version if youre a light user and happy to view the inline adverts alongside your photos, but its worth paying for Darkslide Premium if youre a regular Flickr user.
EBOOK READER
eReader
FLICKR VIEWER
Flickr
READ AND LISTEN You can read while also listening to your iPhones music library
UK price Free US price Free Web www.ereader.com Download size 5.3MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
KEY INFO
he iPhone isnt great as an eBook reader: the screen is a bit small, and keeping it on to read will draw a lot of battery power. But if youre still not put off, eReader is great. Its the same system that you might have used on a Palm, but with an added benefit. If youve already bought books from eReader, you can access your digital library from within the eReader app on your iPhone. Downloading books just takes a few taps, and there are over 100,000 to choose from, with more added each month. The colour, size and background of the display can be customised to suit your preferences, and it has an attractive page-turn.
heres a huge choice of Flickr apps, but this is the only official one. Flickr keeps things simple and is easy to use: you can search for photos from Flickrs online collection, or choose from a slideshow of recommended photos. Tap a photo from your search results to see its details and visitor comments; from here, you can see the photo at full-screen size, save it to your iPhone or email it to a friend. Theres also a facility to upload photos direct from your iPhone. Some other features have to open in Safari rather than the app, but otherwise its a pleasure to use: attractive and quick to download images.
A great way to read eBooks, though the iPhone screen could be bigger
The simplicity of this Flickr app trumps others with more features
UK price Free US price Free Web www.flickr.com Download size 4.9MB iPhone compatible Yes iPod touch compatible iOS 3.0
KEY INFO
SNAP SHOTS Flickrs app enables you to browse photos full screen
EBOOK READER
Classics
IMAGE GALLERY
LuxGallery
UK price 1.79 US price $2.99 Web www.classicsapp.com Download size 45.8MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.0 or later
KEY INFO
s mentioned above, screen size and battery life mean that the iPhone isnt an ideal eBook reader. However, it seems daft to have a compact, mediafriendly device in your pocket that you dont use to read books. And Classics is the most polished app for the job. It comes with a library of classic novels Treasure Island, Pride & Prejudice, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea and more, each with a lovingly crafted cover. You can flip the pages with a sweep of your finger. The list of books is limited to those the developer provides, but theyre committed to adding more with free updates.
A limited range of books on offer, but presented with flair and style
BE INSPIRED Choose to scroll through the images or also view their descriptions
UK price Free US price Free Web www.luxology.com Download size 21.2MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.2 or later
KEY INFO
rom the makers of the modo modelling and rendering software comes this beautiful app; it showcases images created with it. So if youre a modo user, the constantly updated Luxology Image Gallery might be a convenient way for you to explore what other modo designers and artists have been producing. You can search through thousands of images; when you find one you like, you can add it to your favourites. You can view in landscape mode, and browse and bookmark exceptionally nice images, but theres nothing more to this particular app than that.
WIKIPEDIA CLIENT
Articles
KEY INFO
Download size 2.0MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
ost of the negative reviews on the App Store make the point that you can do the same thing for free with Safari. But even though you can indeed browse Wikipedia on your iPhone even to the extent of using the built-in feature of adding a specific site shortcut to your Home screen thats missing the point. Articles takes everything thats great about Safari as a way to access Wikipedia on the go and improves on them all. For starters, everything is prettier. The developer has done a cracking job on the stylesheet for text and tables; everything looks great on the iPhones small screen. However, its still a suboptimal way to view some complex documents, but its cleaner and more attractive than Safari. The double-tap-and-scroll trick to skip between sections in
long articles is a clever solution, but wed like to see section headers pop up so its easier to see where you are. Its not just aesthetics that are improved; Articles also makes it easier to interact with content. We like the way that the vital statistics summary boxs many pages are hidden behind a main image, with an i under a page curl prompting you to tap. Specific pages can be bookmarked in folders that you create, and recently viewed pages are cached so you can view them offline. And even finding articles is easier than with the web view, thanks to a Title/Content button and autocomplete. Plus it can geolocate you to suggest articles for things around you, which is great for travelling. Theres an iPad version coming out, too
A jewel of an app, beautifully designed and easy to use; we cant wait to try the iPad version
Concise OED
HISTORIC REFERENCE
SOUNDS RIGHT You can listen to an audio recording of the correct pronunciation
UK price 11.99 US price $19.99 Web www.wordwebsoftware.com Download size 259MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
KEY INFO
here are other dictionaries available for the iPhone English Dictionary & Thesaurus by Ultralingua is one of the best, as it includes synonyms but theres a sense of security from having the 259MB OED at your fingertips. Its pricey for an iPhone app but less than the RRP of the print edition, and is more flexible. Entries are hyperlinked to definitions, and many have an audio recording of the pronunciation. The technical quality of these audio clips is a bit rough, but its useful. Wed have liked to have a thesaurus as well, however, and sensitivity to poor spelling when looking up words.
On this day
There are cheaper dictionaries, but its worth it for the authority
UK price Free US price Free Web www.sophiestication.com Download size 5.7MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 4.0 or later
KEY INFO
LEARN AND PLAY Build your childrens shapematching skills with these fun puzzle games
INFLATABLE FUN
Balloonimals
low into your iPhones microphone to inflate an onscreen balloon. Once its fully inflated, give it a shake to transform it into a balloon animal. Each shake adds another twist to until your creatures fully formed. Then you can play with it each animal knows a few amusing tricks and once youre bored, pump it up until it pops and start again with a different colour. The drawback is that young ones find it tricky to blow into the microphone accurately, leaving you with a soggy iPhone. UK price 1.19 US price $1.99 Web www.ideotoylab.com Download size 17.2MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
PICTURE PUZZLE
Tozzle
KEY INFO
Great fun for toddlers but the appeal is rather short lived for older kids
The perfect way to keep little ones amused in the car theyll learn as they play
TALKBACK CHARACTER
Talking Carl
BE WARNED This is the perfect excuse for your kids to get their hands on your iPhone!
MONSTROUS FUN Tickle, pinch and poke Carl and watch his reactions
UK price 0.59 US price $0.99 Web www.skype.com Download size 7.4MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
KEY INFO
ome kids iPhone apps provide real educational benefit and make you feel good as a parent, proud that your Apple device has put your child ahead of the game. Then there are apps like Talking Carl. Its not a bad app, its just puerile but in the best sense. Carl is a little red thing. You can tickle him to make him laugh or poke him in the eye to make him scream, but the real fun is that whatever you say to him he repeats back to you in a silly voice. Your kids will love it and get progressively louder as they start to shout, then scream things at Carl. And you, dear parent, will grow to hate it in equal measure.
CHILDRENS BOOK
M
98 100 106 112
WORK
Access your iDisk on your iPhone Office tools Utility tools Apps for internet assistance
obile devices like the iPhone are great for casual tasks but you need a laptop or desktop computer when you really need to get things done, right? Not any more: the iPhone helps you be productive whenever it suits you, not when you happen to be at your desk. Here, youll discover apps that turn your iPhone into a mobile office, as well as tools to help you maintain your entire computer ecosystem and alternatives to the iPhones built-in internet tools. First, though, lets find out how you can use the internet to store and read documents using Apples MobileMe service
WORK Filesharing
art of the MobileMe suite of online services, iDisk is Apples online storage solution. Available to everybody who has a MobileMe account, iDisk provides you with an easy way to store and share your files online, and integration with Mac OS X means that copying files to your iDisk is as easy as copying files to another folder on your Mac. You can also access it through a web browser, while the MobileMe Control Panel enables you to access iDisk direct from Windows. Now, to make things even simpler, you no longer have to be tied to a Mac or PC to get to these files. Apples free MobileMe iDisk app enables you to access your iDisk from an iPhone or iPod touch. As well as using the app to view the documents and media youve
stored online, MobileMe iDisk enables you to share these files with other users and even add a password, right on the iPhone. To share a file you simply select it from your iDisk and enter the email address of the person you want to share it with, and theyll be able to
MobileMe iDisk enables you to access your iDisk from an iPhone or iPod touch
download the file from a link thats provided in the email. The MobileMe iDisk app is a useful addition to your app library; you can download it for free from the App Store in iTunes or your iPhones App Store app. In this tutorial, well show you how to use it to its full potential.
ACCESS ANYWHERE With the ability to download files and share documents, the MobileMe iDisk app is your passport to efficient mobile working
HOW TO Back up, restore, wipe and migrate your iPhone data
Download and install the MobileMe iDisk application from the App Store. Launch the app, enter your MobileMe member name and password, then tap Go. You now have access to all the files and folders on your iDisk.
You can view many files stored on your iDisk, including movies, music, photos, PDFs and documents from the likes of iWork and Office. To access a document, tap on it; the file will be downloaded directly from iDisk to your iPhone.
View your file in portrait or landscape orientation by rotating your iPhone. The document will rotate automatically. Swipe to view multiple pages and use the pinch movement to zoom in and out.
Filesharing WORK
4 Tap to share
Tapping a document once brings up the controls that enable you to return to the iDisk folder list. Other options here enable you to share a file with someone else. Tap the Share button to the right of a file.
Next, enter the email address of the person you want to share it with. Do this manually or use a name from your contacts. You can also include a personal message. To keep the document private, simply enter a password.
If youd rather not share a file permanently, you can add a time limit so that the download link for the file expires after a certain period of time. You can easily share the same file again in the future, of course.
Your email will be sent to the other user and will include a link to a location where they can download the file. This is ideal when you want to share larger files that are too bulky for email attachments, for example.
Tap Shared Files to view a list of all the files that are being shared. Tap the Share icon alongside a file and you can choose to stop sharing that file or send the link again so that someone else can view it.
Tap the i button when viewing shared files to see the full details of the date and time a file has been shared. Along with the date and time shared, youll also be able to see the URL where that particular file is stored. The 2011 iPhone app guide 99
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Can it be true? The Holy Grail 01 of Office documents cut, copy and paste
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Quickoffice enables you to view and edit any Excel or Word document
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KEY INFO
UK price 2.99 (introductory price) US price $4.99 (introductory price) Developer www.quickoffice.com Download size 13.7MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
OFFICE SUITE
Quickoffice
2.99 Create and edit Word and Excel documents on the road
It has some limitations but actually offers pretty much the full gamut of tools required for business docs
heres no shortage of applications for the iPhone that can view documents and spreadsheets, but whats missing is a way to create or edit them. On top of that, with developments from the big name in PDA-style editing, Documents To Go, not necessarily offering all the editing features that we might hope for, Quickoffice is a worthy inclusion in this category. The app is available for just 2.99 as we go to press but youll need to act fast if this is the app for you, as this is an introductory price The interface is good, if a little clunky, and possibly lacks the flair of the best applications from the likes of Tapbots. But there are three clear
areas to work from Quickword, Quicksheet and Quickoffice Files. You can create and edit Word and Excel documents (DOC, DOCX, XLS and XLSX). In the document editor, you can change fonts, style and size, create bulleted lists and, by Jobs, can it be true cut, copy and paste? The behaviour is a little fiddly, but its bliss nevertheless. However, one problem is the keyboards intelligence autocorrection and the like is missing, making typing laborious. The spreadsheet lets you enter and edit formulas, change cell formats and, of course, cut, copy and paste, and the latest version now supports more advanced Excel features. Theres also
an update that allows you to create and edit PowerPoint files. You can grab files from (and save to) your iDisk, or mount your iPhone over a Wi-Fi network for direct copying from a Mac or PC, and its easy to email files direct from the iPhone. If you purchase Quickoffice Connect (5.99), the app also supports various cloud storage services such as Box.net, MobileMe, Dropbox, and Google Docs. The autosave facility kicks in every few minutes, which is great as its sometimes easy to forget to save changes while on the move. At this price, wed recommend Quickoffice, but itll be interesting to see what price it is after this offer.
NOTETAKING APP
Evernote
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Some rough edges, but a powerful and free service that takes advantage of all the iPhone has to offer
hen this app first came out, it wasnt quite ready for prime time there were a few glitches and usability tweaks that needed to be ironed out. But the designers have worked hard and frequently updated the app with new features, and you now have a great free app with some very clever tech behind it. At its heart, its just an online notes service. Clients already exist for the Mac and PC and now the iPhone. Nothings stored locally; it is instead uploaded to Evernotes servers. The advantage is that every note you add is accessible from any internet-connected computer in the world, including your iPhone. You can set up multiple notebooks, share them, and tag notes. Best of all, though, is that you can use your iPhones camera to grab (geotagged)
photo notes, and when theyre uploaded, any text is automatically recognised with OCR so you can search for stuff youve snapped later. Of course, while Evernote will work just fine with an iPod touch, its lack of built-in camera means you cant snap and upload pics in this way. You can also record audio notes, though again youll need an iPhone mic to allow you to use this facility. Its the integration of all the different platforms that really impresses; if you can get yourself trained to dump everything into Evernote, its accessible from pretty much anywhere you are. You can mark notes as favourites for quick access and theres a handy web-clipping URL that lets you bookmark web pages, too. The current version allows for a lot more multitasking, making it really user-friendly.
TAKE NOTE Write, shoot or record your reminder Evernote will take it down
KEY INFO
Download size 8.3MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
Documents To Go
5.99 Take your Word documents wherever you go
Consider Quickoffice for its Excel editing, but this is a great word processor for the iPhone
ntil Microsoft builds Word for the iPhone not that we expect that any time soon this is the best option for creating and editing word processing documents on the go. In fact, theres not a lot that this app cant do! You add documents to your iPhone using a companion app on your Mac (or PC) and then synchronise them across using Wi-Fi. Annoyingly, while it supports DOC, DOCX and TXT files, plus PowerPoint, PDF and iWork, theres no support for RTF. The real power of the system, though, is document editing. Even before iPhone OS 3.0 was released, DataViz, the company behind this app, had developed a copy/paste engine that feels very natural, though it meant you could only do the editing within the app. With 4th generation iPhones, you can
now edit documents directly in DocsToGo from any third-party app that supports the Open in file sharing feature (eg Google Docs, Dropbox, iDisk and more). The iPhones auto-correct keyboard intelligence is intact, and you can even use the keyboard in landscape mode if you want more finger space and a tiny, single-line letterbox view of your document. Though you cant change the size of text, you can manage lists, colours and more. You can jump to the beginning, middle or end of the document, do find/ replace and word, character and paragraph counts. iPhone 4 users can even grab attachments from Exchange servers. DataViz has ironed out a lot of the bugs associated with the app when it first appeared and it's now a formidable business aid.
WORD UP If you need Office docs on your iPhone, this app can help you out
KEY INFO
Download size 9.3MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.2 or later The 2011 iPhone app guide 101
ORGANISER
OmniFocus
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efore we go on, well mention that this app won Apples Design Award for Best iPhone Productivity back in 2008, so it already comes with some kudos. Forgetting to pick up the dry cleaning or to buy a loaf of bread during your lunch break is now a thing of the past, thanks to this iPhone version of the popular OmniFocus. This handy helper app was released to complement the desktop version for Macs. The real bonus with the iPhone version is that its totally portable. You can consult, tick off and generally manage your to-do lists. Because that is essentially what OmniFocus is. Its a to-do list on steroids. Its a very simple program to use; type in your chores and tag them with contexts (say, phone tasks, for example), and even
KEY INFO
Download size 3.2MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
Its expensive but if youre a list-maker then this has to be on your iPhone
PERSONAL DATABASE
Bento
DATA AID Editing databases is easy thanks to the clearly presented display
KEY INFO
Download size 5.1MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
his app does the impossible: it makes databases cool. Not an easy task When the Mac version of FileMakers personal database launched in 2008, it felt like the missing module to Apples iWork suite. Slick, pretty and easy to use, it came prepopulated with a bunch of useful templates. The iPhone version is just as lovely. It too has ready-built templates a recipe book, event planning, expenses and more though you can build your own. Theres support for lots of field types multiple choice, ratings, dates, times, durations and more, though some advanced data types, most notably calculations, require Bento for Mac as well (see http://tinyurl. com/pl3vpb). It all feels very iPhone-like. You can choose which fields are visible and
sortable in the list view, and adding records is a cinch. Creating databases from scratch on the iPhone can be fiddly, and it did crash on us a few times. But heres the magic: it syncs beautifully over Wi-Fi with the 30 Mac version, so you can set up full, rich databases on the Mac and then simply sync them to your iPhone or iPod touch for access on the move. This is a great little database with room to grow. Theres no interaction with iCal yet, though it reads your address book live and the single-user Bento model means even small workgroups need to look to the full, scary FileMaker range. But its ease of use and ability to sync wirelessly with Bento for Mac the latest version can sync libraries contained in folders and maintain the order mark it out as a near triumph.
