It’s the end of another week and so it’s time for me to scour the latest releases in the App Store for the hottest new iPhone apps. As ever, I’ve selected four hot picks released in the last seven days for you to check out.

This week I’ve plucked our picks from across the globe. Hailing from Japan, my top pick this week is Brain Controller.

I’ve also checked out Finland’s Pajatzo, France’s Adrenaline Golf and Germany’s Vinyl DJ.

Brain Controller ($2.99)

Created by the apparently twisted minds at Motion Portrait Inc. over in Japan, Brain Controller might not be the most useful app to add to your collection but, it may well be the strangest. If you’re looking to drop some jaws and raise some eyebrows while showing off your iPhone, this is the app for you.

After shooting a photo of your friend, the app will work its truly impressive magic on your unsuspecting cohort. Brain Controller creates a Men In Black-style video, featuring a small alien emerging from your friend’s cranium before delivering a personalized message.

Those that still need convincing can check out some of the videos, uploaded directly from the app to YouTube, or even try out mpChange, an excellent little site that uses the same technology to mess with your face in a variety of utterly weird ways.

Pajatzo (99 cents)

If you’re a regular reader, you’ll know how I regularly indulge in pachinko-based fun on my iPhone. It all started several months ago with Rockchinko, a pachinko game that introduces rockabilly and bullet-time to the mix.

As a newcomer to Finland, I couldn’t help but notice pajazzo machines in a few of my favorite haunts. Pajazzo is the Finnish equivalent of pachinko. Played by shooting a coin into the machine, your coin will ricochet around before hopefully scoring a jackpot and earning you a modest return on your investment.

As pajazzo’s success never quite reached the epic proportions of its Japanese counterpart, and seeing as most machines are now dusty disused relics, Pajatzo for iPhone might be your only chance to try out this addictive Finnish classic.

Adrenaline Golf (99 cents)

From the folks behind Adrenaline Golf and Adrenaline Poker is the imaginatively titled Adrenaline Golf. Eurocenter, based in France, specialize in developing online games for iPhone. In fact, looking at their back catalogue, all of their releases feature an online component.

While Eurocenter’s Poker wasn’t the most effective online poker game for iPhone (my pick would be Zynga’s excellent Live Poker), they’ve managed to create something solid and fun with Adrenaline Golf. Online multiplayer matches are mixed up with trampolines, bumpers and even cannons.

Particularly surprising is Adrenaline Golf’s price. For just a buck iPhone 3GS owners get a true taster of the fledgling device’s graphical prowess. The details are delicious, from shimmering tropical waters to glowing night-time torches.

Vinyl DJ (99 cents)

This week’s final pick comes to us from Germany. Developed by Armin Heinrich, Vinyl DJ is strictly for iPhone-owning audiophiles who long for the golden days of music, when the closest thing to the iTunes Music Store was wandering down to your local record shop and sifting through never ending racks of dusty vinyl.

Vinyl was kicked to the curb though, sidelined for streamlined, portable and, most importantly, digital formats. Even though the benefits of digital are hard to ignore, there are some who claim that our new-fangled devices are lacking a certain je ne sais quoi.

And that’s where Vinyl DJ comes in. This app brings back that vintage vibe with a variety of effects including dust, crackle, scratch, mechanical noise and, of course, that all important record deck hum.

That’s all the picks for this week. I’ll be back in seven days with a fresh selection of App Store recommendations.

In the meantime, what apps have you been using this week?

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Though no gaming platform has a shortage of “simulator” tycoon style games, few have enough engaging gameplay to really stand out among the crowd. Now Boarding, a tycoon style game revolving around routing passengers at an airport, is one of these little treasures and a great game to help you relax and escape from the real world.

The basic gist is that you are the owner of an airline and its home terminal, in charge of the amount and placement of seats, stores, and snacks (among other unlockable treasures). Your mission is simple. Ferry passengers from your airport to others. As your business grows, you can take on other destinations, more passengers and larger aircraft to handle the traffic.

The game is laid out as five “episodes” spanning various regions across the northern hemisphere. Individual cities within each episode have their own unique characteristics, such as Orlando being busier during the summer (due to its amusement parks). Strategy is essential as you grow your fleet of aircraft and choose which destinations to expand your airline service to next.

