The Download Blog

Until now, Apple has held an odd place in the gaming industry. Many of the hottest games for the PC have never sold as well on the Mac, due not only to a smaller market share, but also Apple offering only a handful of hardware configurations that can run the latest, graphics card-melting titles.

But on the iPhone and iPod Touch things have been different.

Apple now markets the iPod Touch as a gaming device. Both it and the iPhone 3GS contain updated hardware that can run 3D (and 2D) games quite well. On top of that platform, developers have built thousands of games that cost a fraction of the price of titles found on handhelds from gaming heavyweights like Sony and Nintendo; most can be had for just a dollar, compared to the $20 to $40 that portable titles on physical media fetch.

Something that has been more interesting to watch though than the steady release of cheap games, is the rise of free, third-party social networks that come built into these titles. These provide developers with a simple way to incorporate social feature into their games, while letting players use the same profile from title to title.

Recognize these services? They're the ones that are being integrated into most of today's hottest iPhone games.

(Credit: CNET)

In 2009 six of these networks popped up (not counting Facebook or Gameloft live), and are now vying for the top spot, both from gamers and developers alike. But which one will end up being the most widely used service as the platform matures--the one everyone starts using? After all, users will eventually tire of having to deal with different networks from game to game. Right?

We looked at six of the biggest, compared features, user growth, and development cycles, and came to the conclusion that developers have already picked a winner. However, fierce competition, and refreshed hardware and software from Apple could quite easily bring us a new front-runner by this time next year.

The players

Right now the leader is a service called Open Feint, which was launched just nine months ago. It can be found in around 600 titles on the App Store, and has a following of 6 million users. It offers a handful of social features, including high-score leaderboards, Facebook and Twitter score publishing, friend challenging, live chat, achievements, and cross-promotion for other titles that use it. The easiest way to spot it is in application logos, which often feature the green and silver Open Feint symbol if it's built-in.

Despite its current dominance, Open Feint's reign could be short-lived. One of the most immediate threats is Facebook. The social network, which now sits at 350 million users strong, is already integrated into many of the social-gaming platforms (including Open Feint) as a sub-feature. Developers know it's where users are likely to have an existing log-in and friends list, and Facebook has made it incredibly simple to include within an app by making a lightweight, portable version of its Connect service.

Right now Connect for iPhone does two big things. One is to let you log-in to apps with your Facebook credentials. The other is to share information to your Facebook news feed, and additional users of that same iPhone app. Though currently missing from Facebook Connect for iPhone, but present on Facebook's main site, are many things that could make the tool more useful, for both users and developers, including:

• A live chat service
• A payment system that it could draw credit from for in-game purchases
• A social ad system

Currently, these are exactly the types of things these third-party social-gaming networks are trying to accomplish. Where Open Feint and others stand to get overtaken in the long run, would be a more advanced version of Connect for the iPhone. One that would bring more of Facebook's community and features into each app, bridging its utility outside of games and into other iPhone apps as well.

Facebook's latest numbers say its Connect service is being used by more than 60 million monthly users, who are accessing it across 800,000 Web sites and devices. That may be a fraction of its 350 million registered users, but is quite large compared to Open Feint's user and app penetration on iPhone alone. (Note: Facebook would not reveal to CNET how many of those users were on the iPhone, or how many iPhone apps were making use of the feature.)

There's also no discounting Apple itself, which could buy up any of these platforms and offer it as part of its own application SDK. That is assuming it does not come out with its own solution in a future platform update. Surely developers would want to include Apple's social-gaming system if it was a more streamlined part of the company's existing software development tools. Right?

It's not too late for such a feature either. Despite the fact that the company has made baby steps in changing the iPod and iPhone's hardware to appeal to gamers, it made big moves during the course of 2009 to make the software and business platforms more appealing for game developers. This included the launch of system software 3.0, which finally opened up Apple's hardware to peer-to-peer file transfers, Bluetooth multiplayer, in-app purchases, and the use of external hardware peripherals. Later in the year the company also changed its stance on in-app purchases to allow free apps to offer them.

The game

To put all this in perspective, let's take a look at how we got here in the first place. When iPhone game development really kicked off (shortly after the release of Apple's native application SDK in 2008), one thing that was immediately missing was any kind of central service to track player data and scores. As a result, many developers were stuck creating their own servers to save player records.

Aurora Feint was one of the first iPhone games to have social features.

(Credit: CNET)

The first title to come out with its own solution was Aurora Feint, a puzzle game that blended role-playing elements with falling, colored pieces users had to arrange to clear the board. Its crowning feature (besides being fun) was that it let users send their name and contact information to Aurora Feint's servers. The game would then scan for friends when they started using the game, and then challenge those friends to a score duel.

