The Download Blog

Popular iPhone gaming developer Ngmoco released Eliminate Pro yesterday, its much-anticipated, online, first-person shooter. This well-polished "free" game features smooth looking graphics, onscreen controls that are fairly effective (no match for a controller or keyboard/mouse setup, but that's to be expected), a number of power ups to improve your weapons and armor, and five playable maps. In-game kills and winning matches earn you credits you can use to buy new weapons and armor. There are eight armor types, five weapon types, and items to buy like armor designs (skins) to give you a new look. The best part is that you get to play an online FPS from wherever you are on 3G or Wi-Fi against your friends or against players from around the world. The game uses the Plus+ network, so you'll need to register your character before you start playing online. Sounds pretty great, right? Not so fast.

Once you've played a few online games you will quickly see how the revenue model for Eliminate Pro is somewhat less than ideal. Here's the rub: in order to earn credits (for all the great purchases) in online matches, your 12-node energy bar must be charged. Each online game uses up four nodes, so you get three games before you run out of energy (about 15 minutes). So if you want to use the game for free, once you're out of energy, Eliminate Pro displays the time remaining until the next recharge in minutes, which comes out to about four hours. At the end of four hours, it only gives you four nodes of energy back, so you'll only be able to play one credit-accruing game every four hours. This is where the in-app purchase model comes in.

While you can play the Eliminate Pro online and against bots with an empty energy bar, you will not accrue credits. To recharge your energy bar, you'll need to buy one of four packages of power cells via an in-app purchase. The price scheme goes like this: 99 cents for 20 power cells, $1.99 for 45, $9.99 for 280, and $29.99 for 975 power cells. But the real kicker is that each power cell only fills up one node, meaning you will use 12 power cells to fill up your energy bar (notice how a 99 cent pack of 20 lets you fill up one 12-node bar, but not enough to fill another). In other words, if you want to keep earning credits and buying fancy items, you'll be paying roughly 60 cents per 15-minute game session.

Though this game is highly polished, with just about everything a gamer could want in an iPhone online FPS, the in-app purchase system seems too steep to me. Those who are excited about the game and want to continue to play for free will be playing a highly crippled game needing to wait 4 hours before they can earn a few more credits. Those willing to spend the money will quickly realize the game is eating up their cash quickly.

I'm very interested in what people think about this particular pricing model. I think the game itself is pretty great--not as good as Modern: Combat Sandstorm for gameplay, but the best for online first-person shooters. I suppose the casual gamer will have no trouble playing for 15 minutes a day on this game and slowly earning credits over time to buy items. But the people who want to spend time playing the "complete" game will need to pay--and quite a lot if they really like the game and want to get powerful quickly. Finally, I wonder what this means for other iPhone apps in the future and whether we're going to see more pricing models like this one. Will everything become pay-to-play?

What do you think? Is the free version good enough for the amount you would actually play? How much are you willing to spend to continue playing the complete game of Eliminate Pro? Is this pricing model fair? Is this a preview of pricing models of other future apps? Let me know in the comments!

The productivity app known for bringing summaries of your social and financial life has now come to the Android Market.

Pageonce's Personal Assistant, made available Wednesday, provides account balances, status updates, and other real-time information from online accounts as varied as your stock portfolio, eBay bids, and cell phone minutes. The information is read-only, which makes some functions, like viewing your bank and credit card balances, more immediately useful than others, like watching your Twitter feed.

Sure, signing up for this productivity app does require you to put your trust in Pageonce's security--256-bit data encryption, 128-bit data encrypted SSL systems, and insurance by an A+ rated insurance carrier. If you do, the app proves an easy way to monitor your bills and social life from a centralized location.

Personal Assistant, which has already been present on iPhone, BlackBerry, and Windows Mobile phones, comes in two flavors: free and premium. The free version stingily supports only five accounts, its biggest limitation. For $10 (OK, for $9.99), you can check them all. See the comparison chart below for other differences between the two apps.

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!

One of the better ways to get Google Chrome or Internet Explorer-style compacted menus in Firefox is Personal Menu. The add-on comes loaded with options, so for a one-trick wonder it's pretty slick.

It adds an icon to your toolbar customization window which you can then drag-and-drop onto the toolbar of your choice. I stuck it on the Menus Toolbar next to my navigation and refresh button, because Personal Menu comes with the option to hide the menu bar. By getting rid of the Stop Loading button, because I use that even less than I use the forward button, and the search bar, which is functionally duplicated by the search features in the location bar, I'm able to clear up a significant amount of screen real estate.

The reason to go with Personal Menu, though, is that it lets you heavily configure the menus that it hides. From Personal Menu's Options menu, you can configure which menus appear behind the button, and in which order they're listed. These choices aren't limited to the standard File, Bookmarks, or Tools--any sub-menu from the main menus can be pulled out and added to the drop-down.

For example, if you need to access the Extensions Options menu often, you might want to put that in the drop-down to save time by having to navigate to it through the Tools menu. You can also save menu drop-down configurations, a useful feature for computers running multiple Firefox profiles.

Mouse actions can be configured to alter menu behavior, too. From the Miscellaneous tab in the Personal Menu extension options, users can adjust actions when middle-clicking or right-clicking on the Bookmarks or History buttons, as well as alter the number of pages that appear in the History. Advanced options include adjusting in which direction the menu opens, forcing the menu bar to appear via a hot key, and "emergency response measures" to bring up the menu bar if the toolbar icon accidentally gets disabled.