With unique graphics and an engaging soundtrack, gameplay is very upbeat and fun. Don’t be surprised to waste huge amounts of time as you play to unlock awards and achievements.

Inside your terminal, you are responsible for staffing appropriate positions (ticketing, gate attendant, customer service, docking) in addition to expanding your airline fleet, all while keeping within your budget. As traffic to your airline grows, you will be able to expand to offer more unique methods of transportation, including a helicopter, a 36 seat plane and a private jet.

As your airline business grows, so does the difficulty of keeping happy the hundreds of passengers that move throughout your terminal. As the pressure mounts and more passengers pile into your terminal than you can handle, they will start to get angry. When they have a melt down, the game is over.

Now Boarding started as a Flash-based game and, due to its nature, does require a pretty beefy system for decent gameplay. Users will need to have at least a 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo or 1GHz PowerPC G4 processor or faster to play. On older Macs, performance may degrade as you progress higher into the game as your airline plays host to an increasing number of passengers. The game is built around the Adobe Air platform, so in addition to being compatible with Windows and Linux, it also runs just like any other standalone application, complete with its own icon.

Now Boarding is a great game that starts off simple and easy, but quickly scales in terms of difficulty and challenges. A demo version of Now Boarding is available at its website here. The full version costs $14.99. If you’ve had a chance to play, I’d love to hear your thoughts!

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Once again, it’s that special time of the week when we all join hands, take a deep breath and exhale as we take a spiritual journey through the latest app picks for iPhone.

Before we reach app Zen, however, it’s time for a refreshing run through of the week’s iPhone news and Apple happenings.

Credit cards at the ready, the week opened with the resurgence of the Apple tablet rumor. Fueled by word from component suppliers in China, the rumor is that we could see an Apple tablet retailing by October this year.

One year on from the App Store’s launch and Apple is feeling particularly pleased with its paradigm shifting achievement. So pleased, in fact, that it dropped a big number in celebration: 1.5 billion App Store downloads in the first year. Impressive indeed. I wonder if Nokia, Palm or RIM will ever catch up?

Our own Clayton Lai returned this week with “Jailbreak,” an ongoing series that’s all about getting the most out of your jailbroken iPhone. His latest offering explains how to spruce up your iPhone’s lock screen with calendars, Twitter feeds and more.

Still on the subject of jailbreaking, over on the iPhone 3GS there’s a new unlock in town: purplesn0w. It improves on the Dev Team’s ultrasn0w, providing a much more stable unlock, while improving battery life and Wi-Fi connectivity.

It seems that most users won’t notice any difference with the latest iTunes update, however Palm Pre owners are in for a surprise sandwich filled with the meat of disappointment: Apple has blocked Palm Pre syncing in iTunes. Pre owners, I adore your device, but it was bound to happen, it has happened, get over it.

And finally, Google has brought local web search to the iPhone. The service makes use of the iPhone’s 3.0 software update, which now includes HTML 5 Geolocation API support in Safari. This basically means that web sites can determine your location and provide you with relevant and useful data. By which I mean adverts, lots of adverts.

Moving on to the picks, this week I’ve been looking at Worms, Spell Number, Zombies & Me and Tap Star.

Worms ($4.99)
This brings me back to the old days — all the cool kids got their console fix with the SNES or Genesis, but I had an Amiga 500. For a time, I had very little interest in chubby Italian plumbers or a blue hedgehog with an attitude problem. It was all about British dev studios churning out classic games: Sensible Software’s Cannon Fodder, Ocean’s Robocop and, of course, Team 17 with Worms. Featuring a brigade of cheeky, well-armed worms, the game is a turn-based strategy, incorporating a bevy of weird weaponry, perfect for extended multiplayer gaming sessions. For the retro fanboys with a penchant for the Amiga, this is a definite download, but it’s also worth checking out for newbies looking for an explosive (and amusing) strategy fix.

