The Download Blog

There are a few sales over the Thanksgiving long weekend here in the U.S. with some developers slashing prices on many popular iPhone games. Huge iPhone game developer, Gameloft, is having a 99-cent sale on many of their popular game titles throughout the weekend. EA Games is also in on the action, offering price cuts to several of their big titles. Some games I've talked about here like Madden NFL 10, FIFA 10, and NBA Live are $6.99 for a limited time (usually $9.99) and there are a lot of other great deals. If you've been waiting for the prices to drop on some of the bigger games, now is the time to check out the iTunes App Store--you just might be pleasantly surprised.

This week's apps include a stylish clock app and a new Star Wars game that lets you relive some of the great moments of the original movie.

PerfectClock (Free for a limited time) lets you display stylish-looking clocks on your iPhone screen that are perfect for when your phone is sitting in an iPhone Docking Station. The app comes with a handful of clocks you can choose from, or you can easily download free clock skins from within the app. Along with the beautiful designs, PerfectClock lets you set alarms, offers a number of different ways to display information on screen (date, month, day of week) and you can disable the autolock so the clock stays visible while you're charging it.

PerfectClock also comes with a number of ambient sound loops like rainforest sounds, ocean waves, and more. That way if your iPhone charges on your bedside table, you can set PerfectClock to play sounds of nature for a set amount of time (and even fade out) while you doze off. Overall, if you would like to use your iPhone as your main alarm clock and want a few more options, or would just like to check out some of the imaginative clock designs, you should download this app.

Star Wars: Trench Run ($4.99) lets you relive the moments leading up to the destruction of the Death Star from Star Wars IV: A New Hope. You can play arcade mode and choose between a dogfight with Tie Fighters on the surface of the Death Star, or Trench Run, where you fly your X-Wing fighter down the trench evading Darth Vader and blowing away gun towers. The mission mode lets you fight your way through the ending moments in sequence up to firing your rockets in to the exhaust port and blowing up the Death Star. The controls are fairly simple: tilt your iPhone to steer your X-Wing and touch the right side of your screen to fire your weapons. You also can use a Force slow-down skill by touching the left side of the screen--a great option when the action gets particularly intense.

Though Star Wars: Trench Run is a fun diversion for a little while, the game doesn't offer much in the way of long-term replay value. Once you've done each of the missions and played the different types of game modes a few times, the action gets kind of repetitive. Still, with original sound effects and music by John Williams paired with smooth 3D graphics, this game will appeal to Star Wars fans who dreamed of doing the trench run so long ago (myself included). For more on Star Wars: Trench Run, check out Rick Broida's column here.

What's your favorite iPhone app? Have you found any good holiday app deals? Do you have a better clock app to share? What do you think of Star Wars: Trench Run? Let me know in the comments!

As announced a few months ago, the iPhone has officially made landfall in China. But even with such an enormous potential market, Apple may still have some problems selling the device. Apparently, due to issues with Chinese carriers, iPhones in China have no support for Wi-Fi. To add insult to injury among Chinese users, the price of the iPhone comes in at 4,999 yuan, or $730. If you buy the smartphone without a contract it comes in at a whopping $1,024, according to the Wall Street Journal. Fortunately, a ban on Wi-Fi by one Chinese carrier has been softened recently so iPhone 3GS users may get the faster connection speeds soon. Still, at that high price, I have to wonder just how many people will want to buy the iPhone in China. Only time will tell.

This week's apps include a feature-rich police scanner and a boxing game that reminds me of old stand-up arcade games from long ago.

Scanner 911 (99 cents) lets you listen to streaming audio of police, fire, and EMS radio channels in the U.S. and Canada. The interface is clean and easy to navigate with buttons across the bottom including available stations by location, a button to get stations near you (via GPS), a favorites section, a list of recent stations, and a recordings section. I've reviewed a police scanner app here before called Emergency Radio, that still holds up well, but the addition of recording capabilities to Scanner 911 adds a new angle that scanner afficianados will appreciate.