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The presentation running on your Mac shows the elements youre highlighting on your iPhones display
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and all you have to do is to 02 point to the part on the slide that you want to draw your audiences attention to Any notes that youve added to your Keynote presentations appear on your iPhones screen
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KEY INFO
UK price 4.99 US price $7.99 Web www.wooji-juice.com Download size 0.3MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.0 or later
PRESENTATION TOOL
ooji Presentation Remote turns your iPhone into a remote control for presentations on your computer. Unfortunately, although its a cracking application, you might be disappointed to learn that it only works with a Mac, since it only ties into Keynote, Apples Mac-only presentation package; theres no support for PCs or PowerPoint here. That said, its a very well put together offering, thats easy to use. Initial set-up can be a little bit of a pain; you launch the free Presentation Manager helper app on your Mac then pair it with your iPhone or iPod via Wi-Fi, enable the highlighter, then pick which presentation to start on-screen. You do
need to read the instructions to figure out exactly how to link the two and enable one of the apps show-stopping features, an on-screen highlighter. The app running on your iPhone pulls down slides titles and presenter notes (swipe up and down) from your open Keynote presentations, lets you advance and rewind slides (swipe side to side), and features a timer. Best of all, though, is that you can rotate your iPhone, see the slide, and tap to have details highlighted on the presentation display. Its handled beautifully, too, with a subtle spotlight effect directing your audiences attention to the points on the Macs screen, or, of course, on an image
thrown from a projector hooked up to your Mac. Though it was initially not possible, you can now advance slides in this sideways-on view mode as well as in the portrait, presenter notes mode. It can be a little sluggish moving between slides, but unless youre trying to flick through dozens of slides in a few minutes, you shouldnt really notice the occasional delay. And there are nice additional touches, such as light-ondark mode to reduce glare when youre presenting in a darkened room, and the preview thumbnail of the next slide. Its a shame it doesnt support PowerPoint but this is one of the most technically impressive and creatively satisfying apps for the iPhone.
Wed rather see more than just Keynote on the Mac supported, but this is a proficient and well executed application
BILLING TOOL
Billings Touch
ime may be money, but keeping track of how long youve spent on a client or the expenses youve racked up on the job can be tricky; Billings Touch helps. You create clients optionally sucking in details from a contact in your address book projects and jobs, and then simply start adding expenses. It supports travel expenses, other fixed expenses and, crucially, timed slips, where you set an hourly fee and start and stop the clock as you work on projects. (And yes, it keeps tracking when the app is closed.) Clever and useful touches abound, despite the surprising complexity of billing. The home screen that tracks hours and money is particularly welcome. While the app itself is free, it does cost 8.99 to unlock the ability to send invoices directly from the app and sync with the Mac version. If you sync with Billings on the Mac, youll have access to over 30 professionally designed invoice templates, and be able to analyse your data using the built-in business reports. You do have access to invoice templates from the free app, its just that there arent as many to choose from. If you also invest in Credit Card Terminal (just 59p from innerfence) you can accept payments for your invoices right on your iPhone or iPod touch. The app also supports multiple currencies for billing clients in different countries, so you can define default currencies on a per-client basis. At its simplest level, being able to input your expenses while on the move will make a difference to all those who suffer from lost receipts.
KEY INFO
Download size 5.3MB iPod touch compatible Yes Require iOS 3.1.3 or later
Even without syncing, this is terrific and if 9 is too much of an outlay, your business is in trouble
iTalk Recorder
VOICE RECORDING
TALK TALK Surprisingly good level of audio, even in fairly noisy situations
UK price Free US price Free Web www.griffintechnology.com Download size 1.1MB iPhone compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
KEY INFO
e like this audio notes recorder from topclass accessory maker Griffin, not just because its reasonably polished and offers handy features such as the ability to name, delete and pick a quality level for recordings, but also because it makes it easy to get the recordings off the iPhone and on to your Mac or PC. A helper app (iTalk Sync) on your computer finds your iPhone automatically over the Wi-Fi network, and you can simply drag the AIFF recordings to your computer. The UI looks good and the quality from the mic is pretty good. You can also append text notes to recordings.
CONTACT INFORMATION
Solid voice-recording app, and its easy to get recordings off, too
A great idea that works well. Slightly high price but truly useful
UK price 2.39 US price $3.99 Developer www.shapeservices.com Download size 18.4MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.1 or later
KEY INFO
CALLING CARD Forget that clunky card holder, scan contact info instead
CLIPBOARD MANAGER
Pastebot
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As a stand-alone app, its good. Add in the Mac syncing, and it becomes great
COPY & PASTE Store information easily and organise and sync and edit!
KEY INFO
Download size 6.1MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
NumberKey
CALCULATOR
Calcbot
UK price 1.19 US price $1.99 Developer www.balmuda.com Download size 3.4MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.2.1 or later
KEY INFO
ne thing Apple laptops and even some keyboards lack is a keypad, but now you can simply use your iPhone by installing this handy app. It comes with skins for the MacBook, MacBook Pro and PowerBook (plus a vintage Mac keyboard) and connects via a little helper app running on your Mac over Wi-Fi. And thats it; it just works. Its a genuine help if you have to punch in a bunch of figures for a spreadsheet, or are doing a few calculations in Calculator, and while you dont get proper tactile feedback and so have to look at the iPhone as you tap its still eminently usable.
UK price 1.19 US price $1.99 Developer tapbots.com Download size 9.9MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.1 or later
KEY INFO
ure, the built-in Calculator app is fine for some basic 2+2 maths (and did you know that you can rotate your iPhone to landscape to get a scientific calculator?) but we rather like this app from the brilliant developers at Tapbots. Its not just that it looks great; its universal ready for the iPad as well as iPhone and has a useful history feature. Its a bit like the roll of paper on a mechanical calculator, showing you past calculations, but you can also tap on previous calculations to pull them into new ones. Swipe, and a scientific calculator appears. Our only criticism is that it lacks parentheses.
VOICE CONTROL
Vocalia
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heres not that much the iPhone 3GS has that owners of earlier models dont get with a firmware upgrade. One thing that is 3GS-only is Voice Control. With Vocalia, however, you can add this to any iPhone or, so long as you add an external mic, the second-generation iPod touch. It has three modes, Contacts, iPod and Bookmarks, along with a big HAL-like eye that blinks as you speak into the mic. Now, speech recognition is difficult, but Vocalia makes a sterling effort at getting it right. Speak clearly with the iPhone a couple of inches from your mouth, and the first result will often be correct, even if some of the other matches seem weirdly unrelated. (With contacts, you can type your own memorable references the big bad boss, say which usually result in
2.39 Like the iPhone 3GS Voice Control? Have it! (Sort of)
better matches, though theres no true phoneme editing.) So the tech works reasonably well, but there are problems. The Bookmarks mode requires you thanks to limitations of the SDK to manually export then upload your web bookmarks; theres no tie-in with Safari. Worse, part of what makes Voice Control useful is that its launched with a hardware button, making it safe to use for, say, voice dialling while driving. You need to look at the screen to use Vocalia, and thanks to another Apple limitation, even when youve found the number to dial, you have to manually tap a button on screen. Were impressed with the technology here, but its hard to recommend it when the benefits of Voice Control are, for most, negated by having to interact with the screen.
VOICE CONTROL Fairly accurate but you have to interact with the screen
KEY INFO
Download size 5.4MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.1 or later
A beautiful app with some impressive technology, but its hamstrung on the iPhone platform
REMOTE CONTROL
TouchPad
or a long time this domain has been ruled by Air Mouse Pro (see opposite) a little app that can turn your iPhone or iPod touch into a remote keyboard and mouse for your Mac especially useful if you use one as a media centre, for instance but now Edovias TouchPad app is giving it a run for its money Its a little more expensive, and doesnt offer the optional motion-based control of Air Mouse Pro, but it has more than enough to recommend it. Its more polished, for one thing, with beautiful UI design and support for, say the escape key that the Air Mouse Pro lacks. It also has a view that replicates the physical Apple remote nice touch which makes it really intuitive to use and particularly suitable for Front Row or Plex media applications.
HAND CONTROL A remote control app thats designed like a remote control!
KEY INFO
Download size 9.2MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
In addition, TouchPad is a cleaner system; it doesnt require a server daemon, instead it just uses the Macs built-in VNC client to do the remote mousing and typing. Interestingly, you can also use the app if you run a PC on the Linux platform or even with a Windows computer (although youll need the free VNC server software for this). Configure your computer and TouchPad (it really is a doddle to set up) and youll find that commands are immediate, theres no delay at all, and, as mentioned, the gestures are instinctive and one, two, three and four finger gestures are supported. The latest version has also incorporated inertial scrolling. If youre already well versed in using the trackpad on a MacBook, youll feel very comfortable using the TouchPad app on your iPhone.
Its elegant and polished with support for multitouch gestures. Plus, its affordable: a winner!
REMOTE ACCESS
LogMeIn Ignition
17.99 Control your Macs (and PCs) over the internet, from your iPhone
Ignition is a brilliant idea that works well; could be a bit more Mac friendly (and/or cheaper!)
he idea here is that you can log in and control your Mac or PC over the internet by logging in from your iPhone. Youre presented with a screen showing whats being displayed on your Mac or PC, and can control the keyboard and mouse as if you were in front of the computer. The cursor is fixed in the centre while you move the screen around it, which takes a little getting used to. A tap on the screen is a click, two finger taps are a right-click, and you can zoom out with a pinch. You can limit the colour palette or have it optimise automatically. It uses the iPhones virtual keyboard too, and while the lack of some standard Mac keys is annoying, you can at least issue commands with modifiers. Wed rather LogMeIn was more sympathetic to Mac users and in our testing there were still some glitches to be worked out. The iPhones limited memory caused some problems as well, with frequent low memory warnings.
KEY INFO
Download size 4.2MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
REMOTE PERIPHERALS
UK price 1.19 US price $1.99 Web www.mobilemouse.com Download size 4.0MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.1.2 or later
KEY INFO
ir Mouse comes in two parts: an iPhone app and a server app that runs on your Mac or PC. They discover each other over the wonders of the Bonjour service. Once paired over Wi-Fi, your iPhone can act as a mouse and keyboard for your Mac. You can choose to flick between an on-screen trackpad that you use as youd expect, or a mode that uses your iPhones motion sensor to control the cursor. The on-screen keyboard with modifier keys is useful too, though the limitation of the iPhones on-screen keyboard means that you cant perform tasks that involve particular key combinations.
Camera Dialer
VISUAL DIALLER
A good idea, but it needs to work better than it does at the moment
UK price 0.59 US price $0.99 Web gp-imports.com Download size 3.5MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.1 or later
KEY INFO
FILE STORAGE
DataCase
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toring data on a USB memory stick is one solution to keeping your files with you, but what if you want to read your documents or browse your photos when youre on the move? DataCase from Veiosoft provides the perfect solution. It turns your iPhone into a wireless storage device where you can upload documents, photos, sound files and PDFs. So, not only is it an easy way to replace a USB stick, it means you can actually look at your files and read them, too. Using DataCase is simple. Fire it up and it appears on your Macs Finder as a Shared Drive. Its Bonjour-savvy so it just works. You just drag and drop files like you would with any form of drive. DataCase works with any computer with wireless capabilities; even better, the app
DRIVE ON Turn your iPhone into a USB stick, and work on the documents too
KEY INFO
Download size 0.6MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.0 or later
A memory stick might be cheaper and leave room on your iPhone, but you can view files with DataCase
FileMagnet
FILE STORAGE
FILE SERVER
UK price 2.99 US price $4.99 Web magnetismstudios.com Download size 0.9MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
KEY INFO
ileMagnet can turn your iPhone into a storage device. Whats more, its not just a way to copy files to your Mac, but to view them, too. Only the most common file types can be viewed JPEG, GIF, TIF, PNG, HTML, RTF, DOC, TXT, PDF, iWork, some movies and audio files, Word, Excel, PowerPoint but anything can be copied across including whole folders and that should suffice for most folk. We like the fact that you can tilt to scroll just tip the iPhone back to move down a document. We dont like the fact you need to run the FileMagnet Uploader app on your Mac to copy stuff.
Air Sharing
KEY INFO
Wed rather lose the dependence on a Mac app, but still useful
Could be prettier and easier to use, but its a powerful, flexible option
UK price 1.79 US price $2.99 Web avatron.com Download size 11.9MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
MAKE THE CONNECTION Air Sharing really works and is very useful when youre out of the office
IDISK ACCESS
MobileMe iDisk
FREE Access your iDisks files on the go!
Solid, if basic; wed like to see a suite of MobileMe apps, allowing, say, Back to My Mac
efore we go any further, this app is free but only to MobileMe subscribers. Many apps have added the ability to connect to your iDisk if youre a MobileMe subscriber and the public folders of other MobileMe members, but this is Apples own, so is it any good? The bottom line is, if you just want an app to browse your files and preview many file types, including Word and Excel documents, iWork (Pages, Numbers), PDF, Images, Music, Movies and more then this app is great. Its slick, simple to use, and lets you share these files with others by sending out an email with a link that can be password protected. Still, you cant filter the list, edit the files, attach them to an email (rather than just sending a link) or use it to upload files a limitation of the whole
operating system really, rather than this application itself or even move files into folders. You can view your files in portrait or landscape, and open iDisk documents in compatible apps -- like iBooks for PDFs. You can now stream .MP3 and .AAC music files on your MobileMe account directly to your iPhone and it streams the content at a good speed but you can only stream one file at a time, so dont expect the luxuries of playlists or album art, although you can get on with other things while the music plays. The addition of this feature has sparked a lot of discussion about the possibility of a cloud-based iTunes The app also supports local storage of up to 500MB for offline viewing, although audio and video files are streamed and not stored locally.
IN THE CLOUDS Access your MobileMe iDisk content from your iPhone
UK price Free (MobileMe members) US price Free (MobileMe members) Web www.apple.com
KEY INFO
Download size 3.4MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.1.3 or later
Ego
POPULARITY TRACKER
STAT SLATE All your important web data harnessed in one app
UK price 1.19 US price $1.99 Web ego-app.com Download size 1.7MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
KEY INFO
ll businesses know that its vital to monitor how many people have visited their site; and for the rest of us, this info just strokes or destroys our ego. Either way, Ego aims to show these figures on a single, login-free screen. It supports Google Analytics and Mint, and can report RSS subscriber numbers fed through a FeedBurner engine. The datas not that granular (tap the module to cycle between visits today, this week, this month and this year) and it would have been good to tap a button to launch us into the tracking site. But its still a handy app that enjoys developer support.
ReaddleDocs
DOCUMENT MANAGER
Be it for your ego or your business, stat tracking has never been easier
UK price 2.99 US price $4.99 Web readdle.com Download size 9.7MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
KEY INFO
SECURE STORAGE
1Password
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ne of the big problems with Safari on the iPhone is that it doesnt have an equivalent of the Macs Keychain, so you have to remember and enter passwords manually each time you want to log into a secure site. The task is made no simpler by the iPhones keyboard, especially if youre following good practice and mixing lower case, upper case and symbols in passwords. 1Password solves that problem by providing you with a secured app in which you can store login details and notes. Two levels of security are offered: a four-digit PIN (potentially in addition to the system-level four-digit PIN you can lock your entire iPhone with) and an optional master password of your choice. Enter details correctly, and when you can tap on a site, it
SAFE AND SECURE Keep passwords to hand and enter them automatically
KEY INFO
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Were not saying its hackerproof, but its undeniably handy; quite pricey though
Download size 5.9MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.1 or later
SECURE DATABASE
Wallet
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SECURITY Keep important numbers and passwords under lock and key
KEY INFO
Download size 2.9MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
Wallet has made itself invaluable over the years; the app is a great add-on
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Determine the path taken by 01 packets across an IP network via Traceroute iStat utilises the Bonjour network to communicate with Macs on a local network
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The app can even give you a thorough statistical analysis of your iPhone
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KEY INFO
UK price 0.59 US price $0.99 Web bjango.com Download size 0.7MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
iStat
0.59 Keep tabs on your Macs resources over the web
his apps job is to give you information on how the resources on your Macs are being used. (A Linux and Solaris version of iStat Server is also available but some features, such as temperatures, are not yet supported.) It works by running a daemon on the Macs you want to monitor, and then communicates the usage information over the network to your iPhone. While the daemon runs transparently, the server app can be used to generate passcodes to show connected clients and keep a log. The iStat Server requires Mac OS X 10.4 or later and is available as a free download from bjango. The presentation is beautiful, with elegant colour schemes and clear,
concise information. Processor load and upload/download stats all show as easy-to-read graphs, and memory allocation is shown as a pie chart. You can see how much space is available on mounted volumes, and the temperature and fan sensors on your Mac are monitored and their values communicated too. Macs on your local network are automatically discovered with Bonjour, but if you want to access Macs over the internet youll have to set up portforwarding on your router. Its reasonably easy, but because its different for each router model, youre left on your own here. You can check how long its been since the last restart
and how hard the CPU has been working but, unfortunately, theres no reporting of what processes are using the most CPU cycles. Wed like to see more help with port forwarding, too, or a different way to connect to Macs over the web. iStat also offers you stats for your iPhone, including detailed battery stats and disk space, and showing Wi-Fi and IP addresses, MAC addresses and your iPhones Unique Identifier. And you can clear your iPhones memory with the touch of a button, which is great if its starting to operate at a crawl. (Note: 59p is the current sale price as we go to press, the app may be around 1.19 by the time you read this.)
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A fantastic presentation of vital Mac statistics, though it doesnt tell you which apps are hogging the CPU
WEB BROWSER
Opera Mini
W
e joined the rest of the world in slack-jawed amazement when Opera Mini first popped up on the App Store. Compared to Safari, its like your iPhone has had a processor upgrade, especially over 3G, EDGE or GPRS. Pages load so quickly you will be amazed; the makers boast of up to six times faster browsing, but there have been some sacrifices made here First of all, theres only one level of zoom, so the web page either fills the screen or you zoom in to a fixed reading level. All text is rendered in the same font, making pages look a bit ugly. Scrolling up and down is also an issue. Safari forces your scrolling to be either vertical or horizontal; in Opera Mini its more like ice skating for the first time you never quite know where youre going to end up.