The only problem was that Apple didn't like this behavior. Not only was it being done without first asking for permission, it also violated the part of Apple's SDK agreement that said that a user's contact list could only be used within the app, but not shared with other users or stored on third-party servers. As a result, it was temporarily removed from the App Store.

Aurora Feint's creators worked it out with Apple and made it so that the app would first ask for permission before sending that information, as well as securing the information on its way back to the server. Following these changes, the app was re-released.

Five months after the release of the first Aurora Feint title, its developers, Danielle Cassley and Jason Citron, launched a sequel called Aurora Feint 2 (app store link) that added features like live chat and leaderboards. These features would go on to become the underpinnings of Open Feint, which would launch just three months later.

Open Feint was not the first to have its own platform, however. Competitor Geocade beat it to the punch by launching in January. Its big twist, compared to what Aurora Feint offered, was to let users see how their scores matched up compared to nearby gamers. To make it all work, the service would check for each user's location when they first launched the app. It also gave developers a chance to make a little money by hosting ads on the scoreboards, then splitting the revenue.

Geocade started out small with just two titles, and can now be found in 80. Unlike the others mentioned in this story, it also works on Google's Android, allowing developers to go cross-platform.

Geocade's big launch feature was that it would let players see how others around them were scoring. The service also offers a live view of the latest scores on its site.

(Credit: CNET)

After Geocade, came Facebook Connect for iPhone. While missing many of the features that would later be built by the independent networks, Facebook's offering was a very big step for social gaming on the iPhone. The popular social network was offering gamers a way to sign up to use applications with credentials to a service they were already using. For app developers, that meant that they didn't have to maintain a special user database. More importantly though, it would advertise their app out to that player's Facebook wall. Facebook Connect went on to become built-in to many of these third-party platforms, simply as a feature.

Facebook Connect for iPhone allowed gamers to publish scores to their Facebook walls, as well as slurp in friends lists.

(Credit: Facebook)

Just days after Facebook Connect was released for the iPhone, Open Feint became available to developers. Version 1.0 of its service launched with 30 titles. It offered chat and leaderboards, along with a way for users to join using their Facebook or Twitter credentials.

Open Feint was (and still is) free for developers as long as their apps were free. However, if an app cost money, Open Feint would charge based on how many users were using it each month. The service would also get a small cut out of any in-app purchases if they were suggested through its iPurchase system, which listed other apps using Open Feint.

A month after the launch of Facebook Connect and Open Feint came Scoreloop. Like the other networks, developers had to code it into their titles. In turn the players got their own profiles that stayed the same from game to game. They also got leaderboards and the capability to challenge other users on the service to score matches.

Where Scoreloop really stood out from some of the competitors was with its own built-in micro-purchase system. Unlike the other platforms, which were using in-app advertising, and cross-promotion, Scoreloop let developers build small charges into their apps using a virtual currency system. Players could win these coins by challenging other players (and winning), or by receiving them as a reward for completing certain parts of a game. The system is also set up to let users buy coins directly from Scoreloop, the revenue of which is then split with the developer.

Following Scoreloop came Agon, which is currently the second most widely used social gaming platform on the iPhone. Like Geocade, it came out the gates with leaderboards that could be geographically filtered, game achievements, and user profiles. However, Agon's big feature was that it took very little effort to stick into games; one line of code in fact.

Since release, Agon has put out two incremental updates that added a few more features to the mix. The first one added landscape orientation (so that players could use it with their device turned sideways), saved game data sync, and a way to publish high scores to Twitter and Facebook. This was followed up with the introduction of profiles, which would let multiple users share gaming profiles on the same device.

Right after Agon's release, Open Feint launched its second iteration. Released during Apple's World Wide Developer's conference, version 2.0 included a universal log-in--one that could be used across all Open Feint-enabled games, and across multiple devices. It also made it easier to discover other Open Feint-enabled titles that other users were playing, regardless of whether or not you were friends with them. This gave the service a social pulse, as you could see which games were getting the most attention at any given time.

Plus+ is one of the most exclusive iPhone game networks. Developers have to pitch their wares to get access to its SDK.

(Credit: CNET)

Following the release of Agon and Open Feint 2.0 was Plus+ (reads: plus plus) from publisher Ngmoco. Unlike all of the other networks mentioned thus far, Plus+ was introduced as a "premium" network, and one without an open SDK. This meant that developers would have to pitch their apps to get a crack at using the service. As a result of this, Plus+ remains one of the least-used services, but one with some very high-profile games.