Though not all cities and locations are available, the developers of Scanner 911 promise that more channels are coming soon. They even have a place to vote for locations at the developer's Web site if you want to add your city to the list. Overall, if you want a solid emergency scanner on your iPhone with the ability to record that harrowing car chase or bank robbery (as examples, of course), Scanner 911 is the app to have.

Super KO Boxing 2 brings fun and challenging cartoon-like boxing to the iPhone--a lot like the old classic stand-up arcade game (and later the console game) Punch Out. This game is not about realism in any way, but instead challenges you to find the weakness of each comically-designed fighter as you rise through the ranks. There are three different game types including Circuits, Versus, and Challenge, with the Circuits option being the place you'll probably spend most of your time, fighting through progressively harder fighters. On-screen controls include buttons for dodging and blocking on the left side of the screen and high, low, and super attacks on the right side.

Just like the old classic Punch Out arcade game, the trick to Super KO Boxing 2 is figuring out the weaknesses of each opponent. Some will be vulnerable to aggressive body blows while others will only take damage by hitting with a hook at just the right time. You'll need to fight some opponents several times before you figure out their weakness, but the comically drawn boxing caricatures and funny animations make the game enjoyable even when played again and again. Entertaining feature additions like the ability to "dizzy" opponents by unleashing furious combos require that you figure out strategies to beat each opponent. To go for the super punch, you'll need to build up your energy meter through chained combos and taunts, both of which are hard to pull off without taking hits. Overall, if you're looking for a less serious boxing arcade type of game, Super KO Boxing has a lot to offer and often leaves you chuckling as you challenge each opponent.

What's your favorite iPhone app? Have you recorded any exciting emergencies in Scanner 911? Have you become the champion of the world in Super KO Boxing 2? Let me know in the comments!

According to a new study I came across at AppleInsider, Apple's iPhone OS has 40 percent of the Web market share. This study doesn't specifically reflect iPhone or iPod Touch sales, rather it shows that the iPhone OS dominates around the globe when it comes to mobile handset Web browsing. The two areas where iPhone doesn't dominate (Asia and Africa) are places where the Symbian OS had an early foothold and continues to be number one.

We all know the iPhone is doing extremely well around the world, but I have to think this particular dominance (52 percent, just in the U.S.) is more about the simplicity of the iPhone and iPod Touch Web browsing experience than it is about the number of Apple handsets. My hunch is that people are not just using Safari for iPhone, but using it often because it's almost like browsing on a desktop computer. In any case, it's great news for Apple, but even greater news for us--as the iPhone continues to rise in popularity (by whatever means), you can bet that cool new apps are going to keep on coming!

This week's apps include an affordable GPS directions app and a dungeon-crawling RPG that had a brief development hiccup, but is back and ready for you to start hacking and slashing.

MotionX GPS Drive ($2.99) is an affordable GPS directions system you can use for driving directions or just to find nearby restaurants and other common locations. The interface for this app is extremely well-designed, letting you not only enter an address for step-by-step driving or walking directions, but it also locates commonly searched locations making it easy to find what you're looking for. When you're ready, view your route on the map to begin your journey.

MotionX GPS Drive claims to be always up-to-date, meaning that search, maps, routing, and points of interest always come with the latest information (like up-to-date phone numbers for chosen locations or immediate routing changes when you miss a turn, for example). The app also offers voice directions, so you can keep your eyes on the road; the first month is free, but you'll need to purchase a plan for voice directions beyond that. Overall, though other GPS systems at the app store provide more features, MotionX GPS offers up an incredibly useful tool with a slick and intuitive interface at a fraction of the cost.

Dungeon Hunter is a hack-and-slash RPG with excellent graphics and fun for any RPG enthusiast. Start by choosing between three classes including a warrior, a rogue, or a mage. The Warrior gives you the slow but steady strength to endure tons of enemies, while the rogue is more about killing quickly before you take too much damage. The mage has spells to zap monsters and a protective magic shield for defense. Each character provides a unique way to play the game so it's fun to go back and complete levels using different fighting styles. Dungeon Hunter will appeal to fans of Diablo and Dungeon Siege, because it offers a similar kind of hack-and-slash gameplay along with quests, character advancement, and numerous abilities to choose as you progress.