FREE Can Opera top Safari as the iPhones best web browser?
Opera Mini achieves its speed by routing all its web traffic through its servers in Norway, where images are heavily compressed (by up to 90 per cent), which also means it costs you less if youre on a pay-asyou-go scheme since less data is being downloaded. Unfortunately, it also means that sites detect your login as coming from somewhere thats not your usual location (unless you actually live in Norway). So Facebook, for example, freezes a UK account if you log in through Opera Mini. Despite the flaws, there are a few nice features here beyond raw speed the start page with its quick links, and a passable attempt at tabbed browsing but we soon found ourselves returning to Safari when on Wi-Fi, just to make pages more readable again.
SHRINK TO FIT Opera Mini compresses pages to offer high speeds and low costs
KEY INFO
Download size 1.0MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.2.1 or later
Great for most web browsing, but not as elegant or consistent as Apples Safari
Reeder
RSS READER
EMAIL COMPOSER
FEED ME NOW A very cool looking reader for your iPhone and it works well, too
UK price 1.79 US price $2.99 Web reederapp.com Download size 2.2MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
KEY INFO
ince NetNewsWire on the Mac moved from its parent company NewsGators syncing service to Google Reader, there are plenty of Mac users who now have a choice about which RSS reader to use on their iPhone. If NetNewsWire leaves you cold, consider Reeder. It syncs with Google Reader with support for tags, starred items and notes, and lets you read your feeds either split by source or in chronological order. It integrates Instapaper, Delicious and Read It Later, and has a built-in browser so you dont have to bounce out to Safari to see the original source. Its satisfyingly fast, too.
Email n Walk
This app is clean and simple yet it boasts plenty of good features
Surprisingly useful, but you have to hold your iPhone at an odd angle
UK price 0.59 US price $0.99 Web www.phase2games.com Download size 0.0MB iPod touch compatible No Requires iOS2.0 or later
KEY INFO
WATCH YOUR STEP More useful than you might think if you have to send an urgent mail
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Tap on one site or on a group 01 of sites to load up all the headlines; youll find that alreadyread stories are greyed out When you read an individual story you can tap on links or open the whole thing in Safari
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NetNewsWire has its own 03 built-in browser, and you can email links to stories or add them to your clippings The overview of all your feeds lets you see at a glance which sites have new stories, grouped as on the desktop
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KEY INFO
UK price Free US price Free Web www.newsgator.com Download size 0.9MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.1.3 or later
NEWSREADER
NetNewsWire
FREE Get up-to-date newsfeeds direct to your iPhone with this RSS reader
heres no dispute that NetNewsWire is the best overall RSS reader for the Mac and, as its free, theres no reason not to use it to keep yourself up to date with news and blogs. The same company is also responsible for the free Windows RSS readers FeedDemon and NewsGator Inbox for Outlook, and it has now developed this version for the iPhone. The great thing about all these apps is that they synchronise with the companys servers, so that regardless of whether youre reading your news on a Mac, PC or iPhone, you get the same feeds that youve subscribed to. Not just that, but individual items that youve read are synced with Google Reader
too, so that you never have to read the same story more than once (read stories are greyed out). Alternatively, you can save articles for later in Instapaper or by starring them. The initial release of the iPhonenative version was a good basic app, but there have been many improvements since. Theres no way to add new RSS feeds; instead the list of feeds youre subscribed to is pulled down from the Newsgator servers. Frankly were not that bothered about that for the moment, as it works so well otherwise, though an update that brings that will be welcome for many. Groups that youve set up on your Mac or PC are preserved in the iPhone
version of NetNewsWire, and you can consume your news by individual site or by group. NetNewsWire for the iPhone has its own version of the Safari web browser built in, so you dont have to constantly bounce back and forward between it and the main Safari to read full posts. And you can email items or add them to a clippings file simply by tapping an icon at the bottom of the screen. You can even share by posting links to Twitter or by sending email without leaving the app. The display isnt customisable, as you might be used to on the desktop, but its clear, although the grey text/white background may be tricky for some.
Arguably the best RSS reader on the desktop is now arguably the best RSS reader for the iPhone
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PLAY
Meet the game developers Skill & Ability games Logic & Dexterity games Mystery & Adventure games Simulation games Racing & Action games Sport games Ten apps we wish existed
ouve used your iPhone to create, explore, enjoy and work: now its time to kick back and have some fun! With its speedy processor, brilliant display and touch-sensitivity, the iPhone makes a fantastic vehicle for games on the move. There are thousands of games available for the iPhone: so many that theres bound to be something to match your gaming tastes, whether youre a hardcore gamer who likes to play anywhere and anytime, or a casual gamer who just likes a quick distraction from time to time. But first, we meet some of the names behind the games
Take three
Meet three of the faces behind some of the App Stores most popular games
sophistication that isnt too far off their equivalents on desktop computers, while the multitouch screen has encouraged a wealth of new ways of controlling games and even brandnew types of game. The iPhones cellular and Wi-Fi networking also encourages multiplayer games, and game communities where you can check your high scores against everyone else worldwide. With everything from recreated board and card games to sports titles, and from high-octane racing to deep
lthough you can use your iPhone for work, creativity or education, the biggest single use is simply having fun. Of the 250,000 options to buy or get for free through the App Store, over 65,000 are gaming or entertainment titles, according to Apple, and games regularly feature in the App Store charts. With the technical ability of the iPhone, of course, the popularity of gaming shouldnt come as a surprise. The processors power means you can find games with a graphical
management sims, theres an iPhone game for every taste. And with an iPhone in your pocket, you can pick up and play whenever you feel the urge. Behind every great new game is a single person or team whos created that title: the developer. Here, we meet three of the faces behind some of the most popular games in the App Store: well find out what attracted them to the iPhone, what makes the iPhone such a compelling device for them, and get a hint of where iPhone gaming could be headed in the future.
GOING LARGE Gordon Wood of Other Ocean Interactive notes, Our artists were happy to have so much texture space to play with and a phenomenal screen to show everything off!
NEW APPROACH Ocean worked on Super Monkey Ball for iPhone like a console game, rather than a traditional mobile phone title
PROFILE
Name Gordon Wood Location Charlottetown, Canada Occupation Senior programmer Company Other Ocean Interactive System MacBook Pro Web www.otherocean.com
PAYING HOMAGE Vector Tanks is Peters tribute to classic tank-based arcade games
PROUD ROOTS Adventure: Revisited is a reenactment of Atari Adventure, the first action-adventure game!
Vector Tanks
PROFILE
Name Peter Hirschberg Location Linden, VA (USA) Occupation iPhone software developer System MacBook Web www.vectortanks.com www.peterhirschberg.com
Q Why did you decide to develop iPhone games? A Ive always loved developing for mobile platforms, and the iPhone is the nicest one. I like Apples ecosystem it brings back the excitement I had when I first got into computers, back in the days of Atari and Commodore. Q What do you think of iPhone as a gaming platform? A Its near perfect, and also a known
LEGENDARY GAME Marks Dark Castle is one of the few original Mac games afforded classicstatus
VIDEOGAME REMIX Return to Dark Castle brings the original game to modern Macs
NEW FORMAT Star*Burst is ideal for iPhone and you can even send cards to Facebook
Star*Burst
PROFILE
Q Before then, you created the classic Mac game Dark Castle how did that come about? A I was asked to create a game by Silicon Beach, and I suggested a medieval theme because I knew itd sell well. Our meeting was one of the most inspired days Ive ever had they had this flip chart and I literally drew out the entire game on the fly.
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The large cards are easy to 01 read, and the suits are clearly differentiated If you dont know how to play any of the games included on the app, youll find comprehensive help is provided
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If you want more game types 03 you can buy Solebon Solitaire, but the five offered here should keep you amused for some time Sol Free keeps track of how many games youve played, how many youve won and more
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KEY INFO
UK price Free US price Free Web www.smallware.com Download size 1.2MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requirements iOS 3.0 or later
CARD GAME
5
Great fun and its free. Can you ask for any more? The most fun you can have with an iPhone!
ew of us can resist a bargain, and whats better than free? Though we admire the sheer comprehensiveness of Mondo Solitaire, Sol Free is an incredibly slick implementation of Solitaire on the iPhone and its just been updated to include five games. You can, if youre a real Solitaire nut, buy the paid-for version with its endless variations of Solitaire games, but you dont have to. So lets see what the deal is here. Firstly theres the choice between Bakers Game, Demon, Klondike Deal 1, Klondike Deal 3 and Spiderette. Confused by those? Dont be! There are easy rules built into each type of Solitaire so you can quickly acquaint
yourself with the way the game is played. Perplexed? Click on the rules and all is explained really clearly. For those of us who ever whiled away half a lifetime on a Windows PC, the Klondike Deal 1 will be fairly familiar. Its the classic Solitaire game where you build up stacks of alternate coloured suits and then transfer them to foundations starting with an Ace and building all the way up to the Kings in separate suits. Got that? The cards are displayed in an easy-tosee format and you can transfer cards to their foundations with a simple double tap of your finger. Too lazy to do that? Press the Auto button and have Sol Free do it for you.
The program keeps track of your stats, telling you how long it took you to solve the game and in how many moves. You can switch games any time you like and your present game will be frozen. Want to move from Klondike to Spiderette and keep your game intact? No problem. Theres no better way to waste time than to idle a few hours playing cards with your iPhone, and since Sol Free is, if youll excuse the repetition, free, theres no reason not to install it on your iPhone or iPod touch to entertain you in a doctors surgery. That its beautifully-implemented and comes with rich, easy-to-read graphics is simply the icing on the cake.
TABLETOP CLASSIC
Battleship
U
nless youve played the game with pen and paper, you wont fully appreciate this iPhone version. In the old days, two players would draw various battleships on graph paper then call out grid references to see if their missiles had scored a hit or not. Later, Milton Bradley made a fun but cumbersome electronic version of it. Now the game has found its perfect home, thanks to Hasbro and EA. As well as the basic gameplay, this version also boasts salvo and superweapon modes, featuring multiple attacks, airstrikes, mines and the like. Graphically, the game is spiced up with smart cut-scenes depicting weapons being fired and ships sinking, and theres multiplayer fun to be had across local networks. Battleship isnt everyones ration of rum, but love it or loathe it, its hard to see
how the classic game could have been any better implemented on an iPhone. As well as the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth multiplayer options theres also the ability to use one iPhone and pass it from one to another for their turn.
WAR GAMES Pick your targets and hope you strike it lucky with a direct hit
KEY INFO
Download size 10MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.2.1 or later
CARD GAME
Mondo Solitaire
2.99 More than 100 variants of the classic tabletop card game
If youre feeling the pinch, Sol Free will do the job, but Mondo Solitaire is much richer
here were, a week after launch, more than a dozen Solitaire games already available on the App Store, but this is our favourite, though, despite having a soft spot for the ultra-clear and free Sol Free Solitaire its very polished, has some great personalisation options, and a couple of very clever usability tweaks that make gameplay very simple. Top of our list is the magnifying glass that lets you see whats in each pile in more detail, but were also big fans of the ability to slot a virtual paperclip around a selection of cards to move them all at once. The customisation options including pure eyecandy stuff such as changing the colour of the table and card backs, plus more useful gameplay settings, such as the ability to automatically flip cards makes the game feel very well put-together. It also features a huge library of customisable game types.
KEY INFO
Download size 7.6MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.1 or later
STACK EM The classic Klondike solitaire is supported but theres a cheaper version called Mondo Top 5 Solitaire that has this, too
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Play against up to nine real players and see each players facial expressions in portrait mode
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If you rotate your phone into landscape view, you get an overhead view of the poker table
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You can choose which location to play your game: Las Vegas, Paris, Dubai or, erm, your garage
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Keep your cards close to your chest by viewing your hand at any time in the bottom- right-hand corner of the iPhones screen
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UK price 2.99 US price $4.99 Web www.apple.com Download size 129MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.1 or later
KEY INFO
Texas HoldEm
2.99 Bluff your way to poker success with this gambling game from Apple
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A great way to hone your poker skills. Superb graphics and an intuitive interface makes this a hugely enjoyable game
nly Apple could have taken the iPhone platform and produced a version of poker that is simply stupendous. Choose where you want to play your poker and then place your bets. You can choose between your garage, Paris, Dubai, Istanbul and Las Vegas. Most of these exotic locations require you to have won a certain level before you buy in $100,000 in the case of Dubai. Choose garage and youre in for free with the possibility of winning a maximum of $1,250. The graphics of the garage are awesome with old Apple posters on the wall and long-defunct Apple kit stacked on the shelves, a very amusing homage to the computing giant.
The graphics are simply awesome and are every bit as good as the big online poker websites. In portrait mode you get to see your opponents face and their expressions. Turn the iPhone into landscape and the screen becomes an overhead plan of the Poker table. When youre holding the phone upright, the dealer throws out the cards to you and there they sit in the bottomright corner of the screen. If youre new to poker and unsure of the hand youve been dealt, the program helps. Simply tap on your cards and a rating meter appears to show you just how good your hand is. Its this friendly approach that really helps to ease you into the poker world.
You can also play against up to nine real players if you want but this multiplayer function is only possible if all players are on the same Wi-Fi network long-distance poker is out of the question. Texas HoldEm is the perfect way to practice and hone your poker skills without losing real money. Its a bit battery-hungry on a account of the amazing graphics but dont let that put you off. Whether youre a seasoned, whiskey-sodden pro or a newbie to the table, give it a try. In the recently updated version theres even animated gestures as you play as well as more statistics tracking and unlimited buy-ins for longer play time.
QuizQuizQuiz
1.19 Put your brain through its paces with this quiz app
A great take on a classic game. If only we could play against real people
his app is essentially a quiz machine, with several play modes for solo players and groups. There are also more than 5,000 questions per language (so if you fancy trying UK, Aussie or even Indian-themed questions, your options are huge). The questions are surprisingly varied too, categories including movies, TV shows, sports, cheeses(!), animals and math puzzles, to name just a few. Its a shame there are no picture or video challenges, but at just over 1 this is superb value and surprisingly well put-together. Just think how much how much you would save buying this app over having to those expensive quiz machine you find in bars and pubs! The latest version has almost 1,000 new questions so its really worth a purchase as these are included in the original price. Theres also improved categories, several new awards to try for and question time has been increased to 15 seconds.
KEY INFO
Download size 6MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.2.1 or later
Q&A Fancy a quick-fire quiz round? Then QuizQuizQuiz is the question and answer app for you
CLASSIC PUZZLER
Wurdle
WORDPLAY
DISC WORLD Win the game by capturing all of your opponents coloured discs
UK price Free US price Free Web www.weiphone.com Download size 0.5MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.1 or later
KEY INFO
he classic game of swapping game pieces from white to black to capture you opponents pieces gets an iPhone makeover here. Its not the only Othello/Reversistyle game on the store but it gets our vote because it feels well put-together and it has some pretty good AI playing against you. Wed like to see a two-player mode even if its not over the Wi-Fi or internet; just some way to allow two players to compete but its a good start, especially as its free. The game will last you a while though as there's four levels of opponents and it's certainly more challenging than you think it would be.
WORD UP Get a grid and find as many words as you can its easy!
UK price 1.19 US price $1.99 Web www.semisecretsoftware.com Download size 7.3MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.2 or later
KEY INFO
his is the iPhones take on the classic Boggle game. Itll be familiar to anyone whos played PathWords on social networking site Facebook. Youre given a grid of letters 5x5 by default, but 4, 6, 7 and 8-sized grids are possible and have to find as many words as you can, the longer the better, by linking together letters that are horizontally, vertically or diagonally adjacent. The implementation is very good, and there are plenty of options (including a pass and play two-player mode) to keep you amused. Its a fun little game, and a great way to keep your mind active while waiting for a bus.
PINBALL SIM
Monster Pinball
balls in an incredibly small space. The tilt function has made it to the game too, and is activated via the iPhones accelerometer.
PINBALL WIZARD Go for that high score by making combinations with your shots
KEY INFO
Download size 10MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
inball aficionados will probably crucify us for saying this, but Monster Pinball is a great pinball game. OK, its not quite the experience youd get in a darkened bar, nor is it as accomplished as certain revered videogame pinball sims of the past (you know the ones were talking about). But in terms of straightforward pinballing fun at a ludicrously affordable price, Monster Pinball is absolutely unbeatable. The ball physics are spot-on and the major features of any decent table are present and correct. And rather than try to present real tables in a shrunken form (which would be, frankly, unplayable on a small screen) Monster Pinballs developers have prudently made the interconnected tables here spacious enough to allow for much bashing and mashing of
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FLIP IT! Use the left and right buttons to activate your flippers on the pinball table
Commodore 64
C64 EMULATOR
RETRO GAMES Relive classic C64 gaming with this fun Commodore emulator
UK price 2.99 US price $4.99 Web http://c64.manomio.com Download size 20.4MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.1.3 or later
KEY INFO
ook at the App Store ratings and this particular widget is getting an undeserved kicking from people who dont know any better. Its a Commodore 64 emulator and comes with a handful of games thrown in. It also has a built-in store from which you can buy additional classic 80s C64 games for as little as 59p each. The emulator itself is nicely implemented with full-screen landscape mode and a vertical mode with a small screen and a joystick-shaped icon controller. The controls can be a little bit fiddly but the games are perfectly playable, totally authentic and really fun.