For players, Plus+'s core features included a profile system, friend challenges, achievements, leaderboards, social score comparison, and social score publishing to Twitter and Facebook. It also had its own status message system that lets players post what they're doing for other Plus+ users to see. Developers, on the other hand, could get placement within other Plus+ apps, a way to push out notifications of game challenges, and a built-in analytics engine that could show them more information about the players who are using their game.

Ngmoco's approach with Plus+ would later lead other game publishers to launch their own systems. The latest is Crystal from Chillingo, which is currently in an invite-only beta. Like the others, it includes leaderboards, achievements, cross-promotion and social publishing to Facebook and Twitter. Chillingo is also letting developers completely re-skin it to match their apps.

Other publishers, however are keeping their tools to themselves. This includes Gameloft, which has what it calls "Gameloft Live," a service that includes a friends list, live chat, achievements, a mail network, and scoring system. It was originally launched last year for the company's mobile games, before being retooled for Gameloft's iPhone games in late 2009. Unlike the other solutions, the social service cannot be plugged into third-party titles--just Gameloft's latest releases.

Bigger is better

While competition has spawned better features among these services, the future brings a growing need for a more unified network. Even if all these networks begin to become impossible to differentiate, users are eventually going to want a less-disjointed platform when jumping from game to game, and app to app. Thus far Facebook, and even Twitter to some degree have provided that constant, just by giving users a way to log in to these platforms.

The unification can shake out in a number of ways though, the most likely of which is consolidation. Open Feint can continue to grow until it's snatched up by a larger company (like Apple). Or it can begin absorbing, or muscling out the other, less popular networks.

As mentioned before, Apple plays a big part in this: not only in how it changes the hardware, but also how it continues to evolve the business of the App Store and information sharing between applications. But that's not to say the company is in complete control. At the moment, developers--and not Apple--are calling the shots on which one of these mini-social networks is, and will continue to be, No. 1.

TomTom's fully featured navigation app is on sale for $49.99.

It's already getting cutthroat in the young world of iPhone navigation apps. Facing increased pressure from the likes of ALK, which recently dropped its CoPilot Live North America app to $19.99, TomTom just slashed the price of its eponymous navigation app by 50 percent.

Well, kind of. The new TomTom U.S.A. app ($49.99) provides maps for just the U.S. (including Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico). Missing from the picture: Canada. That's probably fine for most drivers, who'd rather not pay for unneeded extra maps anyway.

Of course, if you do need the top half of North America, you can still buy TomTom U.S. & Canada--now priced at $69.99, down from $99.99 when it debuted just a few months ago.

According to TomTom, $49.99 is an "introductory" price good until December 28. But will the company actually raise it in 2010, or leave it alone to stave off increasing competition from the likes of iGo My Way, Magellan RoadMate, and MobileNavigator?

We'll have to wait and see. In the meantime, there's never been a better time to buy a GPS app for your iPhone. And in case you're wondering, CoPilot Live is still on sale (though now it's up to $24.99).

(Credit: Microsoft)

Snigger as you will over Microsoft's decision to call Bing, its overhauled search engine, a "decision engine," but those giggles should dissolve when you start up Microsoft's brand-new Bing for iPhone (and iPod Touch). As a search app goes, Bing, which debuted Tuesday in the iTunes App Store, is the real thing.

The Bing app has a slew of expected features, including voice search, maps, directions, search suggestions, and location-awareness. That's no surprise. Besides these being features common to Bing.com and to the Bing application on other mobile platforms, they're also necessary to compete with Google Mobile App for iPhone.

Bing's stylish layout is a pleasant surprise, and one that adds up, screen by screen, to a cohesive search experience. Opening Bing, you see the image of the day as your background (this doesn't appear to be customizable,) with the search field and voice search button at the top of the app. A rounded, six-panel grid of buttons jumps you to Bing's image collection, movie listings, maps, directions, business look-up, and a news feed. A drop-down menu on the search bar lets you filter your searches in all those categories, save directions. The semitransparent navigation strip below has a Home button and back and forward arrows, plus a button to hide the button panel, and an icon that pops up settings to clear your search history, set your search filter, and so on.

Bing gives you directions for your car and for navigating on foot, but it doesn't yet include directions using public transit, as the Google Mobile App does. Bing, however, has a neat feature that lets you swipe a transparent ribbon to advance through each direction, which moves the satellite, hybrid, road, or shaded map along in turn. We like that tapping a search result on the map brings up a tag with ratings and with icons to call the business or launch into directions.

Another difference to keep in mind between Bing and its Google rival is that Bing smashes a map and search app into one, whereas Google's mapping program is also the iPhone's default map app. When you access maps from Google Mobile App, you'll wind up opening up the Maps app for the actual search.