Spell Number (Free)
So you’ve updated your iPhone to OS 3.0, or you’ve taken it one step further and bagged yourself an iPhone 3GS. Either way, there are a few tweaks and improvements that may make your Apple device even more wonderful. One such tweak, provided by Spell Number, activates Emoji — colorful and scrumptious emoticons, available exclusively to iPhone users over in Japan. Simply download Spell Number, enter the number 91929394.59, then press the Home button, go to Settings → General → Keyboard → Japan and activate Emoji. Unlike various other Emoji-activating apps for iPhone, this one is absolutely free and, notably, works for OS 3 and the 3GS. This is a definite download, especially for folks who would like to spice up their SMS and email messages with some Emoji goodness.

Zombies & Me (99 cents)
The slow-moving dinosaur of the game industry, EA, recently founded its own micro-game production studio to start churning out potential iPhone hits at a fast rate — one a month — while experimenting with new gameplay styles. Zombies & Me is the first release as part of this initiative and, surprisingly, it looks gorgeous, sounds scrummy and plays well, too. The premise is simple, Granny’s house is about to be raided by hungry zombies and it’s your job to dash around the garden, leading the undead in to various bombs, while trying not to have your brains sucked out. Serious kudos to EA for stepping away from the big brand franchise factory methodology and investing in something a little more experimental.

Tap Star ($4.99)
Finally a viable competitor to Tap Tap Revenge hits the App Store. Created by Epic Tilt and with serious support from Sony Entertainment Music — clearly wanting to get in on the App Store game to leverage some of its content — comes Tap Star, a new rhythm action game. While Tap Star lacks the character and flair of Tap Tap Revenge, it makes up for this failing by bundling tons of tunes from Sony’s catalogue, including tracks from Elvis, Cyndi Lauper, Pink and Britney. I’ll be sticking with Tap Tap Revenge, it’s just so much richer, but fans of Sony’s catalogue in particular may want to check out Tap Star.

That’s all the picks for this week. I’ll be back in seven days with more news from the week and picks from the App Store.

In the meantime, what apps have you been using this week?

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Wave good-bye to the week and say hello to the weekend, complete with a hand-picked selection of the latest apps to hit the iPhone.

Prior to diving into the picks, it’s customary ’round these parts to provide an enlightening summary of the week’s iPhone news and Apple-related happenings.

First up, accident-prone owners of the iPhone will be particularly pleased to note that Apple is now replacing iPhone displays while you wait. Apparently the magic happens behind the scenes, armed with a giant suction cup your designated Apple Genius will pull the damaged screen off your iPhone before replacing it with a shiny new one. Great news, but potentially expensive if you’re out of warranty.

We may be in the midst of Summer, but the rumor-mill just keeps on churning out potentially golden nuggets of (dis)information. This time, Apple has apparently ordered a large quantity of super-cheap camera modules, supposedly to be integrated into the next iteration of iPod.

Prowl, a new iPhone app specifically for devices on the latest OS 3.0 software, allows you to receive desktop Growl notifications via push. This means that Growl notifications generated by desktop applications, such as torrent clients, instant messaging or email, can now be piped directly to your iPhone when you’re on the go.

Augmented reality has finally made it to the iPhone in the shape of Nearest Tube, an app that takes your iPhone’s camera feed and overlays directions. Designed for use in London, hold the iPhone up and it’ll point you to the nearest underground train station — perfect for locals and tourists alike. While it may not be useful for most of our readers outside the UK, it’s a compelling look at where the future of iPhone apps may be heading.

This year, July 11 doesn’t just signify a lazy Summer weekend, it also happens to be the first anniversary of the App Store’s official launch. In celebration of this, Apple has compiled a list of its favorite apps from the store, notable picks include Rolando and Dictionary.com’s excellent (and free) iPhone app.

TheAppleBlog’s Darrell Etherington may be a subscriber to Apple’s MobileMe service, but I certainly am not. I just don’t see the value in paying so much for a service that can be pieced together for free: Gmail, Picasa, Dropbox, Google Calendar and Google Sync. Now yet another reason has been added to the anti-MobileMe list, in the form of GPush — an app that generates an iPhone push notification whenever your receive new mail.