Guitar Hero
RHYTHM ACTION
KEY INFO
UK price 1.79 US price $2.99 Web hub.guitarhero.com Download size 122MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.1 or later
FRET WORK One the most successful console music games finally comes to the iPhone
Angry Birds
0.59 An iPhone phenomenon, Angry Birds is a must-have game
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As far as App Store games go, Angry Birds is an essential purchase
lmost overnight, Angry Birds became an App Store hit and has been topping the popularity chart in the games section for months. Its now become so popular the developers are even thinking of releasing a movie and a series of toys! What makes the game so enjoyable is its mix of its beloved little characters and easy to grasp touch controls. The game has a rather bizarre story involving the Angry Birds getting their revenge on the green pigs who keep stealing their eggs. You get to use the unique powers of each individual bird to help attack the pigs, capture the eggs and free any kidnapped friends. You start off each level by flinging birds at the pigs in their battlements, but youre limited to just a few birds with different powers for each level. With over 195 levels, Angry Birds should cost five times as much, as it is theres no reason not to buy this one go on, join the Angry Birds craze.
KEY INFO
Download size 17.7MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
TWEET TWEET Fling your Angry Birds at the pigshideouts to rescue birds and eggs and complete missions
Up There
BALLOON ESCAPE
FLOAT AWAY Up, up and away Proves that simplicity can be the key to a good game
UK price 0.59 US price $0.99 Web www.veiledgames.com Download size 7.6MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.2 or later
KEY INFO
p There begins with a helium balloon trapped in a house. When the balloon is released, tilt your iPhone or iPod touch left and right in order to move the balloon up through gaps in shelves. Succeed in this endeavour and the next set of obstacles is a series of rafters in the roof. Break out through the top of the house and the branches of trees form the next set of things in the way. And so it goes on, ever upwards. The longer you can ascend for without getting trapped, the more points you accumulate. Better your score each time and check it against other players online.
TAP IT Think your reactions are fast? Youll be tested with Tap Tap Revenge
UK price 1.19 US price $1.99 Web www.tapulous.com Download size 8.8MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.0 or later
KEY INFO
f you know the likes of Guitar Hero or Dance Dance Revolution then this game will feel very familiar. Its nowhere near as sophisticated, but its fun nevertheless. The idea is that you tap along to the beat of a song, tapping the correct point in the screen where the bubbles, dropping down the three beautifully coloured strings, hit the bottom of the screen. It starts off fairly easy but youll be really hard pushed to succeed at the more difficult guitar riffs. There are four different difficulty levels, and the two-player mode is great fun. Uses its own tunes, not your library.
BUBBLE BURSTER
Pang
0.59 Im forever blowing (up) bubbles
BUBBLING UP If you like to burst a bubble or two, the classic Pang game is just your thing
KEY INFO
Download size 7.5MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.2.1 or later
his is an almost pixel-perfect conversion of the arcade and home computer classic Pang. The idea is to pop bubbles with a vertically firing grappling hook. When a large bubble pops, two smaller ones appear and so on until the screen gets terrifyingly busy with different sized bubbles going everywhere. Clear the bubbles and you move on to the next of the games 50 levels. There are different numbers of bubbles, platforms, and power-ups, all of which keeps things interesting. If you dont like frustration, its probably best avoided though, youll be tearing your hair out soon enough with bubbles bouncing around all over your iPhones screen! Otherwise, its an addictive and challenging game that relives the classic game from 1989. Being touchbased though, its actually more intuitive than the original joystickbased game. Expect more games like this to head to the App Store.
CUBE CONUNDRUM
Q*Bert Deluxe
1.19 A blend of blocks, bouncing and baddies
KEY INFO
Download size 7.7MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.2 or later
or the benefit of the under 40s, Q*Bert was a classic arcade coinop. The premise is simple. The player has to make Q*Bert jump around a simple structure made of cubes. Each time he touches a cube it changes colour. When all the cubes have been changed its onto the next level. The problem is that there are many enemies who are also bouncing around the cubes and if Q*Bert gets touched, its curtains for the little fella! If Q*Bert gets into a tight spot he can attempt to leap onto a floating disk that will whisk him away to safety. Hes never safe for long though, as the further he gets, the more times he has to change the blocks colours. This release features the original version, a sexier updated mode with multiplayer and Co-op modes and a series of colourful jungle levels. Its a bit repetitive, but essential for retro fans who will love to be reminded that Q*Bert still exists.
If you like retro gaming and arent afraid of tough repetitive challenges, youll love this app
Mad o Ball 3D
1.19 Ball plus maze plus accelerometer equals fun
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Not all that slick, but Mad o Ball is oodles of fun
retty much any game that features a ball and a maze and that uses the iPhones accelerometer is going to be worth the asking price. Mad o Ball 3D, while not as slick or interesting as the more expensive Monkey Ball or Labyrinth, nevertheless frustrates and fascinates from start to finish. The idea is simply to roll the ball from the start to the finish of 32 floating mazes. Hazards come in the form of rotating platforms, steep inclines, jumps and the like. You can play each track with different racing styles to make it even more challenging and this also extends its game time. The topography of the mazes is not always clear, which can lead to some frustration, but its compelling enough to keep you plugging away to the bitter end, then go at it again to improve your times. If youve got an iPhone 4, an updated Retina Display version is coming soon as a free update.
KEY INFO
Download size 49.8MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
FRUSTRATING FUN Mad oBall provides yet another reason for you to be addicted to your iPhone
RAGDOLL PUZZLE
Ragdoll Cannon!
0.59p Love Angry Birds? Its your lucky day
his game employs physics not unlike those found in the incredibly popular Angry Birds. In Ragdoll Cannon, the player (predictably) fires ragdolls from a cannon in order to reach a target marked HERE. Pretty straightforward, but for the fact that blocks, dangling chains, balls and all sorts of other obstacles are introduced forcing you to really think about how to use the realistic physics of the ragdolls to get to the target. As they are ragdolls, their limbs are very floppy and cumbersome, adding an extra challenge to how you propel them around the screen. Youll also need to master chain reaction when hitting objects to achieve goals in the more difficult levels. Theres 220 levels, a one-touch control scheme and iOS 4 multitasking support. Also, theres Roly Poly Cannon on the App Store which is more complex, featuring timebombs and targets that you must both hit and avoid; oddly, its slightly less fun.
KEY INFO
Download size 16.1MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
RAG TIME Fling ragdolls at speed to clear a path to the goal. Theres endless fun to be had
GEM MATCHING
Bejeweled 2
0.59 The classic comes to the iPhone
IPHONE GEMS Match gem shapes and win big with Bejeweled 2
KEY INFO
Download size 10.8MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
hhh, Bejeweled. Forget the laggy, clunky webbased versions that first debuted on the iPhone, running in Safari, and hinting at its gaming potential this is the proper native app. And if youve never played Bejeweled before first, obviously, welcome back to Earth; whats Mars like, anyway? youre in for a real treat. The basic concept is almost facile: its a gem-matching game, so you swap different coloured gems around to makes line of three, four or five same-coloured gems. Its the perfect way to spend a few mindless minutes in a doctors waiting room or at a bus stop, and theres enough variety and strategy involved to keep you interested. Lines of three gems pop into oblivion immediately, lines of four give you a special exploding gem
that you can trigger later, and a line of five gives a gem that can wipe out all others of the same colour in a spectacular chain reaction or cascade of destruction. You can also play against the clock for an addedpressure challenge. Also included in the app on the App Store these days is Bejeweled Blitz which enables you to play against your Facebook friends. Bejeweled Blitz has over 10 million players on Facebook, so if youre into competing for global high scores, Blitz is just the thing for you. In Blitz mode you can earn coins and buy boosts to allow you to reach even higher scores than ever before. If you like you can even use the coins and boosts you get on the iPhone version back on the Facebook application instead.
Fantastic. The perfect pick up and put down game for the doctors waiting room. Its good-looking, too
BEJEWELED ALTERNATIVE
Critter Crunch
chain of similarly-coloured friends, wholl all pop at the same time and give you extra points. There are also Food Chain combos. If you feed a small critter to a medium-sized critter whos under a big one, the big one will then chomp him straight up and pop, dropping a coin to boost your combo further. As you work your way through, youll start to encounter power-ups, or Power Foods as theyre known here. Pop a sparkling critter, and you get a power food, which turns into an icon at the bottom left. When tapped, you get a special ability for a limited number of uses, such as being able to spit watermelon seeds to pop critters and clear some space. Theres more to discover too, with new elements constantly added to the game.
KEY INFO
Download size 9.4MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.1 or later
ssentially another gemmatching game, but with a twist. You control the monster at the bottom and use your sticky tongue to feed smaller monsters to bigger monsters. When theyre full, they pop, releasing point-giving gems or power-ups. Its too sluggish to load for our liking, but its adorably Japanese and some clever thought has been put into the gameplay. Critter Crunch is still one of our favourite puzzle games for the iPhone platform simply because the gameplay is so varied and addictive, and because its just gorgeous to look at and the sound effects are great, too. Essentially, in Critter Crunch you work against a time limit as the critters advance down the screen. You score extra points by popping a critter thats part of a
Although its sluggish to load, its one of our favourite iPhone games. Totally addictive
TOUCH SKILLS
Orbital
1.79 A three-in-a-row game with a twist
his game is kind on the eye but hard on the brain. Theres a cannon at the bottom of the screen and when you tap the screen it fires and deposits a ball (the size of which depends on how much space it has). To destroy each ball takes three more collisions. So its a balancing act of creating and destroying balls, without shots rebounding back into your firing area. Its the splitting of each element down into three parts that makes Orbital particularly challenging. Once you get the hang of it however, youll soon be smashing your way through the games levels. Its a real mix of strategy and reflexes that will keep you entertained for weeks on end! Make sure you practise though as the online players scores are always, always better than yours! In the latest version theres graphics updates and even direct support for Facebook, so you can show off your high scores with friends online.
KEY INFO
Download size 7MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.2 or later
TAP IT! Orbital offers the simple yet addictive gameplay that will lose you for hours
ON THE WONK Unlocking new and more powerful weapons are one good reason to keep playing
ENEMY TRAP
Spirit
L
TILT SHOOTER
Tilt to Live
ilt to Live is a near-perfect example of a simple idea, executed beautifully. You move your ship around the play area by tilting the iPhone (the controls here are phenomenally accurate and responsive) in order to avoid red dots (enemies) and pick up weapons in order to destroy those enemies. The further you progress in the game, the more insane the action becomes, and there are some entertaining achievements to be had. If thats not a turn-off, Tilt to Live should be right near the top of your shopping list. Its a blinder.
UK price 0.59 US price $0.99 Web spiritapp.com Download size 13.7MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
KEY INFO
SPACE INVADERS Create loops around your enemies to wipe them off your screen
Squareball
1.19 Mixing primary colours with frustration
SQUARED OFF It may look shocking in terms of visuals, but you just cant help but play Squareball
KEY INFO
Download size 12.6MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
ometimes the crudest games turn out to be the most compelling and so it proves with Squareball, a game inspired by Pong, Breakout and your generic basic platformer. All you have to do is guide a ball around a maze, collecting good stuff and avoiding bad stuff. Look for the green blocks to clear each stage and youll be fine. Youll spend as much time swearing at it as smiling upon it, but its stupendously addictive. Squareball sits halfway between genius and madness with its garish colour scheme and frustrating level designs. To go with the retro graphics are retro sound effects and being 60fps its a like a flashy disco on your iPhone! The game has 20 stages spread across five fantastic worlds and theres very different obstacles found in each maze. To celebrate the games first anniversary the developers have issued a free update that contains an endless mode which extends the games levels.
5
A throwback from the late 1980s. Vile colours, but brilliant all the same!
DELIVERY PUZZLE
The Package
1.19 A game that proves parcel delivery is a lot more complex than we initially thought
THE TRANSPORTER Deliver the parcels to their correct destination without making any errors
KEY INFO
Download size 35.3MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
n each level of The Package, a carboard box has to be transported from the entry point to the exit by means of positioning a number of handy gadgets such as fans, conveyor belts, springy boxing gloves and explosive charges. As play advances, the rooms become more hazardous, featuring more elaborate routes from start to finish, nooks and crannies in which to get trapped, and even crushing machines and furnaces that destroy the package. There are 20 levels in total, which doesnt seem that many. However, The Package chooses not to guide you through lots of introductory challenges and instead starts off tricky, and rapidly becomes incredibly difficult with little help available if youre struggling. Its a long process of trial and error, but satisfying when you find a solution. Part Incredible Machine, part Lemmings, part Royal Mail sorting office, its a great puzzler.
5
A superb puzzle package, but its a tough one
CUBE CONUNDRUM
Balcassa
0.59 Rubiks Cube meets sliding tile puzzle
3
Theres a great idea here, its just not been turned into a proper game
heres proof here that you should never judge a book by its cover. Balcassas creators, for some inexplicable reason, have decided to hide their rather smart and ridiculously challenging puzzle game behind a truly dreadful front end. The game is essentially a fusion of sliding tile puzzle and a Rubiks Cube. By rolling individual cubes around a grid, you have to achieve various aims, perhaps getting all the upper faces of the cubes showing the same colour, or assembling the faces of a bunch of dice in numerical order. The object of each of the games is to rotate a number of cubes into a sequence, a pattern or orientation by moving them around the screen.
In some games it may be enough to get each cube into position with the correct side showing, while in other games rotation of the cubes must also be considered. The idea is simple, the solution of course is far from it! Theres only a handful of puzzles available, but like a Rubiks Cube, its not the variety but the complexity thats important to the game, its the skill involved. Its just a shame theres no linear progression through the levels, no journey through the game. As it stands, Balcassa is a diverting toy rather than a fullyfledged game. Worth the money, but a bit workmanlike. Might be worth a look if you loved other popular iPhone cube rotation games such as Cubes.
COLOUR MATCH It looks simple, but Balcassa is far from a walk in the park
KEY INFO
Download size 1.17MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
PHYSICS STRATEGY
Enigmo
SCULPTURE WRAP
PHYSICS LESSON Lava and water have very different properties, as youll soon discover!
UK price 0.59 US price $0.99 Web www.pangeasoft.net Download size 5.5MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.1.3 or later
KEY INFO
atch a falling droplet and put it in a canister. Hmm that doesnt sound quite right. But hey, this isnt a game for oldies its fun for kids and also a useful physics lesson. Use bumpers, sliders, sponges and accelerators to move water, oil and lava from a dripping vessel to another container. Earn points as you go and extra bonuses for completing the level quickly. It takes some concentration (and patience), but is worth the effort. If you love a challenge, there are 50 levels for you to wring every last drop of fun out of. Mastering the liquids is really fun and makes brilliant use of the accelerometer.
Zen Bound
Its fun and you can learn some elementary physics while you play
UK price 1.79 US price $2.99 Web www.chillingo.com Download size 53.5MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.1 or later
KEY INFO
ART ATTACK Not so much a game, but Zen Bound is a captivating artistic experience
COG PUZZLE
Geared
here are some puzzle games that lay their stall out early. Tetris is a good example. There are falling shapes and you fit them together thats all you have to do. Then there are the overly complex ones, introducing more and more elements until your head hurts and you wonder what you were thinking about in exchanging cash for mental forms of torture. Geared is a weird one. It starts off so simple that its almost mundane, and continues to plough its initially tedious furrow for roughly 20 levels. Only then does the play mechanic that of placing cogs on a grid in order to link the initial gear to the end one find its feet and provide challenging, engrossing puzzling for the remainder of its 150 levels. Progress through the game is
COMPONENT PARTS Use your brain to align the cogs correctly to complete levels
KEY INFO
Download size 2.9MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
saved automatically and theres a skip feature so you can try any level rather than having to wait to unlock the harder ones. This is particularly handy if you get really stuck too, as you can crack on with the other puzzles and revisit the one thats causing you problems later on. If you get really stuck or make a mistake dont panic, theres always the Reset button on each level to take you back to the start of the puzzle, and theres even a community section on the game to discuss solutios with other iPhone users. Geared is the sort of game youll buy, be mildly disappointed with for five minutes, then go on to play constantly until youve completed it at which point youll be sorely disappointed its all over. The 150 levels is worth every penny of its price.
4
A limited premise, but one that opens up to create a satisfying challenge
COG PUZZLE
Cogs
0.59 App Store gaming paid in instalments
TILE FUN Build increasingly complex contraptions within attractive 2D and 3D environments
KEY INFO
Download size 27.1MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.o or later
ogs is like a sliding tile puzzle, but instead of completing a picture, youre arranging cogs in order to bring a clanking Victorian contraption to life. An additional challenge comes from having to work out arrangements over several sides of a 3D object. Theres two different modes: Inventor and Challenge Mode. In Inventor Mode you start with simple puzzles and have to use the tools youre given, whereas Challenge Mode (unlocked by completing Inventor Mode), you have to tackle the same puzzle again with limited time of just 30 seconds. Unfortunately, you only get a few levels at first and have to pay for additional level packs. Its not a deal breaker, but wed have preferred to buy the whole game up front to avoid the faff. Even so, this is a beautifully designed puzzler made all the more fun thanks to its steampunk presentation. Extend the game by competing on the online leaderboards.