This the second time Dungeon Hunter has appeared in the iTunes Store because during their initial launch a major bug prevented players from passing a certain level of the game. Fortunately, the game has been patched up and made it through its second round of Apple's somewhat infamous app approval process. In any case, with clean console-like graphics, surprisingly good onscreen controls, great sounds, and a staggering amount of skills to obtain and use, Dungeon Hunter is a great purchase for fans of the dungeon-crawling genre.

What's your favorite iPhone app? Did you purchase other more expensive GPS apps like Tom Tom app and have thoughts on newer cheaper GPS apps like MotionX GPS Drive? Is Dungeon Hunter the best hack-and-slash RPG so far for the iPhone? Let me know in the comments!

I recently heard about a trick for iPhone 3GS owners who have the latest version of the Yelp app. Yelp, as you probably know, lets you search for restaurants or other services and read user-written ratings and reviews. I've noticed that the Yelp app particularly comes in handy when I'm on vacation: it lets me find out right away what the locals think about a particular restaurant without having to find out for myself. But a hidden feature in Yelp for iPhone 3GS owners has been revealed recently that adds a whole new dimension to Yelp ratings.

Make sure you download the latest version of Yelp (free) to try it out. Start up Yelp, then shake your iPhone a few times until a blue dialog box appears. This will unlock a button in the top right of the Yelp interface called The Monocle. Touch the button and you should be looking through your iPhone camera lens, but now you will be able to see restaurants, theaters, stores, and more with their ratings displayed on the actual location. This means that if you were in a busy area with restaurants and shops, you could look through The Monocle to get ratings for each place you're looking at in what they call augmented reality.

I had seen a demonstration of augmented reality on a jailbroken iPhone some time ago, but this is the first iPhone app in the iTunes Store to use augmented reality. Like I mentioned before, this will only work for those with the iPhone 3GS because The Monocle is using the compass (not available for iPhone 3G) along with GPS data to figure out which direction your pointing so it can display the correct reviews. If you get a chance, check it out and let me know what you think in the comments.

This week's apps include a useful tool to browse Craigslist and a fun new first-person shooter game.

CraigsPro (99 cents) lets you browse Craigslist with numerous features for searching and viewing listings and even posting your own listings. If you need to do a quick search, use the search bar at the top of the interface to search all listings. But for more-refined searches, you can adjust several post-type specific attributes by going into the Options screen. CraigsPro has buttons across the bottom to store favorites, sort listings by category, and search listings by city (you can add or remove cities to widen or narrow your searches). There also is a post tab where you can choose the category, write your post, and immediately attach pictures from your iPhone camera or select images from your iPhone photo library.

In some ways, CraigsPro is better than browsing listings on the actual Web site. Search result lists show up with photos and the first few lines of each posting so it makes finding what you want much easier without having to open up each listing. The Favorites tab is especially useful when you're apartment hunting, for example, because you have all of your chosen locations handy on one page when you're out visiting apartments--no need to write anything down. Overall, if you want a better way to search or post to Craigslist on your iPhone, CraigsPro has plenty to offer, with several added features to make finding what you want easier.

Modern Combat: Sandstorm ($6.99) is a brand-new first-person shooter for iPhone and it might be the best one yet. The game is set somewhere in the Middle East, and you will find and use several different kinds of weapons as you complete mission objectives in dry sandy locales. You have three different types of control schemes to pick from, with variations of onscreen joysticks and touch-screen actions. I found the default control method to work best for me with a movement joy stick on the left and using the touch screen to aim and fire with my right thumb. Some added controls appear in certain situations where you need to pick up an item or jump down from a wall, for example. You can reload your weapon with a single tap on the gun in the upper right or you can double tap to switch weapons.