Moving on to the picks, this week I’ve been looking at iTwitter, VideoUp for Facebook, Mecho Wars and Evacuation.

iTwitter ($3.99)
Several months back, I posted a rundown of the most notable Twitter clients on the iPhone. Since then, the landscape has barely changed: Tweetie is still a firm favorite with the masses, TwitterFon is the well-rounded underdog and Twinkle is the pretty but shallow airhead. Until now, the only notable addition to this perpetual 140-character battle has been TweetDeck, introducing groups and a Palm Pre-style browsing interface. iTwitter isn’t a massive leap forward, but it does introduce push notifications — a feature which its competitors have yet to integrate. The app also looks great, is easy to navigate and can be used in landscape or portrait orientation. This is definitely one for the frequent tweeters to check out.

VideoUp for Facebook (99 cents)
Those who aren’t early adopters, take note, this app is for iPhone 3GS owners only. The latest iPhone integrates video recording straight out the box so, unlike the iPhone 3G, no nasty jailbreak-related hacks are needed. By default, you’re able to upload your videos direct to YouTube, which is great but not ideal for users of other social networks. VideoUp for Facebook is a simple uploader app that, once you’ve trimmed your vid down, allows you to upload direct to the social networking service. In particular, Facebook users who are a tad trigger-happy with iPhone 3GS video recording will find this to be an essential download.

Mecho Wars (99 cents)
I was excited to discover UniWar a few weeks back, a polished turn-based strategy with a sci-fi vibe. Now Mecho Wars joins the fray, bringing turn-based action inspired by Nintendo DS Advance Wars to the iPhone. The graphics have a retro-2D Japanese style to them, with weird robo-bugs and lunar landscapes, and the gameplay even features excellent cut-scenes for the battles. There’s also single device multiplayer, which means that you can compete with a friend using one iPhone. The app is also on sale for a limited time, so grab it while you can for just a buck.

Evacuation (99 cents)
Recently, I’ve developed a growing obsession for flash games — they’re the perfect distraction, quick to loud, easy to learn and occasionally great fun. With gameplay reminiscent of the Kill Bill flash game, one of my favorites of late has been Too Many Ninjas, a hack ‘n’ slasher with Commodore 64-esque retro graphics. Ported to the iPhone, Evacuation is another fun mini-game from the creator of Too Many Ninjas. It’s a puzzler where the goal is to shoot all the purple aliens out of the ship’s airlock, without blasting your crew in to space, too.

That’s all the picks for this week. I’ll be back in seven days with more news from the week and picks from the App Store.

In the meantime, what apps have you been using this week?

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Rolando 2 is the sequel to Rolando, a game which proved that the iPhone can compete with Sony’s PSP and Nintendo’s DS in the handheld console wars.

Just over a year after opening, the App Store is coming into its own. Indeed, there’s the dodgy dirge of novelty joke apps, but at the other end of the spectrum, we’re seeing publishers like ngmoco producing smart and fun apps.

Ngmoco is the publisher that picked up the original Rolando, reviewed here back in December, and pushed it in to the realms of essential iPhone titles. Rolando 2 is ngmoco’s latest release. The game features tilting puzzle platforming action with music from Mr. Scruff, and includes Plus+ network integration for achievement and score tracking.

Tap ‘n’ Tilt

Setting the scene for the game’s exotic island adventure, the opening sequence sees a deadly disease threatening the Kingdom of Rolando’s inhabitants. It’s up to the crew of the HMS Plunderful, joined by Rolando’s dozy royalty, to travel to a distant land in search of the cure.

Alongside setting up the game’s story, the playable opening sequence also acts as a handy tutorial. You play The Finger, able to control various Rolando characters and tweak elements of the environment.

Just like the original, the controls are ingeniously simple: tap an individual Rolando, or drag a box around several, then just tilt your iPhone to get them rolling. A quick swipe upwards triggers a jump, and certain yellow objects dotted around the environment can be tapped, dragged and twisted in various ways.

Rolling in New Features

Levels are a blend of platforming and puzzling — avoiding the bad guys and ensuring safe passage to the exit for the jaunty little Rolandos. Just like the original Rolando, most maps are centered around block pushing, button triggering and door opening.