4
Superb steampunk puzzling using a tiled 3D environment
ARCADE CLASSIC
5
Superb. This is just what the original game should have been like
his was the game that got everybody talking about the iPhone as a gaming platform, due to the nifty use of the accelerometer as a control device. In this SEGA Megadrive classic you tilt your iPhone to guide a little monkey in a glass ball through a series of floating 3D platforms, trying to avoid a fall from the edge. Unfortunately, it had a very sensitive control system, which meant it was fiendishly difficult to play and spoilt the experience for too many people. The new version of Super Monkey Ball is essentially more of the same style of gameplay but features improved graphics, more options, more levels, more characters, and its not as difficult as the original, which makes it more fun for the casual user. So long as you dont try to collect every single banana on each level (get 10 and you gain an extra life) mere mortals do now actually have a chance of completing most levels. Thank goodness for that!
KEY INFO
Download size 93.1MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.2.1 or later
BALL GAME Every banana counts thats the overriding message of Super Monkey Ball 2
TILT BOARD
Labyrinth 2
2.99 An a-maze-ingly good game
5
This is a fantastic expansion of the original game
e suspect the original Labyrinth in which you tilted the iPhone to send a steel ball from the start to the finish of a wooden maze wouldnt provide enough entertainment for gamers in the long run, but actually its one of the most popular games on the App Store because its so much fun. If you loved the original free Labyrinth game then youll love the sequel. Theres plenty to make the task harder including buffers, cannons, moving walls and magnets. Its not just about the tilting anymore! It offers so much variety that theres something for everyone and theres enough levels to justify the price. Its exactly the sort of game the iPhone was made for. The current version (1.3.1) has been updated for the new Apple Game Center (including 36 achievements to obtain), with global leaderboards and it now supports the Retina display of the iPhone 4 for extra clarity.
KEY INFO
Download size 12.6MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
TILT AND SHIFT Simple, addictive and loads of fun. Labyrinth 2 is a hit as far as were concerned
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Luscious graphics and cheery 01 soundscapes mark this out as a premium app, and its cheap! It has a fantastic calibration routine that sets the neutral rest point and the tilt sensitivity
02
03
The tutorial level tells you everything you need to know; just as well, as theres lots to take in!
03
There are four districts to work through; theyre locked until you complete earlier levels
04
KEY INFO
UK price 0.59 US price $0.99 Web www.thqwireless.com Download size 8.8MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.2 or later
TOPDOWN PLATFORM
De Blob
Looks great and offers plenty of scope for more committed gamers. The tilt control option is welcome
ON THE LEVEL You can choose not to use the tilting control system, which is a welcome option when youre travelling
PLATFORM HEDGEHOG
5
The pixel-perfect iPhone debut of everyones favourite hedgehog
he spiky speedster has finally arrived on the iPhone, enabling you to relive the gaming memories of the 90s. Battle Dr Eggman and collect golden rings in this note-perfect recreation of the original Mega Drive cartridge; it will delight any SEGA fan or younger gamer exploring the origins of todays platform gaming. The controls on the iPhone are responsive and visually its a real treat. The fast-paced gameplay also remains as enjoyable as ever, as you careen through the levels in search of the evil Dr Eggman. The only downside is the lack of a save facility. If you lose your lives you have to go back to the beginning. Its harsh, but to be fair, thats true retro-gaming for you. Sonic The Hedgehog 2 is also available for 3.49, and the latest release is Sonic The Hedgehog 4. Costing 5.99, this also include two exclusive iPhone levels.
KEY INFO
Download size 4.0MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
GOLD HUNTER Race around the obstacle courses, collecting gold rings and avoid evil Dr Eggman
TOUCH ACTION/PUZZLER
iBlast Moki
1.19 Getting blown up for good
ith its polished interface and pretty graphics, this physicsbased iPhone game is very much in the visual style of Sony PSPs Loco Roco but the premise is somewhat different. Here youre in the world of the Moki small cute creatures and the idea is to move the Moki around by blowing up any obstacles that are blocking their way. Its all about a combination of positioning and timing to best effect. So you might, for example, set a bomb to start the Moki rolling, set another to blast it over a chasm, and then set another to make it leap an obstacle. All these bombs have to have their timers set accurately to pull off the stunt successfully. There are 85 levels in seven different worlds, each with its own gameplay, and theres also a level-editor so you can create your own. You can play against friends, too. Its clever, and it should definitely be on your iPhone.
KEY INFO
Download size 11.6MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.2.1 or later
LIBERATE THE MOKI! Use well timed explosives to forge their path to freedom
ROLLING INVASION
Rolando
QUICK WITS Quick fingers will rescue you from any hazards
KEY INFO
Download size 27.4MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.2.1 or later
he aim here is to save Rolandoland from peril by rolling its inhabitants (Rolandos) through various hazards. Rescue a certain number of Rolandos on each level and you progress to the next challenge. The key is its physics engine. The Rolandos roll about the landscape with the tilt of the iPhone. Basic Rolandos go left and right and need a swipe of the screen in order to leap over obstacles, while Spikey Rolandos can roll across ceilings and vertical surfaces. You have to reach and activate switches that open doors, release bombs and shove blocks into pits to create bridges. Progression through the 36 levels requires concentration, thanks to the complexity of the maps and levels. While Rolando seems casual, it is also a triumph of good, old-fashioned, game design that will transport you to addiction without you realising that its sucked you in and made you a master of its internal prescript.
A visually beautiful and well designed game. Cheap, cheerful, and wonderfully playable
Sway
STARRY-EYED As well as moving to the exit quickly, you also collect stars as you swing past them
KEY INFO
Download size 9.4MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.0 or later
his appears to be a true original. Thats not to say its a work of genius its pretty short-lived and the control system can be frustrating but its a game unlike any other. Its ingenious design is a product of the iPhone touchscreens unique characteristics. Its like a platform game, but rather than standing on the platforms, your character hangs from them and moves away by swaying. Gently moving your right and left thumbs controls the swing and grip of your characters respective arms as he traverses the scenery collecting stuff, ultimately getting to the exit. Your score is calculated by how quickly you complete each level. Its tough, rewarding, sweet and annoying A Lite version is also available for free if you want to try out the game first. Once youre hooked, you'll need to pay to unlock the full game if you want all 25 levels and 10 characters.
4
A frustrating but rewarding game. And you wont have played its like before
END IN SIGHT The last couple of levels are frustratingly much harder than previous ones
ADDICTED TO TIDYING? No, neither are we, but you could be after a blast of I Love Katamari
EVOLUTION CHALLENGE
Spore Origins
pore Origins isnt as ambitious as the Mac version; you dont evolve your little creature onto land, and theres no web connection to share creations in populating new worlds. Its more suited to casual gaming. There are 30 levels in the main Evolution mode, and as you progress you can add defensive, offensive, navigation and sensation upgrades to your little creature. The game is packed with charm, and it looks great, but its not perfect. The calibration routine is handy, but its difficult to get it right, and the gameplay can be repetitive.
PICKEMUP
I Love Katamari
2.99 Like a Dyson suck to succeed
UK price 2.99 US price $4.99 Web www.namcogames.com Download size 84.2MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.2.1 or later
A beautiful, fun game, but it lacks depth, and wed like some clearer instructions
he iPhone is introducing casual gamers to all sorts of weird Japanese titles that were previously the preserve of hardcore game fans only. Here the protagonist, a prince, collects junk by rolling a sticky ball and picking up stuff. Starting small, you collect pegs and dominoes, before moving onto bottles and cartons, then small pets, furniture and buildings. The game is basically a collect-emup, but the surreal premise and accurate physics make rolling this ball challenging and compelling.
KEY INFO
INTERGALACTIC EXPLORATION
SolarQuest
1.79 Strap yourself in for a rough landing
3
Its clumsy, crude and jerky. But if you like clunky space games, its perfect
ould you pilot a spacecraft through 3D celestial challenges across three levels of difficulty, reliving Star Trek-esque intergalactic antics? Youll need agility because SolarQuests controls are crude, with just an afterburner for thrust and a lift jet to keep you aloft. As you crash headlong through space, you can collect three types of power-up boosts to assist you on your way. Your spaceship has shields to protect you and there are three lives. Trying to steer by wiggling your iPhone isnt easy and theres horrid thrash music to accompany your efforts, while the iPhones vibrator also kicks in from time to time when you hit something. There are a few bugs in this app because operation is neither smooth nor fluid. But youre talking about pocket-money price, so if you like the cut and thrust of competing on an online leaderboard, this could be the way to idle away a few hours.
KEY INFO
Download size 2.0MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.1 or later
DODGE BALL Steer your way around the universe and avoid hitting obstacles in this intergalactic adventure
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LeChuck is scary, but not as spooky as the Ghost Pirate himself, coming to haunt you
02
Hmm, what is this island 03 called, we wonder? Backdrops hold many clues
04
UK price 4.99 US price $7.99 Web www.lucasarts.com Download size 355MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.2.1 or later
KEY INFO
PIRATE POINTANDCLICK
5
A superb revamp of a legendary adventure. An essential in every true gamers library
system. Rather than having to tap a desired area or object, you have to grab and drag an onscreen pointer. This is fine for the most part, but when youre trying to get Guybrush to head off the side of the screen, it can sometimes be a little difficult to get the pointer pointing in the right direction. Irritating it may be, but to deduct points for the slightly awkward iPhone controls would be petty. No, Monkey Island SE is special because it not only faithfully recreates the original game, but also adds
improved graphics, a new voiceover by the original Monkey Island cast, and an enhanced soundtrack with live instruments while retaining all the character of the original. In fact, the original version of the game is included and you can, rather brilliantly, toggle between the old Classic mode and the new Special Edition mode during gameplay, simply by swiping the screen. Monkey Island SE is adventuring at its most amusing and entertaining, and as such shouldnt be missed.
SCIFI POINTANDCLICK
4
Even annoying voice acting cant spoil this cool classic
his sci-fi point-and-click adventure follows the character of Robert, who was adopted and raised in the Australian outback. Years later Robert is kidnapped by security soldiers sent from Union City but manages to escape, and this is where his new adventure begins. The backstory is introduced through a comic book, drawn by famous artist Dave Gibbons. Its familiar fare, with Rob working with his sidekick, an intelligent talking robot called Joey that hes built himself. Together they travel around and solve puzzles by talking to people, pressing buttons, collecting and using objects and so on; in its day it was pretty sophisticated stuff, and even now still proves to be enjoyable. The voice acting, it must be said, is poor. The clunky delivery is irritating and Joey is plain annoying. This, however, is not a deal breaker and this adventure should appeal to a broad spectrum of players.
KEY INFO
Download size 134MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.1.3 or later
BRIGHT SPARK Robs party trick was going well until the ventriloquists dummy spontaneously self-combusted
MYSTERY POINTANDCLICK
5
A superb update to the classic with impressive production values
KEY INFO
Download size 353MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.1.3 or later
ZUT ALORS! A brutal murder in Paris is the start of this enticing chain of events
EPISODIC MYSTERY
PUZZLING IT OUT While the maids making out you can duck inside and steal her keys
KEY INFO
Download size 138MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.1 or later
e missed the first chapter of this mystery adventure, but having caught up with it, we recommend it. Told through high-res hand-drawn animation, the story takes place in a version of America with a government that has banned booze, cigarettes and seems intent on spoiling everyones fun. Not a lot happens initially in fact the protagonist just has to perform a few chores. But a recurrent nightmare and increasingly incongruous events soon starts to unsettle him. Its up to you to solve the mystery, through multitouch puzzles and multiplechoice dialogue. Our only gripe is that each chapter is quite short, and at six chapters long the whole game will cost 18. You dont have to buy the previous versions, however, as you can start at any point with a handy recap. And this is an ongoing drama that we cant wait to get to the bottom of.
4
An unsettling and intriguing adventure
TIMELESS ROLEPLAY
Fighting Fantasy
W
hen Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone introduced the first Fighting Fantasy gamebook back in 1982, The Warlock of Firetop Mountain captured the hearts and imaginations of geeks everywhere. The idea of playing a Dungeons and Dragons-style adventure on your own, with the book acting as the dungeon master, was an instant winner. 28 years later, on the iPhone, the basic adventure remains the same but the dice rolling, stat calculations and inventory systems have been automated. In addition, the original monochrome illustrations are now full colour.
KEY INFO
3
A timeless classic. And now, a little piece of role-playing history in your pocket
Download size 26.2MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
THIRDPERSON COMBAT
Assassins Creed II
3.99 Consoles killer-sequel stalks iPhone
4
Agility, combat and stealth all in one pleasing package
bisoft and Griptonite have done a spectacular job in bringing Assassins Creed II to iPhone. The visually stunning console chapters were never going to be squeezed in, of course, but as Assassins Creed Discovery, this side-scrolling interpretation of the experience is a credit to whoever was on the design team. Its an extra untold chapter from the main game, where Ezio travels to Spain to rescue his fellow assassins. Once there, hes caught up in another Templar plot. It looks a treat and the controls for moving, jumping, rolling and fighting are intelligently implemented. Its only the stealth sections that mar things a bit by being just a little too unforgiving. Otherwise, though, its a beauty with excellent gameplay. A multiplayer version is also available for 1.79, where you can compete in real-time multiplayer games to become the master assassin.
KEY INFO
Download size 147MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.2.1 or later
SIDESCROLLING Assassins Creed II gets the side-scroller treatment but remains faithful to the original
Chaos Rings
T
he makers of Final Fantasy, Square Enix, have graced our iPhones with this RPG. And save for a few niggles and an inflated price tag its a stunner, which will keep you entertained for many hours. The story involves characters being transported to an unknown realm where The Agent informs them they have to fight in order to attain immortality. Weird! What follows is monster encounters, exploration, turn-based combat and levelling up. There are four scenarios, as you compete in a tournament in the Ark Arena. With sensitive navigation theres superb gameplay and high-quality graphics that befit the price tag. There are puzzles to break up the random battling. It has plenty of replay value too; once youve finished, play the complete storyline again with each of the other characters and experience alternate endings. Theres plenty of game here
4
A great-looking and thoroughly enjoyable iPhone exclusive
KEY INFO
Download size 274MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
WORK TOGETHER In combat you can either attack your opponents individually, or as a team
PLAY Simulation
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Explore the Final Fantasy world with your character by roaming about the landscape
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Use objects around the landscape to aid your adventure; here columns can be used to hide from enemy attacks
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Your choice of weaponary appears at the bottom of the app for easy switching in combat
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Fight scenes are all in the sideon view, which makes it easy to see more of the action on screen
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UK price 5.49 US price $8.99 Web dlgames.square-enix.com Download size 81.4MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requirements iOS 3.0 or later
KEY INFO
ROLEPLAYING GAME
Final Fantasy
5.49 The seed from which the mighty Final Fantasy franchise grew
ess experienced gamers who are familiar only with the epic 3D cinematic splendour of recent Final Fantasy releases will find the original game a bit flat and crude by todays standards. But at the time of its release back in 1987, Final Fantasy was cutting-edge stuff and has since developed a real cult following. It wasnt until the release of Final Fantasy VII that the franchise achieved mainstream success and this first game was initially a Japan-only release, making the iPhone version particularly pleasing to see. Final Fantasy follows a party of four adventurers known as the Warriors of Light, all of whom seem to figure in a
great prophecy and who, according to the ancient rules of role-playing games, must save the world from a great threat. The action takes place via three easy-to-use interfaces. Theres a closeup map used for exploring villages, castles, dungeons and so on. The world map provides an expanded view from where the party can travel between locations and randomly get involved in battles. And when this happens, the action changes to the battle window, at which point, individual party members can be allocated tasks such as attack, use magic, defend, run away or even perform healing and curing spells. The battle moments are all in a side-on view and players can choose a variety of
characters and classes to help complete levels and achievements. They will of course get helpful upgrades along the way to help fight off increasingly difficult enemies. The game has a classic set-up, and is one thats extremely entertaining from start to finish. The single irksome aspect is that, as in the original 1987 release, theres way too much random battling required to level up between each quest. Despite this, its a really fun adventure, and an important game for iPhone gamers. Final Fantasy II has also made its way to the iPhone for 5.49 ($8.99), which extends your role-playing adventuring for many more hours.
Simulation PLAY
WORLD STRATEGY
Civilization Revolution
3.99 Build a huge civilisation in your pocket!
Revolution is a great interpretation of the fullsized game, but the small screen causes a few issues
ou might think that trying to squeeze a game of such epic scope as Civilization onto a tiny device, such as the iPhone, would be a fools errand. Well, this version boasts a lot of depth. Featuring 10 substantial scenarios (and a random map generator), you gather resources to build cities and armies to gain influence and create a thriving civilisation in your pocket. You can choose from 16 different civilizations from history, including America and China and victory comes in four flavours you can capture all enemy cities, collect 20,000 gold pieces, launch a space mission or collect 20 World Wonders and Great People. The gesture-based control system is excellent, particularly the pinch to zoom controls, but the only problems are the lack of a multiplayer mode and the small view of your surroundings. Otherwise, this is a real winner and youll want to spend hours on it.