On rare occasion the extension has grayed-out its menus. It's a frustrating flaw that I fixed by restarting Firefox. Some of the descriptions for advanced features could be written more clearly. I still only have a vague idea of what "Position in where menu of this button shows" actually means. Still, Firefox fans looking to make the most of their screens or make menus more useful will find this to be a must-have add-on.

Mint.com released a new and free iPhone application early Monday. Similar to PageOnce's mobile efforts, Mint's lets you monitor your credit card and bank accounts from your phone. It also throws in things like your monthly budget, incoming cash flow and expenses, along with any investment accounts you have synced up to Mint.com.

For security, Mint seems to have taken a page from PageOnce in letting you enable or disable mobile access from Mint.com. If your phone gets lost or stolen, you can simply cut off its access to your account, keeping any would-be identity thieves from taking a look at past purchases, or getting an idea of your net worth. It doesn't show any of your account numbers, or even let you add new accounts from your mobile device (which PageOnce does), but can be a treasure trove of information in the wrong hands.

Another thing worth noting about security is that if you don't have your iPhone passlock-protected, anyone can fire up the application and see the dollar value of each of your accounts. I'm a little surprised Mint hasn't placed its own special passcode security system for those first using this app, or even provided the option to require a password between sessions. The best you can do is simply log off in between use, but that's not a good long-term solution.

Security issues aside, it's a good first start for Mint, and for regular Mint users this is yet another way to get at things like your budget and accounts without having to rely on your bank offering a site that can be accessed on mobile devices. The alerts are also very handy and can tell you if a credit card bill is close to being due, if you're spending more than usual, or if there have been large deposits or withdrawals into your various accounts. For those things alone, it's worth downloading the app, just be sure to flip on your iPhone's built-in security lock feature.

Not only does Secunia Personal Software Inspector provide extensive details on the software installed on your computer, it also gives you direct links to update programs that are older and potentially not secure.

The interface mixes professional layout with a text-heavy, spartan design. At the top right of the program window, users can choose a Simple or Advanced layout. Under Simple, Secunia provides basic information about the installed program statuses, with a chart to gauge their security over time and a simplified listing of any errors. Clicking on an error leads you through the proprietary Easy-to-Patch program update process, which automatically excludes more challenging updates. The Advanced layout tab exposes more details and more updates. It also checks your Microsoft XML, your Adobe Flash player installation, and others programs, looking for mission-critical holes and their respective updates. Installed programs get flagged as Patched, End-of-Life, and Insecure, with the most recent reported threat noted with a colored bar and a mouse-over label on the right column.

Scanning can be slow, and occasionally the scan restarted for a second round automatically after completing its first pass. However, the update process was seamless, and once you update a program, it moves into the Patched list after about 5 minutes, because Secunia defaults to run in the background. The End-of-Life tab offers up a toolbox with quick access to Add/Remove Programs, the listed software's folder, and online references. Secunia's plain language for instructions and explanations enhances the already robust update package, making this a highly recommended freeware.

This isn't the most feature-packed Windows optimization utility but we found it one of the easiest to control. Advanced WindowsCare Personal's simple interface offers two main options: Repair and Repair And Optimize. The former fixes Registry entries and cleans out your operating system. The latter does the same thing and tweaks Windows for maximum performance.

If you run into trouble, the Restoration option can return your system to its original configuration. The Advanced menu provides fine control over repairs and optimizations. Afterward, I noticed only one improvement, a reduced amount of used RAM, but that's not insignificant. However, the sparse descriptions of system problems may not satisfy seasoned users. And although the latest version of the app includes a help file, it's hardly extensive.

Nevertheless, if your system is doing its best turtle impersonation and you're considering reinstalling Windows, it wouldn't hurt to try this freeware package first. There's also a paid upgrade that offers more features, such as a run-in-background option, faster definition file updates, and tech support.

I must admit, my interlude with the new BlackBerry Wallet in the quiet, early morning hours has been a bit of a letdown. That's because I'm comparing it with eWallet Professional and CodeWallet Pro, neither of which is available for BlackBerry (they patrol Windows Mobile territory, and in eWallet's case, Palm's,) and both of which guard much more information than credit card, gift card, password, and loyalty card numbers and details.

What I like about the other two wallets (reviewed side-by-side here) is their wide definition of sensitive data. If you're reaching for your smartphone to look up credit card details for an online purchase, then tapping it for your auto insurance info, your bank account password, or your driver's license digits gives the application that much more value.

Other than these druthers for greater breadth, the BlackBerry Wallet is a fine start to a greatly useful tool. The intuitive interface retains the familiar wallet tree structure and locks after 10 failed password attempts. BlackBerry Wallet is free, and is an easy download via the mobile browser at http://mobile.blackberry.com.

[Via The Boy Genius Report via BerryReview]

Windows Mobile users looking for a way to manage their personal finance from their phones ought to take a look at SplashMoney for Windows Mobile smartphones and PocketPCs, which just became available this week. The two-way app synchronizes with a desktop companion (included in the mobile download) to keep information current between the phone and computer, though SplashMoney also works as a standalone app on the phone as well as the Mac or PC.

Similar to most mobile money managers, SplashMoney lets you store and track financial data such as credit card details, account balances, budgets, and expenses. You'll also be able to download information from an online account and view data in chart and report form. There are, of course, customization options to assign icons to entries and to change colors.

Since you input the data into categories, the app requires some time investment up front, either on the device or on the computer companion app. Though SplashMoney is password-protected with 256-bit Blowfish encryption, we always recommend ramping up the security settings on any device containing sensitive personal or financial data, in case it gets stolen or tampered with.

Until now, SplashMoney has only been available for Palm OS. The 30-day trial is fully functional on Windows Mobile phones, including touch-screen models, and costs $29.95 to own.