Rolando 2 builds on the original, though, introducing new features and twists every few levels. This litany of loveliness takes the game from a simple platforming adventure into the realm of a multicolor spectacle.

There are the bomb trees, carrying, as nature apparently intended, a range of different bombs, including rolling sticky bombs and, less destructive but no less useful, water bombs — great for growing giant plants from tiny shrubs.

There’s the neanderthal-esque native, Rolando, who, after eating a hot chili, inflates and begins floating through the level. And there’s the Boom Finger which transforms your own finger into a digit of destruction, allowing you to off enemies and forge new paths through the levels.

If there’s one drawback to the game’s seemingly constant inventiveness, it’s that it occasionally feels a tad overwhelming — there are so many ideas crammed in, it obscures the purity of the game’s fundamentally fun tilt ‘n’ roll controls.

Ears & Eyes

On music and artwork duties, both Mr. Scruff and Mikko Walamies have returned. Walamies is behind the game’s charming characters, and he’s done so much with so little, injecting humor and character into a cast of, essentially, rolling ball faces.

The game exceeds expectations in the artwork department, too: Rolando 2 is now in 3-D, from the game’s Super Mario World-style game hub, to each individually crafted level.

Pie-eating, tea-drinking, funk-spinning Manchester DJ Mr. Scruff also features in Rolando 2. Not only do his gorgeous grooves accompany each level, he’s even got his own Music Shack where you’re able to take a leisurely roll through the soundtrack.

Diamonds & Disappointments

The iPhone’s connectivity isn’t forgotten, either. Ngmoco has integrated Plus+, a network connecting iPhone gamers with each other. You’re able to share scores, issue challenges to other players, and track in-game achievements.

There are a few issues, though. A sound is missing here and there, and certain game objects intrude on the gameplay, but it’s so incredibly infrequent.

My concern is that the constant barrage of new ideas and gameplay twists means that the game, like its petite, rotund heroes do so frequently, will become lost in a confusing jungle filled with shiny, new playthings.

I’ve heaped on praise and extolled its many magnificent moments, and yet it must be noted that there’s room, albeit a very tiny bit of room, for improvement.

Summing Up: Golden Apple Award

Rolando 2 is a wonderful game. What’s more, it exploits the iPhone as a gaming platform so effectively. It makes use of the iPhone’s user interface, never falling back on virtual control-pad buttons. There’s connectivity with Plus+ and even music from Scruff.

The characters look good enough to consume as, I imagine, some of the island’s native tribe members would do so, given half the chance. And the gameplay is fundamentally fun and consistently inventive.

All that sounds too analytical, though. It’s a convoluted way of trying to say it’s really a very good game. A more effective way of summing it up would be to give Rolando 2 TheAppleBlog’s coveted Golden Apple Award, so that’s what I’ve done.

All that’s left to say is that Rolando 2 is the new benchmark for iPhone gaming and, as such, I highly recommend that you download it.

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It’s that time of the week — when we welcome you to the weekend with a selection of the freshest picks for the iPhone from the App Store.

Hold your horses, though, because before we dive headfirst into a glorious ocean of iPhone apps, I’ve got a roundup of notable Apple news from the past seven days.

We’re starting the weekend by giving you the chance to win a free game for your iPhone, courtesy of Poppy, an excellent one-man game studio in Japan. The game in question, Brave Man, is reminiscent of Bishop’s knife trick from Aliens, except instead of an interstellar synthetic, you play a lumberjack trying not to cut his hand with a knife. Want to win a promo code for Brave Man? To be in with a chance, leave a comment at the end of this post telling me about the bravest thing you’ve ever done.

Some unexpected bad news for early adopters of the iPhone 3GS this week when their new devices became literally too hot to handle. It turns out that the 3GS suffers from an overheating problem that is so bad that apparently white iPhones have been turning pink. Is that going to stop me from purchasing a 3GS? Absolutely not, I’ll take mine in limited edition blazing hot pink, please.

The latest update to the iPhone software, OS 3.1, has been rolled out to developers. This also means that it’s probably not too long before it’s pushed to regular iPhone users, too. Expect a raft of fixes and updates to the OS, including improved boot time, fraud protection in Safari, and the potential for video editing in third-party apps.