KEY INFO
Download size 80.9MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requirements iOS 2.2 or later
BUILD IT Despite being squashed on to a small screen, Civilization Revolution boasts impressive detail
FARMING FUN
Astro Ranch
FREE Experience some colourful alien agriculture
Attractive design with some of the best features of other simulation games; truly engaging gameplay
arming games such as Harvest Moon and Animal Crossing arent everyones bucket of swill; in fact theyre normally dismissed as being timewasters. But most gamers, if pushed, will admit they find them a guilty pleasure. Astro Ranch could easily have been a cheap knock-off, but far from it. This is a fully fledged and rather excellent farming RPG in its own right. After crash-landing on a Jetsons-style planet, you must build up a plot of land by growing crops and rearing livestock. Along the way youll meet characters, perform tasks, play minigames, collect stuff and share experiences with others online. Astro Ranch features a huge variety of alien crops, animals to help you build up your farm. The stunning 3D graphics are very colourful and it really shows off what the iPhone and iPod touch can do with their brilliant screens. Overall, its a gentle, nonthreatening and more-ish farm game you can play with your friends.
KEY INFO
Download size 61.3MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requirements iOS 3.0 or later
ANOTHER PLANET Life on the Astro Ranch wont set the world on fire, unless the landscape catches alight!
PLAY Simulation
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On a sightseeing tour to the Great Wall of China, you get to take in great views and learn stuff
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If you want to learn a foreign language, youll need to play one of these simple minigames
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Touch down in Egypt and 03 you can head off to see the pyramids, the Sphinx, or even explore some ruins
KEY INFO
UK price 1.79 US price $2.99 Web www.eamobile.com Download size 98MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requirements iOS 2.2.1 or later
PEOPLE SIM
nlike its desktop counterparts, The Sims 3 World Adventures is not an expansion requiring the original game, but a standalone title in its own right. As such, we would recommend new gamers to ignore the first game as this is a much more rounded experience. The idea here is that your Sim can break the shackles of its household and local neighbourhood in order to seek fortune and fun in various locations around the world. The three exotic locations on offer are China, Egypt and France. The player has enough Simoleons (currency) to jet straight off to foreign parts if they want, but the money soon runs out, so its worth
sticking to your home turf initially and doing some more traditional Simming. This of course involves getting a job, making friends, extending your house, washing, eating and using the toilet which is all very mundane but casually entertaining nevertheless. Later, as tasks are offered to you (sleep in a friends bed, visit the Great Wall of China, kick over a dustbin and so on) you can either opt to lock them in as firm goals or simply let them pass you by and get on with the chores. Heading off to distant places is as simple as leaving your house to access the town map, then heading off to the airport to buy a ticket. During the flight your Sim will experience turbulence
and in order to avoid air sickness, you must take part in an exceptionally dull minigame. Succeed, however, and your little person will arrive at the destination thoroughly refreshed and ready to explore. In foreign locations theres a wealth of stuff to do. Here, as at home, you can make friends, go shopping and so on, but you can also choose to learn a foreign language or explore some old ruins; success in such endeavours being achieved by playing and winning a simplistic minigame. Alternatively, perhaps the tourist in you will opt for visiting great landmarks such as the Pyramids or Eiffel Tower for a delightful cut-scene and history lesson.
Simulation PLAY
BATTLE STRATEGY
UniWar
0.59 Budget strategy gaming with premium fun
5
A wonderful strategy game easy to play yet still provides a challenge
intendos Advance Wars franchise is a joy, providing a rich strategic challenge presented in an accessible way. But seeing as Nintendo will probably never bring its games to the iPhone, UniWar is the next best thing for war strategy fans. Hexagonal tiles represent the battlefield, with forests, mountains, and other scenery providing both offensive and defensive advantages. Units can be employed to engage the enemy, defend territory, capture bases and so on. The game is a turn-based strategy sim that enables players to take turns building their army and fighting against each other using the different arsenals at their disposal. Move up the ranks to become a top player in the online UniWar universe and try to hold on to your high scores. UniWar is a really fun way to pass time for a fraction of the cost of other war strategy games. Be warned though, its highly addictive!
KEY INFO
Download size 8.7MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requirements iOS 2.2
MAP ATTACK Fans of strategy battle games with love the intuitive interface of UniWar
FLIGHT SIMULATION
Flight Control
0.59 Aircraft chaos without the turbulence
The cool app that turns air traffic control into the best and most fun job ever
ave you ever wished you could take control of dozens of aircraft and their passengers? No. Neither have we. As it turns out, the stresses of being an air traffic controller make for great game fodder. Flight Control presents the player with a top-down view of an airport. The aircraft then appear so the player can trace flight paths to guide the planes to the landing points, hopefully avoiding mid-air collisions. The random paths and speeds of the aircraft make it harder than you think, and more addictive than you can imagine. From small airliners to jumbo jets and helicopters, you'll have hours of fun trying to juggle all these aircraft around the runways without them crossing paths and colliding. There's a variety of airports, from simple landing strips to busy airports and even an aircraft carrier. The current version has also been updated for the new Game Center for competing with friends.
KEY INFO
Download size 13.4MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requirements iOS 2.0 or later
FLIGHT PATH Test your airplane landing skills with the challenging and fast-paced Flight Control
CITY RACING
RACE AGAINST TIME Outmanoeuvre the cops and pick your automobile of choice from the law-abiding public
KEY INFO
Download size 232MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.1 or later
hinatown Wars is a spin-off of the smash-hit Grand Theft Auto franchise, bringing its controversial but action-packed car theft gameplay to a string of mobile devices. Gameplaywise, theres little to distinguish this from the DS and PSP versions. Its basically the same game, but with controls tweaked to suit the iPhones touch-sensitive display. Although the game features 3D visuals, it still uses the top-down view of the original and features cel-shaded graphics. The camera occasionally gets a little confused and the driving controls are a little sensitive for our liking but these are minor irritants in what is otherwise a substantial and superbly crafted game. The illustrative elements, cutscenes, environments and missions are every bit as involving as those in the GTA releases you get on living-room game consoles. Creator Rockstar Games deserves huge respect for this spectacular release.
A criminally good version of GTA for the iPhone, especially once you get used to the controls
STREET RACING
FROM THE MAKERS OF Some faces behind the original Grand Theft Auto have made a compelling look-alike
KEY INFO
Download size 106MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.2 or later
o all intents and purposes, this game is a hark back to the original Grand Theft Auto. Thats no great surprise considering that Paul Farley, founder of Car Jack Streets developer TAG Games, was part of the original GTA team. There are no fancy visuals in this title, with the emphasis placed firmly on gameplay. You view the city top-down and scroll around to follow your deviant character, Randall Meyers: his task is to run around the city, nicking cars and performing tasks in order to raise cash and get in the good books of the local crime boss. The game runs in real time and you have an actual week in which to rack up each $50K payment you have to make. Playing more often, therefore, increases your chances of success. One negative point is that the steering controls can be a bit fiddly, but this is still a classy bit of top-down crime-foolery and a lot of fun to boot.
Even the awkward controls cant ruin a game thats essentially Grand Theft Auto on the iPhone
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CRASH BANG Race a series of zanyracers round a dozen tracks; its lots of fun, but the nav system isnt easy
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COLLECT WEAPONS You can pick up power-ups that can help you beat your opponents, or protect you from their aggression
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REVERSE GEAR Yes, were driving backwards in this shot. We told you the navigation was tricky to master
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MARIO KART INSPIRED Special parts of the track boost your speed now where have we seen that idea before?
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UK price 1.79 US price $2.99 Developer www.activision.com Download size 10.2MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.2.1 or later
KEY INFO
KART RACING
es, we want Mario Kart on the iPhone but until then, Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D will have to do. In any case, the similarities are startling: you race a kooky character round a series of tracks there are a dozen in total, a number wed like to see increased driving through boxes to reveal various offensive and defensive power-ups. The graphics may look disappointing if youre wedded to your PS3, but theyre sufficiently fluid and detailed to impress here. Think Nintendo DS and you wont be far wrong. The tilt-the-iPhone-to-steer control system can be tricky to get to grips with, although there is a calibration
FAMILIAR FACES Friends and foes from other Crash Bandicoot games control your rival vehicles
option. Part of the problem with any accelerometer-based navigation system is that the angle of view on some iPhone screens isnt particularly accomplished: as soon as you move the
screen away from the normal viewing angle, it can be tricky to see detail on-screen as the colours shift, never mind the play of reflections from ambient lighting. Ironically, we found it difficult to play this racing game while being a passenger in a car or bus. For our money, Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D doesnt quite have the charm that Mario Kart has, but its still a well-built game. Wed also like to see a multi-player option; even without it, though, its still huge amounts of battery-sucking fun. The great thing about the iPhone and iPod touch as a gaming platform is that the games are much cheaper than usual, making Crash Bandicoot a good buy.
Theres room for improvement here, especially in the number of tracks to race through, but this is a competent and fun racing game
SPLISH SPLASH Attractive locations, competitive races and cool water effects enliven Aqua Moto Racing
KEY INFO
Download size 18.2MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.1 or later
otor sport took some time to find its feet on the iPhone, but now there are plenty of great titles available. While Aqua Moto Racing isnt destined to become the definitive water racing experience, it certainly presses the right buttons. The accelerometer is perfectly employed in steering your jet ski, while touch spots at the bottom of the screen enable you to apply brakes and boosts as required. The 18 courses, set across three locations including the Everglades, are simple yet nicely designed; you can extend the games lifespan by racing each course in reverse too. The difficulty level is spoton, enabling you to progress easily through the initial levels, but throwing up challenges later in the seven championships provided. Completing stunts to receive power boosts adds a level of strategy to races, while time trials encourage you to hone your racing skills.
With plenty of challenges, Aqua Moto delivers solid racing thrills and intelligent use of the accelerometer
KART RACING
Cro-Mag Rally
1.79 Go back to the Stone Age for a fun-filled racing experience
WACKY RACES Cartoon fun abounds in Cro-Mag Rally, a racing game thats suitable for all ages
KEY INFO
Download size 66.2MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.1.3 or later
ro-Mag Rally was a big hit on the Mac, and is every bit as good on the iPhone. In fact, its even more fun, as steering via the accelerometer is very intuitive. You can choose to be Brog or Grag, respectively male and female Stone Age drivers, and there are nine tracks and a choice of 11 karts. As well as steering, theres forward and reverse, plus a release button for throwing weapons at your rivals. There are two game modes to test your skills against: Race is exactly what it says, and Gather is about collecting spears, bone bombs and bottle rockets, and heat-seeking pigeons. Theres also a wireless multi-player option. There are echoes of Mario Kart throughout, of course, and its all about getting around the track at breakneck speed. If you crash often, you can end up disorientated. Thank goodness, then, that the game displays a big red X when youre going the wrong way.
Such great fun. The speed control is a bit too jerky; that aside, this is a really superb waste of time
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For heavens sake, is there 03 nothing normal in this place? Heel, boy Yup, thats his bowels. You can see what this foe had for his breakfast
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UK price 3.99 US price $6.99 Developer www.idsoftware.com Download size 80.8MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.2.1 or later
KEY INFO
FIRSTPERSON SHOOTER
Doom Resurrection
3.99 Its neither the original Doom, nor Doom 3, but itll do for now
ollowing the conversion of the classic Wolfenstein to the iPhone (see the next page), the smart money was on the subsequent release of a chunky-pixel-perfect version of the original Doom. That arrived as Doom Classic but, more interestingly, developer id has also created Doom Resurrection, an entirely original title for your favourite handheld device. Dont get too excited, though. Rather than the free-roaming action of the Doom franchise, this is more like one of those light gun point-and-shoot games you may have played in a seaside arcade, with movement being predetermined and the player left to deal with the oncoming hordes by
tilting the iPhone to aim and shoot at stuff with a tap of the screen. To be fair, theres a little more to Doom Resurrection than that but only a little. As you play, youre given the opportunity at points to take cover and dodge enemies. If you get grabbed, you can shake your iPhone and break free. In this regard, it offers a little more involving combat than your average on-rails shooter. To its credit, Doom Resurrection looks amazing far more sophisticated than either Wolfenstein or Doom Classic. The linear action has enabled the developers to make the scenery that bit more detailed, and the story has been crafted with care, too. There
FREAK SHOW A compelling animation sets the scene for the story behind Doom Resurrections violent gameplay
are also some suitable chunky sound effects to complete the sensory experience. In summary, this is a decent simulacrum of the real thing, but ultimately you may be left wanting.
A great shooter with strong Doom flavourings and polished graphics, but its not the real deal
COMBAT GAME
SOLID STORY Metal Gear Solid Touch continues the tale of this hugely popular combat series
KEY INFO
Download size 249MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.0 or later
he Metal Gear series is known for its stealth-based gameplay, so its odd that this instalment, created for iPhone, ditches that remit almost entirely in favour of first-person-style shooting action. Metal Gear Solid Touch stays true to its roots on one level, with high production values and long, but interesting, cut scenes. In this respect, devout followers of the series will lap up the latest plot revelations and twists. To be fair, the gameplay itself, involving picking off distant enemies with various guns, sniper rifles and the like, is solidly entertaining. But surely the Metal Gear Solid fan base (and we include ourselves in this) wouldve been better served by a collection of puzzle-like challenges based on the VR missions in previous chapters, rather than the derivative blasting action seen here. Lets hope that any subsequent chapter is more like the Metal Gear solid games we know and love.
Polished and fun, to be sure, but this isnt anything like the Metal Gear game we might have hoped for
FIRSTPERSON SHOOTER
ALL-OUT ASSAULT It looks primitive, but Wolfenstein popularised many of the ideas seen in the modern FPS
KEY INFO
Download size 21.5MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.0 or later
ome say that id Softwares Wolfenstein was the game that defined the first-person shooter genre as we know it today. What was once a ground-breaking and cuttingedge desktop game is reborn here on the iPhone. The premise (you play a super-agent imprisoned by Nazis in Castle Wolfenstein) hasnt changed, and neither has the gameplay, which involves finding your way through corridors and rooms in order to find the exit, blasting enemies as you go. There are 60 levels with graded weapon pick-ups for you to battle your way through. Crucially for a game not originally designed for a touch-screen, Wolfenstein features a superb control system where you can strafe with one thumb, look around with the other, and shoot by moving a digit deftly to the top corner of the screen. It works beautifully. With Wolfenstein 3D, youre not just re-playing part of gaming history youre also having a blast.
A game design classic. Kitsch, comfortably familiar and yet still cool and all on your iPhone
FIRSTPERSON SHOOTER
Brothers in Arms looks great and its a big game, although control issues mar the fun to a degree
hile games on mobile phones have shown us that novelty puzzlers can be entertaining, the idea of settling down for a heavyweight gaming experience on a mobile device wasnt an option at first. Newer iPhone releases, though, prove that we have a proper gaming platform on our hands, rather than just a music player with added gaming functions. Hour of Heroes represents a stepping stone from electronic frippery to proper handheld gaming. Charting your progress across three WWII campaigns, the games 12 missions provide thrills to spare. Slick cut scenes set the tone and detailed 3D environments successfully bring big-screen shooting action to the small screen. However, the developers have struggled with the control system. Its inaccurate and unresponsive, and manic thumb movements can obscure the action at crucial moments. Its still worth a look at the price, though.
KEY INFO
Download size 87.9MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.1 or later
RETRO WARFARE Hour of Heroes uses World War II as the backdrop of its hours of action-packed gameplay
FIRSTPERSON SHOOTER
Looking, sounding and playing great, this is a firstperson shooter of the highest order
lthough a game simulating combat situations in the Middle East might strike some people as too close to the evening news for comfort, Modern Combat: Sandstorms 10 missions have an adherence to realism that make them wholly compelling to play. Everything here is polished to perfection. The opening cut-scenes of Modern Combat alone are of a quality befitting a big-budget title but what makes the game is the sophistication of the level design and the control implementation. A directional stick on the left leaves your right thumb to look around, shoot and select stuff, and it works well. The banter between squad members is unconvincing, but thats probably down to budgetary constraints, so well let it go. Sandstorm looks good, assails your ears with industrial-strength sound effects and is one of the most playable iPhone FPS titles to date.
KEY INFO
Download size 199MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
IN THE ZONE Forget Doom Resurrection this is the first-person shooter you want for the iPhone
FIRSTPERSON SHOOTER
NOVA
3.99 Experience the future face of combat as you journey to alien worlds
SCI-FI SHOOTER If youre into FPS games, NOVA is definitely one to grab for your iPhone
KEY INFO
Download size 187MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
eve had a few decent firstperson shooters on iPhone now, but this original title from Gameloft is possibly one of the best. The multiple internal and external environments are reminiscent of the hugely popular PC and Xbox franchise Halo, and the gameplay, while doing nothing innovative, is engineered with creativity and panache. The story features the unoriginal pairing of a lone space marine and a bunch of aliens, but the superb gameplay more than papers over the narrative cracks. The scenery is very well designed throughout the 13 missions, theres a solid arsenal of weapons, and enemies are both intimidating and intelligent. Best of all, theres an online multiplayer mode, which enables you to take on other NOVA players in a selection of levels. We also love the support for iPhone 4s gyroscope, which introduces a new control dynamic.
A full-on shooter with loads of gaming value and an online multiplayer mode as the icing on the cake
FIRSTPERSON SHOOTER
Prey Invasion
0.59 Cheaper than Doom Classic and just as much fun to play
BEWARE! This brutes claw might look withered, but get too close and it can do a lot of damage
KEY INFO
Download size 10MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.1 or later
heres not enough space to go into the plot here except to say that its the old story of Native American Indian boy meets girl who gets abducted by aliens and boy discovers spiritual side Thus the scene is set for a first-person shooter that works well on the iPhone thanks to intelligently designed controls. Unlike Doom Resurrection, a game that uses an on-rails, light-gun shoot-em-up style, Prey Invasion has opted to implement proper FPS controls, with two analogue pads controlling direction and camera angle, and a screen-tapping mechanism for shooting. It works almost perfectly, and you can switch to a more conventional control system if you prefer. Prey Invasion looks great, too. Early criticisms about the lack of enemies were addressed in an update, although the level design does remain a bit weak. Still, this offers enough fun to make it worth a look.