Though the iPhone touch screen will never be as easy to use as a keyboard or console controller, Modern Combat: Sandstorm manages to make the controls fairly easy to use. Autoaim (found in the options) helped a lot to offset the less-than-optimal controls in the beginning, but after spending some time with the game I was able to turn it off for a more realistic experience. Along with the great gameplay, Modern Combat: Sandstorm has great audio, with explosive-sounding guns, and good voice acting in-game and during cut scenes. Overall, if you've been waiting for a good first-person shooter to come to the iPhone, Modern Combat: Sandstorm is an excellent choice with exciting gameplay, challenging missions, and a control scheme that's fairly easy to get used to.

What's your favorite iPhone app? Have you tried the augmented reality Easter egg in Yelp for iPhone 3GS? Have you used a better Craigslist app? Are you excited to see more complicated games like Modern Combat: Sandstorm on the iPhone? Let me know in the comments!

It's happened to just about everyone who has bought an iPhone application at the iTunes Store: At some point the application you paid $7.99 for goes on sale for $1.99--sometimes it's even free the next day. I've had this happen to me many times, but only because it's part of the job to get applications when they're hot off the presses. Fortunately, as part of the job, I don't have to (personally) pay for the applications I review. Most people aren't so lucky.

Fortunately, an application made for bargain hunters that had been sitting in Apple's queue for several weeks (deemed by the development team a "pocket rejection") finally made it to the iTunes Store. Nobody knows why Apple was holding out, but now that it's here, I think most people will want to download it.

This week's apps include an iPhone application bargain finder program and a zombie-themed tower defense strategy game.

BargainBin helps you save money on iPhone applications by automatically finding deals on applications as they happen. A lot of iPhone application developers have recognized the advantage of selling their applications for a lower price either initially, or to generate interest in their application for a short time at the iTunes Store. BargainBin scans the iTunes store for these changes in price, helping you find applications that you might have thought were previously too expensive. You can sort by category and then use the buttons at the top of the interface to find bargain prices or applications that have since become free. Nobody wants to spend top dollar for applications if they have a choice, and this application is the perfect way to find deals at the iTunes Store.

Zombie Attack Free is the free version of the full tower defense strategy game, Zombie Attack. Like other real-time strategy games, you need to fight off a horde of baddies with strategically deployed gun turrets. But in Zombie Attack, an endless stream of zombies (punctuated by progressively more difficult levels) rush across a field, trying to reach and attack your humble shack, as you run around on the field (by tilting your device) placing and upgrading gun emplacements. You earn money for every zombie you drop, and the game ends when the zombies destroy your shack. The paid version (gives you several guns to choose from including flamethrowers, saw blades, and more. If you can't get enough of tower defense games (like me) you will like the unique strategy of this game.

What's your favorite new iPhone application? Have you found any bargain basement prices in BargainBin I should know about? What's your favorite tower defense game? Let me know in the comments!

Last month there was a fair amount of buzz about how iPhone apps don't have much of a shelf life. According to a recent article at TechCrunch, the average free iPhone app is used for less than 30 days before it sits inactive on the desktop or is deleted by the user.

I guess I fit in with the average iPhone user to a certain extent. I have deleted apps that I thought were pretty cool in the beginning, but no longer catch my interest. But it might be different for me because I review apps, so I need to continue to make space on my iPhone every week. On the other hand, there are some apps on my iPhone that I go back to again and again, yet I can see how people would get sick of certain gimmicky apps. I would be interested to know whether your experience lines up with the TechCrunch article so let me know in the comments.

This week's apps include a handy cloud storage utility and a classic arcade type of top-down shooter.

ZumoDrive (free) works in tandem with a downloadable desktop client (Mac or Windows) to let you easily move and use files between your desktop, your laptop, and your iPhone. Simply install the free iPhone client and install the software appropriate to your OS. From there, your ZumoDrive will show up like another hard drive where you can easily drag files that show up almost immediately on other devices. What makes ZumoDrive exceptionally cool is that it automatically understands not to store the big files on your iPhone, but gives you access to those files from the cloud. This means that you can have your entire 30GB music collection (or any other folder of files) accessible from your iPhone. It's important to note that the free version only allows you 1GB of space to work with, but you can sign up for several different monthly plans if you need more space. I think many users will be able to get by with the free version.