The Bing app for iPhone still isn't complete. As far as we can tell so far, it lacks some of the extras of other mobile Bing apps, like the capability to lay down pushpins on the map and save locations, and the capability to view multiple locations on the map. The absent features in the iPhone app indicate the direction of Microsoft's plans for Bing's growth on iPhone.

While Bing's performance during our initial testing was good, individuals may notice fluctuations based on their data and Wi-Fi connections. There may be other areas where Bing might not match up: for instance, Google claims its iPhone app can detect British and Australian pronunciation in addition to U.S. and Canadian accents. Do our international friends notice parity with Bing's voice search?

Although Bing may not match every bell and whistle that Google Mobile App and Maps apps do combined, Bing 1.0 for iPhone does offer a viable alternative to Google's searching and mapping dominance.

(Credit: Seesmic)

On Monday, Seesmic released an update to Seesmic for BlackBerry, a Twitter app that first debuted in late November.

Back then you had to download Seesmic from the company's Web site. Now you can get it directly from BlackBerry App World online or from the App World app on your smartphone.

Although Seesmic's interface is a bit light on features--like support for multiple accounts--it has added some enhancements that better integrate its Twitter app with the BlackBerry ethos. Chief among these are compliance with the BlackBerry's spell checker and auto-corrector, which will both help keep you from misspelling tweets or forgetting to capitalize an "i." The app has also become sensitive to keyboard shortcuts. In addition to the usual BlackBerry shortcuts T and B, to take you to the top and bottom of the page, are R to reply, D to send a direct message and F to retweet. Here is the full list of mapped shortcuts.

You can now vary your font size among small, medium, and large fonts. Seesmic for BlackBerry also lets you mark a tweet as a favorite in your timeline, but doesn't yet have a dedicated Favorites screen. In addition, Seesmic is now available for phones running 4.5 of the BlackBerry's operating system.The previous build, version 1.0.6 beta, only worked on BlackBerrys 4.6 and up.

You can view the change log for more details, and can try Seesmic's take on Twitter for free on Windows and Mac.

This year may have been a disaster economy-wise, but app-wise it was awesome.

I mean, consider just a sampling of what 2009 brought us: a wealth of GPS apps (most of them quite good), some way-cool barcode-scanning apps, voice-morphing, auto-tuning (still not sure what that is), and, lest we forget, bobble-head politicians--(OK, maybe that wasn't so much awesome as weird).

The Kindle app brings nearly all the e-book goodness of the real thing to your iPhone--and in color.

With that in mind, I've rounded up the 10 apps that made my year more fun, more productive, and just plain better. I'm not calling these the "best" apps of 2009; they're merely my favorites. (And I'm not including games, as I think that category deserves a list of its own--stay tuned for that.)

1. Dragon Dictation Barely a week old, this app does a shockingly good job turning dictated words into clipboard-ready text. Even more amazing: it's free.

2. How the Grinch Stole Christmas Another newcomer, "Grinch" brings Dr. Seuss to the iPhone in high style. Parents will love it as much as kids.

3. Kindle Anyone who knows me knows I love reading e-books on my iPhone, and the free Kindle app ties to Amazon's currently unmatched e-book store. A few taps and I'm reading free sample chapters or complete novels. (Note to Amazon: It's time to add bookstore browsing to the app.)

4. Public Radio App Though you can get most of the same functionality from the free NPR News, Public Radio App raises the bar with streaming-audio features like pause/rewind and a wake-up-to-public-radio alarm clock. Well worth $2.99.

(Credit: CNET)

Looking at my iPhone yesterday, I noticed that there was a crack about a centimeter long right up the middle of the back of the handset coming straight from the charging area. It's hardly noticeable and I'm sure my iPhone will continue to work, but it definitely serves as a reminder that when my two-year contract is up in June, I'm going to be ready for a new iPhone.

Fortunately, a story over at AppleInsider points to a rumor that the next generation of iPhones are set to come out right about that time. Eldar Murtazin, an insider, said the next generation iPhone has recently been slated for production by Foxconn, Apple's Taiwanese iPhone manufacturer, putting the handset right in line for a June release. Some of the reworked features mentioned in the article include a new Apple-designed map replacement and the possibility for RFID swipe support (handy in checkout lines). Like any news related to Apple, almost everything revolves around rumors, but it does make me excited for when I can finally upgrade beyond the iPhone 3G.

This week's apps include a popular database app for movie buffs and a huge update for one of the first iPhone games.