Its not the most polished FPS youll play, but this is good fun and great value for money
Ace Combat Xi is a superbly designed game with great graphics, but its all over far too soon
he Ace Combat series features gameplay that eschews strict flight simulation in favour of a more arcadey take on airborne warfare. Much effort has been put into making the iPhone version look great. The planes, scenery and effects are a treat. The controls can be fiddly until you get used to them, but flying using the accelerometer and accessing weapons with the on-screen buttons work well. With only five missions in the game, however, your play can end all too soon, and it feels like youre getting short-changed. Ace Combat Xi is just about worth the asking price, thanks to the high production values and the replay potential offered by the games ranking system. You can also buy additional planes to squeeze more replay value from the game. Utlimately, though, what we really want are more of the missions and their gorgeous backdrops to soar through.
KEY INFO
Download size 139MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
SHORT BUT SWEET Skies of Incursions looks great, but wed love a lot more of it five levels isnt enough
ARMOUR WARS Taking on enemies can be simple, even if they are disguised as pesky military vehicles
UK price 1.19 US price $1.99 Web vectortanks.com Download size 12.9MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.2 or later
KEY INFO
KEY INFO
UK price 0.59 US price $0.99 Developer paramount.com Download size 34.4MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.2.1 or later
SHOOTEMUP
ector Tanks, an iPhone homage to the 1980s Atari arcade classic Battlezone, has been beefed up with the release of this Extreme! version, boasting more firepower on both sides of the battle. You have railguns, rockets and nukes, while the two tanks of the original are joined by a new model that sports a laser cannon, plus land mines and even helicopters. The aim is simply to get a high score by shooting as many enemies as
possible while you still can. You may get post-traumatic stress in the process (but in a good way).
entertaining enough through its 12 levels, making it more than worth the asking price.
Vector Tanks Extreme! pumps the great old Battlezone formula up a few notches
Iron Man is cool, and so is this game. Excellent controls, nice visuals and a low price
The 2011 iPhone app guide 153
FOOTBALL MANAGEMENT
Soccer Manager
2.99 Take your team to the top of the league in style
FOOTY MAD Line up your team in a variety of formations for better results
KEY INFO
Download size 18.7MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 3.0 or later
or a quick fix of footy management-lite, which you can pick up and play whenever you fancy, Soccer Manager ticks most of the boxes for hardcore managerment fans and casual players alike. This is a tidily designed football game and player transfers, squad management, strategy and training options are all dealt with much like the bigger games you get for desktop computers. However, there are no graphical representations of matches and the text-based commentary on offer is, at best, perfunctory. Still, this game provides a solid framework for you to explore your management urges
when out and about. What we really liked about Soccer Manager is its scope. Choose any team from the top two divisions of six European countries, buy and sell players, negotiate contracts, deal with your chairman and even get your staff to help develop players Your team can qualify through playoffs, get promotion, win the premier division and qualify and win European competitions in order to fill your trophy cabinet. Your status will record historical achievements even if you change jobs. You can view all this detailed information about your club and players in a simple to use interface thats perfect for the small screen.
A tightly-designed, casual footy management game. Just dont expect the earth
ARCADE FOOTBALL
INSTANT REPLAY Have fun mucking about with the replay camera to relive those classic footy moments
KEY INFO
Download size 51.5MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.2.1 or later
hings are looking bright for footy fanatics everywhere thanks to the 2011 update of Konamis beautiful Pro Evolution Soccer franchise on the iPhone platform. Always the preferred choice among critics in its console incarnations, PES on the iPhone also delivers a slightly superior game to EAs rival FIFA franchise but only just. As well as the flowing passing and shooting gameplay youd expect from a PES game, this version is also notable for the implementation of the control systems. A directional pad and simplified single tap for passing and shooting is the preferred option, but even the accelerometer control works remarkably well. Chuck in UEFA tournaments, league games, quick matches and proper player names and you have a pretty pleasing footy experience. You can also play friends over Wi-Fi/Bluetooth. It lacks the finesse of its console counterparts but as a pick-up-and-play fix, its unbeatable.
With this latest version, PES 2011 just edges out its rivals on the footy scene
ATHLETICS EVENTS
International Athletics
1.79 Track and field sports with a spin
If the London Olympics are as fun as this competitive app, then roll on 2012
hen it comes to quality and quantity versus price International Athletics should be a gold medalist. The games developers have done a great job of converting this from Sony PSP, presenting more than a dozen track and field sports in full 3D. Theres no official event sponsorship, but the medal tables, personal bests and world records featured will keep you coming back again and again until youve swept the board. As well as running events such as the 100m and 400m theres Shot Put, High Jump, Discus, Pole Vault, Long Jump and the Hammer! The only downside is that the throwing events all use a similar play mechanic so theres not much to choose between them and it does take a while to get used to the odd controls for the hurdles and javelin events. Other than that this is a splendid sports sim that will keep you enthused about athletics while youre on the move.
KEY INFO
Download size 50.1MB iPod touch compatible Yes Requires iOS 2.2.1 or later
ON TRACK International Athletics speeds ahead when it comes to gameplay, looks and addictiveness
CAST OFF Catch yourself a big un with this oddly compelling fishing simulator
VIRTUAL ANGLER
Fishing Kings
Touchgrind
SKATEBOARDING FUN
fishing game could be the dullest grind in the world. But not so. Like golf, fishing games are bizarrely compelling and Fishing Kings is a pretty good addition to the proud tradition of virtual angling. After choosing your angler, you wander out to a stretch of water to compete in competitions, unlocking new items of tackle and fishing venues as you go. Casting out and wrestling with fish is achieved by waggling the phone; reeling in takes a swirl of the thumb. Hitting your angling goals is, oddly, a hugely satisfying experience.
KEY INFO
This game is fun, and it looks great too. It is quite awkward to operate the board though
The 2011 iPhone app guide 155
10 APPS
MAPPED OUT Your iPhones geolocation abilities can be used for all sorts of weird and wonderful location-based apps
we wish existed
6 Singletons Radar
any of the 4.2 million security cams in the UK. Like TV channel surfing but with more drunk tramps and shoplifting.
The app equivalent of propping a cardboard cut-out of yourself at your desk. Should the office email, this would send out vague but helpfulsounding replies such as Sounds good, lets meet about it tomorrow, while you catch up with some sleep or shopping. Take a Facebook-like database of single folk, add location services and augmented reality and youd have the ultimate dating aid. Scan the bar, railway station or wherever you happen to be with your phones camera, and unattached and/or available members of the clientele will be highlighted with a big red arrow. Icons could denote how discreet they require you to be, and what their interests are.
Hey, Ive got an app for that! Thats what Apple iPhone 4 users say at least 20 times a day and Android users six to seven times a day. Nokia and Palm users? They dont talk so much. But how much more frequent would these exclamations be if these fondly imagined apps existed
Makes your phone ring as if someone important is calling you as soon as you come within guilt-trip range of a dingbat in a red vest holding a clipboard or jangling a bucket full of coins right in front of you.
Keeping up with the level of wry wit generated by your Tweeting peers can be tricky. This app would access the reams of quotes available online from noted wits such as Oscar Wilde, Dorothy Parker and John Major, then generate 140 droll characters on the topical theme of your choice. For instance: Those MPs are like the unspeakable in pursuit of the inedible, The only thing worse than being on a TV talent show is NOT being on a TV talent show, etc.
Twitticism
2 Morgan be gone
156 The 2011 iPhone app guide
Detects possible exposure to Piers Morgan on TV or online, shutting down web pages or using your phones Wi-Fi to deactivate your telly.
Uses Google Maps and Yell.com data to calculate whether a town is likely to be attractive to well-off Londoners. Thus, if the number of tattoo and body-piercing parlours, army recruitment offices and sportswear stores per square mile is found to be unacceptable, a large skull and crossbones wearing a hoodie is displayed, warning suburbanites to keep away. The presence of multiple cheese shops, farmers markets and anything with the word artisan in it, by contrast, brings up a large smiley face.
Londoners eye
Another location-based app, this would detect anywhere that could be described as undesirable but occasionally tempting and make the sound of 1,000 vuvuzelas until you exit. Lets say Starbucks, Subway or your local illicit all-night booze store at 3am on a Tuesday, for instance. Going one better than the many apps that find pubs in your vicinity, PintPuller will alert your chosen bar to your arrival, so staff can dutifully pour your favoured tipple in advance.
9 PintPuller
4 CCTV Hacker
Fun aplenty could be had from an app that gives access to live feeds from
s ge to a PDF vers t access io issue which n of each can be read on a Mac, an iPad or iPhone!
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DEVELOP
The story of the iPhone App Store success stories The iPhone SDK Build an iPhone app Meet the app man
very one of the 250,000 apps in the App Store was created by an ordinary person or team with a great idea and the determination to make it happen. The free tools that Apple provides means that you dont need a programming degree and a vast budget: you can code your own app and put it in front of a global audience with just an ordinary computer. Well show you how anyone can build a basic app in half an hour and meet some of the people who made the apps you use. But first, lets remind ourselves how the iPhone came to be the phenomenon it is today
From the original model to iPhone 4, we track the rise and rise of the phone thats captured the public imagination and led to the apps you use every day
sale to a worldwide audience. (We look at the iPhone from the developers perspective on page 166.) There are now over 250,000 different programs you can run on your iPhone. The iPhone has seen its fair share of controversy as well. A sudden price drop only a few months into the iPhones life outraged early-bird customers whod paid the original price. Initial complaints about having to use slow mobile networks turned to elation as the iPhone 3G made its debut. And the recent Antennagate furore saw Apple take flak for phone reception that wavered depending on how you held the iPhone 4. Here, we look back at some of the highs and lows that have shaped the story of iPhone since its launch
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Steve Jobs is talking iPhone at Apples developer conference WWDC. Just one year after launching the iPhone, were launching the new iPhone 3G that is twice as fast at half the price. Cheaper, thinner and faster than its predecessor, iPhone 3G offers data access up to twice the speed of Edge. It hosts built-in GPS for expanded location-based mobile services, for example tracking where you are on a Google Map, and supports quad-band GSM and tri-band HSDPA for voice and data calls. It also supports WiFi, 3G and Edge, switching between them automatically to ensure the fastest possible downloads. With iPhone 3G, you can browse the web, get directions and check email, all while on a call. iPhone 3G also includes a new generation of Apples iPhone OS software. Additional features include the ability to mass-move and delete multiple email messages, a facility for searching
for contacts, a new scientific calculator and parental controls. You can also save images directly from a web page or email them to your iPhone, and transfer them to your computer photo library. Inclusion of GPS support ushers in true location-based services, allowing you to and it opens up other new opportunities for developers. Developers can build apps using all the software and hardware features, including the movement sensors. iPhone 3G integrates with MobileMe, which pushes email, contacts and calendars from an online cloud to native applications on iPhone, iPod touch, Macs and PCs. This means email messages are pushed instantly to all your devices, removing the need to manually check email and wait for downloads. It also keeps contacts and calendars continuously up to date so changes made on one device are automatically updated on others.
outside the handset in a way that other handsets do well on paper but rarely do well in practice, he says. With stereo Bluetooth support, could we now finally have your iPhone automatically flick from headphones to stereo speakers as you walk into your house? Godber adds that iPhone OS 3.0 promises to extend the way iPhone interacts with the real world. Proper push notifications have potential not just for IM and messaging to plug a gap between iPhone and the rest of the mobile world, while true micropayments allow the platform to leapfrog other handsets, which are mired in operator arguments and poor margins.
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development platform. We believe the web has won, and over the next several years the browser will become the platform that matters. And certainly thats where Google is investing. Earlier in iPhones evolution, Apple allowed developers to create only
web-based apps for the iPhone, but expanded this to built-in apps under developer and customer pressure. But Gundotra says, I think Steve Jobs really did understand that, over the long term, it would be the web, and I think thats how things will play out in the end.
receive a call when the iPhone is asleep or the user is running other apps. Apple says it has developed multi-tasking so it doesnt impact device performance or battery life.
We figured out how to implement multitasking for third-party apps and avoid those things, says Jobs. Apple also announces an imminent new social gaming
network, Game Center, offering the ability to invite friends to play a game, start a multi-player game through matchmaking and track achievements and high scores.
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The iPhone and iPod touch are transformed into devices that can do so much more than anybody had imagined
versatile devices that can do so much more than anybody had imagined. Its opened up a new platform for developers and theres a land-grab going on right now. While the apps dont cost that much, the number of potential customers means theres gold in the iPhone. So how do you get it? We asked three developers to spill the beans on developing for the App Store.
APP SUCCESS Trism is a polished and addictive puzzle game, which has gone on to become a huge success
Name Steve Demeter Company Demiforce App invented Trism Web www.demiforce.com/ games.html
PROFILE
done before launch; having a good amount of buzz from people who enjoyed the jailbroken version and Apple getting behind it and helping market it as an iPhone exclusive. Once you have Apple behind you saying, Here, apps like this are why you should buy an iPhone, its money in the bank. So has the environment changed? The market is definitely a lot tougher than it was then, Demeter says. His advice to developers? Make sure youre asking yourself, Does my app convey something unique and interesting in 10 to 15 seconds? Look at it this way: most people are eager to show their friends what cool new things theyve got on their iPhone. Of the 50 apps they may have, they might only get a chance to show five of them. If your app is one of those five,
and it can prove its worth in 10 to 15 seconds, then youve got yourself a successful app. Marketing matters, too, as Demeter explains: Start courting an audience before you release, he suggests. Build relationships with the gaming public and fellow developers. Make sure you can get at least 20 people to buy your game and give your app good reviews in the App Store on the very first day its out. And remember to put some of your profit back into advertising on the web and in-game. The one thing I liked about doing Trism was that it was an opportunity. It was a chance to pull myself out of a day job I didnt like, innovate a game genre and trailblaze an emerging platform, all with limited amounts of time, resources and money.
GOOD EXAMPLE You can find free resources and code samples on the Apple Developer website
Name Ethan Nicholas Company Ethan Nicholas App invented iShoot Web www.ethannicholas.com
PROFILE
TOP GUN Sales of iShoot rocketed after Nicholas released a free Lite version on the Apple App Store
he asks. One number-one hit generates more money than 100 bottom-of-thebarrel apps, so Id prefer to see more people striving for number one and not polluting the iPhone with so much abominable crap. For now, Nicholas is
continuing to improve iShoot. Im not ready to share any details, but I have two firm game designs Id like to get cracking on, he says. Theyre very different from iShoot, but I think they both have a shot at number one.
Name Bill Rappos Company GreatApps App invented iSteam Web isteam.co.uk
PROFILE
WET LOOK iSteam cleverly turns your iPhone into a steamy window, leaving you free to doodle and impress your mates
n 11 June 2007, Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced that developers would be able to create applications for the iPhone. It was during WWDC, Apples developer conference, so the crowd couldnt have been more pleased had Krispy Kreme announced it was slashing its prices to 4 a donut. A whole new platform! A whole new revenue stream! A whole new chapter in the long and endlessly entertaining story of Apple. But then Jobs dropped the bombshell. Dress it up how he liked, the shocked silence and mutterings that followed his announcement that these would only be web-based apps tools that were stored on a web server, not proper applications that lived on the phone showed that developers were disappointed. We were a tad
underwhelmed by the announcement that web apps were the one true way to bring third-party software to the iPhone, says Marco Piovanelli, chief technology officer at development firm Ovolab. We felt this decision left a huge potential untapped, despite the power of todays web apps.