Sky Force Reloaded is an excellent shoot-'em-up arcade game in the vein of top-down, 2D classics like 1943 and Xevious (Wikipedia links to games). Any child of the '80s and '90s who plays Sky Force Reloaded will remember hitting the fire button repeatedly at the arcade, as throngs of bad guys flew in every direction while bullets seemed to come from everywhere. Sky Force Reloaded captures the action from these classic games on your iPhone with satisfying touch-screen movement and eight levels of bad guys to blow away. You get three ships to choose from that balance armor and maneuverability to let you decide what kind of mix will work best for the onslaught. Like any good arcade game throwback, Sky Force Reloaded gives you an almost impossible boss at the end of each level to keep you coming back for more.

While there's no replacement for the joystick when it comes to control in these type of games, Sky Force Reloaded manages to make the touch-screen controls work quite well. You'll also be able to pick up better weapons, save countless humans, and gather medals for points. What more could you ask for in an arcade game?

What do you think? What's the shelf life for your iPhone apps? Do you have use for a cloud computing app like ZumoDrive? How far can you get on Sky Force at the hardest difficulty level? Let me know in the comments!

By now most people have heard the rags to riches stories of the iPhone app developers who learned a valuable secret: Make a "lite" version. It seems reasonable that while there are a lot of people willing to pay for apps, many want to know what they're getting before spending their hard-earned cash. One of our iPhone apps this week has benefited immensely from creating a lite version and I have to admit, I probably wouldn't have tried it myself if they hadn't. The lite version has now made it to the top of iTunes' most popular list, which must bode well for the paid version once people try it out. Let's hope more developers release Lite versions so everyone gets a chance to try more iPhone apps before they buy.

This week's apps include a free recipe app for cooking ideas and a lite version of a racing game that might be the best in its genre.

Allrecipes.com Dinner Spinner (free) is a fun way to decide what you will make for dinner using a unique spinner to find recipes. Simply start up the Dinner Spinner and you're greeted with three spinnable wheels categorized as dish type, ingredients, and cooking time. To find a recipe, you swipe your finger to choose a dish type (appetizer, main dish, dessert), an ingredient you have in the house (chicken, pasta, chocolate), and a cooking time. The cooking times are set up for how much time you have, such as more than an hour, 20 minutes or less, or Slow Cooker. Once you make your selections you'll quickly find several recipes fitting your criteria.

Allrecipies.com Dinner Spinner lets you save your favorite recipes for easy access. You can also throw caution to the wind and hit the Dinner Spinner button, which randomly shuffles the three wheels. Just make sure you're at the grocery store so you can get all the ingredients.

Fastlane Street Racing Lite (free) is a one track, one car taste of the full Fastlane Street Racing game. Tilt your iPhone or iPod Touch to steer and use onscreen controls for gas and braking. You race against three other computer-controlled cars on a lengthy course, dodging regular drivers and obstacles as you go. Having tried several games that use the accelerometer for movement, I was pleasantly surprised with how well the controls work for this game. Pair the smooth controls with excellent graphics, several tracks, and unlockable cars, and you'll find it hard not to buy the full game ($4.99).

What's your current favorite iPhone App? Do you have a better recipe app for me? What's your favorite iPhone racing game? Let me know in the comments!

Now that the holiday shopping season is in full swing, maybe it's time to let Santa know he can always get you a gift certificate to the iTunes store so you can buy more apps! While there are plenty of great free offerings available, I've come across a couple of fun games in the paid section that might be perfect as a stocking stuffer. But just so you have something to download today, I discovered a great free game for those who don't want to fork over their hard cold cash.

TouchGrind ($4.99) is a high-quality multi-touch skateboarding game that's perfect for the skateboarding fan, but might be a stretch for the casual gamer. If you've ever seen or played with a fingerboard, you will quickly understand TouchGrind's two-finger control system, but it will take some practice to pull off successful tricks. You get two different parks to skate with numerous obstacles, ramps, and rails to try to perform tricks on and two different game types to choose from. The Jam Session mode lets you practice tricks and try to pull off combos in an effort to achieve your highest score for a single trick. In Competition mode, you try to pull of as many tricks as possible in 100 seconds, stringing together combos for extra multipliers to get your overall high score. You also can unlock new boards with special abilities as you pass major score milestones.