The iPhone-friendly layout helps you get to info you want quickly

(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)

IMDb (free) is a new iPhone app that lets you access movie, TV, and celebrity information from the popular Internet Movie Database. Like the IMDb Web site, you'll be able to access just about any information you could want about movies, celebrities, TV shows, and photos, all on your iPhone. But even better than the Internet version, you'll also be able to browse movie and TV show times in your area once you give IMDb access to your location.

The interface for IMDb was clearly made for mobile, with a launch page that lets you access local movie and TV information so you can find a movie or schedule your evening viewing on the go. But at the very top of the interface is a searchbox for all those moments where you want to know a specific actor from some obscure movie. Simply type in the information you have, and IMDb gives you a huge list of results. When you drill down to actor and movie pages, you get an easy to browse layout with a filmography, actor bios, and much more. People who love movies or just like having a portable database to search for local movies, TV shows, and celebrities should definitely grab this app.

Navigating past those cannons and obstacles is going to be tricky

(Credit: Screenshot by Jason Parker/CNET)

Labyrinth 2 ($4.99) is the sequel to one of the early games that showed off the accelerometer capabilities of the iPhone. But where the original was a straight-forward game where you tilt the phone to guide the metal ball to the goal, Labyrinth 2 adds several more maps, tons of features and obstacles, and breathes new life into an old game concept.

The first thing you'll notice about Labyrinth 2 is the enormous amount of playable map packs. Each map pack is rated so you can pick easy levels for more casual play, medium for a little more challenge, and hard levels when you're ready to dive in to a real challenge. What moves this iteration of the old game into modern times are new features to effect gameplay. Amidst the usual walls and holes you need to navigate around, there are now magnets and fans to knock you off track, cannons that shoot at your ball, and floor switches that open gates to get to the goal. Even if you manage to get past all the included map packs you can download free level packs to keep going. Overall, if you liked the original game for iPhone (and even if you didn't), Labyrinth 2 offers so much content and new concepts to the game that it's definitely worth checking out.

What's your favorite iPhone app? Are you happy to finally see the official IMDb on the iPhone? What do you think of Labyrinth 2? Let me know in the comments!

Somewhere, Theodor Geisel (aka Dr. Seuss) is smiling. "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" for iPhone turns the classic tale into a superb interactive e-book, one that's as much a learning tool as it is an entertaining diversion.

With all the fuss over Kindles, Nooks, and other e-book readers, I've often wondered why there's been so little focus on children's books--arguably the ideal media for a portable device.

After all, what parent hasn't wished for something wholesome to keep young kids occupied during car rides, long waits in a restaurant, endless hours on a plane, and so on?

Kids can tap a word to hear it pronounced and see it grow big.

"Grinch" offers two modes: "Read to Me" and "Read It Myself." In both cases, readers are treated to the original artwork and text, but with some clever panning and zooming that adds an animated touch.

The reader, professional actor Lee Abbott, lends just the right kind of kid-formal voice to the story. And because each word is highlighted as he reads, kids have the opportunity to learn along the way.

Another perk: each page is interactive. Kids can tap an item on the screen (such as "tree" or "Grinch") to hear it pronounced and see the accompanying word.

In short, this is exactly what you'd hope for from a Dr. Seuss book made electronic. And the $3.99 price tag is more than reasonable, especially considering that the noninteractive hardcover lists for $15.

As the parent of a learning-to-read 7-year-old who loved every bit of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" on my iPhone, I'm sold. Note to developer Oceanside Media: keep the Seuss books coming. (Can I get my order in now for "Yertle the Turtle"?)

eBay may have recently sold off Skype to the highest bidder, but the VoIP app for desktop and mobile is still in development.

On Thursday, Skype announced Skype 4.2 for Windows beta and a new beta build for Symbian phones. Skype 4.2 beta for Windows desktop users is small as updates go, reinstating Skype Access--a Wi-Fi hot-spot connector--and call transferring that Skype had removed when overhauling its app and updating to version 4 (now in version 4.1), a build that includes screen-sharing.

You can scrutinize the full release notes here.

In addition to tightening up Skype for the desktop, the company announced it will issue a limited beta release for Symbian Series 60 handsets. There's compatibility for 17 Nokia handsets at launch, with use on more phones on the way.

The feature set is basic at present, with just the following features in place:

• Free Skype-to-Skype calling
• Call phones with Skype credits or subscription
• Receive calls on your online number
• Instant messaging
• Group conversations
• File sending and receiving

We've long been fans of Photogene, a $2.99 image editor for iPhone and iPod Touch that faces heavy rivalry from apps like the free Photoshop Mobile for iPhone. We figured it's time to take a closer look.

While Photogene offers a lot to like, there's still room for improvement. We outline the pros and cons in this First Look video.