Software development
Developing for the iPhone involves the same tool chain, the same programming language, and mostly the same frameworks modern Mac OS X developers know and love
Marco Piovanelli, Ovolab
170 The 2011 iPhone app guide
Four months later, Jobs recanted in an open letter on Apples website: proper third-party apps would be allowed after all. And on 6 March 2008, the dream came true: the iPhone SDK (software development kit) for Mac OS X was made available for download. Reaction to the SDK release has been largely positive ever since its release. The iPhone SDK is wonderful much more than I expected, says Craig Hockenberry, principal and engineer at Iconfactory. Its a view echoed by equinux CEO Till Schadde. Apples SDK solution is well designed. It offers an easy way for the existing community to develop simple apps for the iPhone. The tool chain is complete and simple, and all necessary tools are available. Schaddes point about it being easy for existing Mac developers to create iPhone apps is important. Because the
iPhone is built on the same foundations as the Macs operating system, the development tools used to create apps for the iPhone are essentially identical. The core program is Xcode, which enables you to write your iPhone apps key functionality. Xcode ties into Interface Builder, which enables you to create your app user interface and link visual controls to the functions youve written. You can then open the app in iPhone Simulator, which emulates the iPhone operating system on a Mac for basic testing, or transfer your app to a real iPhone for live testing. Another application, Instruments, enables you to performance-test more complex apps so that you can make your software run as efficiently as possible. (The knock-on effect, of course, is that the shared development suite also enables new developers to discover how easy it is to develop software for the Mac as well.) Were very happy to see that our expectations were met, says Marco Piovanelli. Developing for the iPhone involves the same tool chain, the same programming language, and mostly the same frameworks modern Mac OS X developers know and love. That means we can leverage our long-standing experience to get a head start over the
developers flocking to the iPhone from other platforms. Not everyone has been happy with the iPhone SDK, however. The SDK also comes with many legal restrictions as part of the agreement, says Paul Kafasis, CEO of Rogue Amoeba. These restrictions are onerous, and weve talked publicly [on Rogue Amoebas blog, www.rogueamoeba.com/utm] about how we believe theyll stifle innovation unnecessarily. There will be hundreds of good apps for the iPhone, but it will also be missing plenty of apps it could have had, because the SDK agreement prevents developers from making them. For iPhone users, the App Store is a one-stop outlet for buying and downloading apps from the huge choice available. Its simple and convenient. For the developer, the App Store is the only option they have if they want to distribute their work to the public. That means that iPhone developers have no choice but to accept the conditions Apple sets to gain admission to the App Store. For example, Apple takes a 30 per cent cut from each sale. While this may sound high, Mac developer Chris Wilson believes the deal is fair. [High Street] retailers make the price whatever they want, so profits range from 10 to 200 per cent. With Apples model, theres a constant understanding of the costs,
and developers can account for Apples withholdings when determining the price of their application. Piovanelli agrees: The 30/70 deal sounds sweet to us, especially considering that Apple will be shouldering the entire cost of the distribution infrastructure hosting, bandwidth, payment processing, automatic updates and even part of the marketing expenses. Rogue Amoebas Kafasis points out that the revenue split is potentially the least contentious part of the App Store. I think 30% is a bit high, but its within reason. People are overplaying the supposed exposure they get through the App Store, but its still a good thing. It streamlines the process of getting software to users, and I think it will encourage many people who wouldnt otherwise buy software to do so. However, I view having the App Store be the exclusive way of getting software as a distinct negative. The only argument Ive seen in favour of this is that it will enable Apple to better control the software. The idea that Apple can provide true quality control or security isnt realistic. They dont do this on the Mac; users would have a fit if they tried. This one limitation also means that were stuck with everything else in the SDK agreement. If users could load our software on to the device on their own, we wouldnt need to worry about appeasing Apple. However, because we
The iPhone SDK offers an easy way for the existing community to develop simple apps for the iPhone. The tool chain is complete and simple, and all necessary tools are available
Till Schadde, Equinux
need to be approved for the App Store, we have to follow requirements. Apple is justifiably keen to keep the iPhone clean and stable; any instabilities or crashes that the user experiences are as likely to be blamed on Apple rather than on the developer. It has publicly stated that it will not allow apps on the App Store that are illegal, malicious, pornographic, hog bandwidth, compromise privacy or fall under the worryingly vague description of unforeseen. Apple can enforce these because its App Store is the gatekeeper; the only legal and, as far as the average punter is concerned, possible way to install apps. Theres huge potential for the iPhone as a platform its meaty processor, accelerometer, location-awareness and innovative Multi-Touch interface opens it up to some original programs but developers should understand all the implications of writing iPhone apps before taking the plunge. The 2011 iPhone app guide 171
GET CREATIVE
iPhone development suite is available only for the latest Mac OS.Your computer should also have an Intel processor. iPhone SDK: Apples free download provides all the tools and templates required to develop an iPhone application. Get it at developer.apple.com.
pples App Store in iTunes is by far the worlds most popular venue for software for mobile devices. Over 250,000 applications are now available all created by developers with the iPhone SDK, a software package that anyone can use to create their own iPhone apps. The iPhone SDK (software development kit) is free to download at www.apple.com/developer, but its available only for Mac OS X theres no windows version. Its based on the same Xcode development suite used to develop many Mac OS X apps, which provides a versatile environment for writing the Objective-C code that underpins iPhone software. Its complemented by companion tools that enable performance analysis and drag-and-drop interface building. Here, well use the iPhone SDK to code and build an interface for a restaurant gratuity calculator, which well call TippedOff. This software package will enable you to enter the amount of a partys bill with an on-screen keyboard, then adjust touchoperated sliders to set the number of people in the dining party and the proportion of the bill that decides the
BUILD IT Using Apples free iPhone software development kit, you can build and test applications that take advantage of the iPhones advanced hardware, then upload them to the App Store to offer them to millions of iPhone users
tip. The tip total will automatically update as you adjust these controls. In Xcode, select File New Project. In the dialogue box that appears, click Create a new Xcode project. In the next dialogue box, click Application under iOS in the left-hand list and
Getting started
choose Window-Based Application from the selection of application templates. Make sure that the Product drop-down menu below the templates is set to iPhone. When prompted, name this new project TippedOff. In the main window that opens, select TippedOff in the left list, then highlight TippedOffAppDelegate.h in the file list. This document lists variables, interface functions and other components. At present, it contains a single controller, which is automatically named after the project name you entered in this case, TippedOffApp Delegate. Remove all the text between the curly brackets within this document and enter the following in its place: float bill; float people; float tip; float split; IBOutlet UIWindow *window; IBOutlet UITextField *bill_enter; IBOutlet UILabel *bill_label, *people_label, *tip_label, *split_label, *split_result; IBOutlet UISlider *people_slider, *tip_slider;
HELPING HAND With videos and sample code, iPhone developers have lots of places to turn
Note the semicolon ending each line. The first four lines of code define our The 2011 iPhone app guide 173
NICE TIP A huge variety of tip calculators can be found on the App Store, each with its own approach. Study a few that catch your eye for inspiration on how to make your own iPhone tip calculator stand out from the crowd Given that you can code your own tip calculator in under an hour, its hardly surprising that many are available to download via the App Store. This makes a gratuity calculator a great early development project: theres plenty of opportunities for studying how other developers approached the challenge of turning a simple idea into a compelling application. Graphics are an important consideration. Tipulator (www. sophiestication.de/iphone) wraps its simple tools in an elegant package, while iTip (www.gabcas.net) uses icons to offer a clear workflow and a clean look. But CheckPlease (www. catamount.com) looks crowded, with too much graphical sheen added to a busy interface. Also think about how you should enter the bill and tip figures. Tipulator employs dials a standard SDK element for entering all figures. Its convenient for changing the tip, but more unwieldy for entering the bill amount. Conversely, TipStar (sites.google.com/site/ tipstariphone) divides the calculation into separate pages, using the space to provide buttons for the most common options this way it only takes a few seconds to enter details and get a result. What will really set your app apart from its rivals, though, is an extra feature that adds genuine benefits. CheckPlease, for example, is able to export each restaurant transaction to its sister finance package PocketMoney. International Tip Calculator (www.vault13studios. com/Vault13/itip.html) enables you to choose which currency to use, and suggests the level of tip thats appropriate for the country youre in. See what distinctive twist you can devise fo your own iPhone apps
four variables bill, people, tip and split as floating-point numbers. The remaining lines set up a series of interface elements, which are defined through the UI descriptions. The IBOutlet tag defines the elements as usable within Xcodes companion program Interface Builder, which youll use later on. Next, youll set property declarations to store the current status of each interface element. In your document, delete the existing line that starts @ property. In its place, copy and paste the four IBOutlet lines you entered earlier. On each of these copied lines, exchange IBOutlet with @property (nonatomic, retain), keeping the
element names that follow. The first line, for example, should read: @property (nonatomic, retain) UIWindow *window; nonatomic aids multithreading efficiency, while retain prevents the property value from being erased without your approval. Next, name the three functions that the application uses as peopleSlider, tipSlider and splitResult. Below the four @property lines, enter: - (IBAction)peopleSlider:(id)sender; - (IBAction)tipSlider:(id)sender; - (IBAction)splitResult:(id)sender;
Instruments
Included with the Xcode development suite, Instruments is used in the later stages of developing an iPhone app. It helps you improve performance by providing real-time feedback on how your app affects the hardware. You can use this data to optimise your code.
Again, IBAction is a cue for Interface Builder, while the sender parameter identifies the source of a piece of data. As a separate line, enter: - (void)calculate; This declaration of the calculate function is needed here, even though its undefined, because later functions invoke it as part of their operation. Now you can start to build the apps mechanics, which enable the functions youve defined to work together. Begin by copying the four @property lines you created earlier, then switch to the document TippedOffAppDelegate.m. In this document, delete the line that opens with @ synthesize and paste the four @ property lines into the position that line had occupied. For each of these copied lines, replace @property (nonatomic, retain) with @synthesize, which is an instruction for your software compiling program. Next, remove the UI describers in each of these lines, as well as the asterisks preceding each function. Several functions that handle application start-up and shut-down tasks are already set up. Any further functions are entered between these and the @end line. The first section of code initialises the values of a few of the variables: - init { if (self = [super init]) { bill = 0; people = 2; tip = 15; split = 0; } return self; }
CODE MASTERS Xcode manages your development project and provides an Objective-C programming environment with helpful debugging features
The next piece of code watches for users who enter text into the top-right text field, linked to the bill_enter parameter: - (BOOL)textFieldShouldReturn: (UITextField *)theTextField { [bill_enter resignFirstResponder]; return YES; } After new text is entered, the next fragment updates the text field display and converts numerical text into a true number. The calculate function is then invoked to update the bill split total. - (void)textFieldDidEndEditing: (UITextField *)theTextField { bill = bill_enter.text.floatValue; theTextField.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@%1.2f, theTextField.text.floatValue]; [self calculate]; } Next, you create two Slider objects. The first is peopleSlider, which sets the number of people in the group. The first line echoes the naming instructions in the previous document. The second line enables the position of the peopleSlider control to set the value for the variable people, turning the number into an integer. The third line changes the controls accompanying label according to the value of the people variable. - (IBAction)peopleSlider:(id)sender; { people = rintf(people_slider.value); people_label.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@%1.0f people, people]; [self calculate]; } The tipSlider function is a little different: it doesnt need to be changed to an integer and the variable part of the label is set to %1.1 rather than %1.0. This means that a single decimal point is displayed: - (IBAction)tipSlider:(id)sender; { tip = tip_slider.value; tip_label.text = [NSString stringWith Format:@%1.1f%% tip, tip]; [self calculate]; } The final code for this document defines the calculate function, which updates the bill split figure whenever the app use adjusts a control: - (void)calculate { split = ((bill * tip / 100) + bill) / people; split_result.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@%1.2f, split]; } With the various functions defined as code, you can now assemble the application itself with the SDKs graphical Interface Builder.
GOOD CONNECTIONS To connect your defined functions to the components youve created in Interface Builder, hold down Ctrl and drag the mouse between relevant objects, select a function that appears when you release the mouse button
Double-click MainWindow.xib in the TippedOff file list to open both a blank interface window and a separate window holding objects to link to your interface parts. Select Tools Library to open up a list of objects that you can drag on to the interface window. Place a Label object in the top-left corner and a Text Field object in the top-right. Placement guidelines appear as you move objects, enabling you to line up components. Below these two objects, add two pairs of Label and Slider objects. Stretch the Slider objects so that they go across the screens width. Next, add two Label objects in the bottom-left and bottomright corners. Adjust the bottom-right Labels Layout Alignment to right to make it look a bit neater. To change the text inside the Labels, select Tools Attributes Inspector, then click on each Label in turn and change its Text value. From the top, rename the Labels as Bill, 2 people and 15.0% tip. Rename the bottom two Labels as Split and 0.00. Some Labels will change values as the controls are adjusted: what youve entered here represents the defaults that a user will see when the application is launched. Next, youll link the interface parts to controllers so that the users adjustments affect the variables that youve established. Hold Ctrl and drag from the TippedOffAppDelegate object to the Bill Label. From the pop-up menu that appears, select the bill_label Outlet. Similarly, link the people_label Outlet to the 2 people Label; tip_label to the 15.0% tip Label; split_label to the Split Label; and split_result to the 0.00 Label. Now hold down Ctrl and again drag from TippedOffAppDelegate to the Text Field object, and link bill_enter when prompted. Then link people_slider to the higher Slider object and tip_ slider to the lower Slider object.
You also need to link some Outlets in the opposite direction. Ctrl-drag from the Text Field object to TippedOffApp Delegate and select delegate. Similarly, link up peopleSlider and tipSlider to the higher and lower Sliders. The final operations to complete in Interface Builder tighten the controls behaviour. Select the Text Field object. In the Attributes Inspectors Text field, enter 0.00 as the default value, then change Alignment to centred. Make sure that Clear When Editing Begins is ticked. Under Text Input Traits, set Keyboard to Numbers & Punctuation so the user doesnt have to switch over from the default keyboard. Change Return Key to Done and tick Auto-enable Return Key. Now select the higher Slider object, which sets the number of people in the dining group. For Values, set Minimum to 2 (you dont need to use the app to work out the split if youre eating alone) and Maximum to 20. Set Initial to 2 as well: this matches the default Label for this Slider that you created earlier. For the lower Slider, which is used to set the tip percentage, set Minimum to 0 and Maximum to 25, then set Initial to 15 again matching the default Label object youve defined for that Slider. Your tip calculator is now ready to use. To try it out, return to Xcode and press Build and Run in the toolbar. Xcode compiles the code and bundles it into an application, triggering iPhone Simulator to present the result. You can now use the app as you would on an iPhone, dragging sliders and entering the bill total in the top-right text field. Theres a glut of such tools on the App Store, so you can study how different programmers have tackled their tips calculators. (See Extend your iPhone application, opposite.) See if you can come up with your own approach!
You can now use the app, dragging sliders and entering the bill total
GUIDED Interface Builder enables you to drag and drop UI components and use auto-positioning guides
DEVELOP Interview
APP MAN
C
ontract programmer Malcolm Barclay was facing the familiar perils of having to navigate home on the London Underground when he decided to make his first app. Tube Status simply displays live information about any Tube line suffering delays. Its been such a success that he now develops apps full time. We visited his office his kitchen in east London to find out how apps changed his life. Why Tube Status? I was caught out by a Northern Line closure on my way home one night. It seemed obvious to me that this information should be easily available as an app on my first-generation iPhone. I didnt even think the idea was particularly inventive, so I thought: Make it yourself, make it fast and make it work. Having worked on and off with Macs, I set about teaching myself Objective-C [programming language] and wrote Tube Status, a simple free app that quickly gives you the status of all London Underground lines. Was it an instant success? I submitted it to the App Store; it took a month to approve and it had 10,000 downloads in the first week. Requests for a map, journey planning, timetables, departures and everything else you could think of came flooding into the inbox, so I licensed the map from Transport for London and set about writing Tube Deluxe. I charged 1.79 in the first month it went live, did 10,000 downloads and thought maybe I could make a living off this. It now sells for 59p and has had no fewer than five months development work put into it. Ive since introduced other travel apps that have also been successful: London Bus, NextBuses & Traveline S&E. How has it changed your life? It pays the full rent and then some. I make a very healthy living off my suite 176 The 2011 iPhone app guide of applications, and some months have surpassed what I could even make contracting. I have been invited to, flown to and been paid to speak at conferences. I have met all manner of people, from grass roots designers to CEOs and presidents of multinational corporations. I can pick and choose my contracts, or just work on my own stuff for a while. The level of media coverage has been really unexpected; going on a live-to-air BBC TV interview certainly gets the adrenaline pumping. Whats your background? Ive been a contract programmer for 10 years, building a mixture of interactive and corporate websites. I started coding from a young age but never thought it would be my career. I thought all kids programmed on their 48K ZX Spectrum Of course, I did other things like skateboarding and radio control cars too. I studied photography at design school, got a job in a digital bureau and then the internet came along. From then on, I taught myself a lot about programming but also had the benefit of working with very smart people. Have you always been inventive? Yes. Whether it was modifying my radio control cars growing up or photography, I was always tinkering or making something. It was two years ago that I got interested in apps, just as Apple was releasing the iPhone SDK. I had never programmed a mobile application before, and had even ignored things like Wap for mobiles. Have you had any failed app ideas? I was very nearly there with a Tube Exits-style app, and the Tube Exits guys got the jump on me. It just wasnt worth completing. Ive had other train app ideas too, but getting hold of the data has proved too difficult; very little data is made
Wracked by commuter misery, Malcolm Barclay developed an iPhone app to help himself and others keep track of delays. Now it pays his rent
available to third-party developers at a price thats affordable, or at all. Do you think that the simplest ideas are the best? Yes, but its the execution and polish that counts. People will never see the many screens or even whole features that were removed during development. They only see the end product and then think, Wow what a great idea. The idea happened a long time ago; what followed was a lot of hard work and decisions. This is why I dont place much value on ideas; they are a tiny part of what it takes to make a great app. Apps that are dead simple on the surface arent always so easy to program. The less you bother the user with, the better. What are your favourite apps? Hipstamatic, Twitter (formerly Tweetie), Reeder, Dropbox and Evernote. What does the iPad bring to the table for developers? Space. Its quite clear, now that the iPad has been out for a while, that existing iPhone apps dont translate well to it. One needs to really take advantage of what the iPad has to offer. It doesnt necessarily mean stuff everything into one screen, but it does mean you need to take a different approach. For me, its almost a rewrite. Have you actually seen people using any of your apps? Yes its really cool. I often see people using Tube Deluxe. Strangely, I feel really shy about saying anything directly to them. People that meet me in social situations are genuinely surprised to meet me. The fame side has been quite an experience. Whats next? An iPad app for Greater London travel, and more features to take advantage of the new iOS 4.
RICHARD GRASSIE
Interview DEVELOP
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