While people interested in Skateboarding will appreciate the true-to-life sounds, crisp graphics, and realistic physics, the casual gamer might become frustrated quickly. The touch screen is zoomed in on the board pretty far--so you have more control over tricks, but less time to prepare for approaching obstacles. If you're a skate fan, however, this app is definitely worth the money.

Dr. Awesome ($1.99) is a lot like the arcade classic Qix, in which you capture parts of the gameboard by tilting your iPhone until you reach a certain percentage to finish the level. But with Dr. Awesome, you play as a surgeon who "cuts" away tissue in order to rid the patient of a virus. The cartoon cast tells you about upcoming surgeries and is sure to let you know when you're not doing a good job in the ER. But what makes this game especially unique is that it uses your contact list to randomly choose your patients. If you want to know what pressure is, wait until a few levels in and your best friend is on the operating table. Fortunately, you get a few tries before your patient flatlines (complete with horrifying sound). Though there is not much variation in gameplay (mostly sticking to the Qix concept), it still manages to be a great game at an affordable price.

TapDefense is a free tower defense game complete with upgradable weapons, the ability to buy better towers, and much more. Like other tower defense games, the object is to prevent hordes of enemies from reaching their goal by setting up armed towers to chip away at their health. You start with three buildable towers which offer different types of damage, but as you progress, you receive "halos" you can use to buy more powerful towers. You also can upgrade previously built towers by spending more gold. Gold is earned after every level letting you buy more towers as the enemy onslaught gets more difficult. An expert tip I received from a coworker is that you should increase your interest rate early so you have more money to spend on towers later. Overall, TapDefense is an excellent free game with plenty of replay value as you adjust your strategy to reach the highest level possible.

What's your latest iPhone app? What are you willing to spend at the iTunes app store for a good game? What's your highest level in TapDefense? (I got to level 19 before I had to quit and get back to work.) Let me know in the comments!

Before I get to this weeks apps, I found out about some bargain basement prices for a small selection of apps from Ambrosia Software. Aki Mahjong Mobile, Mondo Solitaire, and Mr. Sudoko are all on sale for 99-cents at the app store until November 30th (usually $9.99). If you have any interest in these games, now is the time to start downloading!

For this weeks apps, I'm including one free and one paid app.

The Weather Channel for iPhone and iPod touch offers a wealth of weather information beyond what you get from the free app that's already on your iPhone. In addition to local temperatures, you can check out hourly, 36-hour, and 10-day forecasts, conditions for specific landmarks in a neighborhood, and you can share weather information with anyone in your iPhone address book. You can also view current weather videos (launches in YouTube) and look at local severe weather alerts. My favorite feature is the ability to view weather maps and pick layers to show where it's raining or whether its cloudy, or what the temperature is in specific locations. If you want more weather info, download this free app.

Aurora Feint II: The Arena ($7.99) is the sequel to one of the first games out for the iPhone, Aurora Feint: The Beginning. Like its predecessor, most of the action in the game requires that you move and match three or more blocks together to get points. Stringing together matches increases your combo multiplier so a certain amount of strategy is required to get the most points. While you match blocks, you collect minerals and crystals which can be used to buy items that make your mining easier.

What sets this new version apart from other puzzle and blocks games is the asynchronous massive multiplayer component, The Arena. In the Arena you can play against other players ghosts or create your own ghost so players can challenge your best effort. You also can chat with other players in The Tavern and brag about past winnings, though the game automatically gives you the option to brag or complain at the end of a match. With solid gameplay, RPG elements that let you upgrade, and online multiplayer, Aurora Feint II: The arena has plenty of replay value. At first I thought $7.99 might be too much for an upgrade to the free game, but once I got to playing and challenging other players I realized it was definitely worth it.

What's your latest greatest iPhone App? Are you happy to see a more comprehensive weather app for iPhone? What's your screen name in Aurora Feint so I can destroy your high score? Let me know in the comments!