There’s been a slow drip-feed of app’s hitting the store that support OS 3.0′s new features. Notably, Remember The Milk is the first to-do app supporting push notifications. This means that, even when the app isn’t running, it’ll ping you with a reminder for forthcoming tasks that need completing. It’s a premium service, available only to subscribers, but one that may prove essential for iPhone-toting productivity connoisseurs.

Over in the EU, several phone manufacturers, including Apple, have agreed on a standard charging interface for all cell phones. The news of Apple signing up for this standard comes as a surprise. At first glance, it implies that it would be dropping its traditional proprietary dock port from the iPhone. An Apple representative cleared up the confusion, stating that the iPhone will, at some unspecified point, start shipping with a micro USB adaptor.

And finally, potential purchasers of the iPhone 3GS should head on over to Apple’s brand-new 3GS availability page. After serving an astounding 1 million devices in the opening weekend, sales are clearly going strong enough to warrant launching this handy inventory tool.

Moving on to the picks, this week I’ve been looking at Jamble, Birdfeed, Rolando 2 and RunPee.

Jamble ($5.99)
I just can’t get enough musical toys for the iPhone. I’ve even got an entire menu screen dedicated just to sound-related diversions. My favorites include Brian Eno’s ambient music app Bloom and, of course, Leaf Trombone World Stage, winner of TheAppleBlog’s coveted Golden Apple Award. Jamble, a clever creative toy for making your own mash-ups, may be another welcome addition to my sonic collection. The app takes a bunch of loops from artists including Gorillaz and David Bowie, then lets you seamlessly blend them together to create your own mash-up masterpieces.

Birdfeed ($4.99)
Not even a month after we get hit with Tweetdeck for the iPhone, (which, you should note, is available for free) comes another potential challenger to Tweetie’s Twitter-client throne. The app is called Birdfeed, and it’s got a stripped-down, simple aesthetic, à la Tweetie, but unfortunately, no Tweetdeck-style groups. If you’re already comfortable with Tweetie, this may not be the app for you, but frequent tweeters looking for a change of client should definitely consider checking out Birdfeed as a simple, stylish and functional Twitter solution.

Rolando 2 ($9.99)
iPhone gamers, let us collectively rejoice. It’s the second coming of Rolando in the App Store. Indeed, the app I’ve been waiting many months for has finally arrived at the App Store, albeit for the slightly pricey sum of 10 bucks. The sequel takes place on a tropical island, updating the artwork with a semi-3D view and introducing tons of new gameplay quirks, including weird contraptions for destroying the bad guys and special floating characters. There’s even a special shack dedicated to Manchester’s funky beat maestro Mr. Scruff, where you can listen to all the tunes contributed to the game. We’ve got a full review coming to TheAppleBlog next week, so stay tuned.

RunPee (99 cents)
We’ve all experienced those extended sessions of torture, watching a movie, squirming in your seat, desperate to go rest but afraid to miss a critical moment. RunPee is a quirky stroke of genius and an app which will prove particularly useful for those with small bladders. The RunPee database contains a listing of the latest movies. Just pick the one you’re watching, and it’ll provide a number of opportunities for which you can discreetly exit the movie theater for some much-needed relief. While you’re away, the app gives you a countdown, to make sure you’re back in time, alongside a plot summary for whatever you’ve missed.

That’s all the picks for this week. I’ll be back in seven days with more news from the week and picks from the App Store.

In the meantime, what apps have you been using this week?

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A genie, a load of balls, and an ancient labyrinth come together to create a frustrating, but fun, puzzler.

One of the big boys in the movie biz, Warner Bros., has been solidly churning out iPhone apps for the past few months. Most of these apps have been global franchises, though, including Terminator Salvation, Watchmen and — the double whammy of brand-names — LEGO Batman.

Without a movie, cartoon series, or line of toys, Stuck Genie is an entirely original game. Containing 73 puzzles, the game challenges you to complete each one and earn the highest score.

You Look Like You’re Stuck

It’s immediately clear that the game is worthy of the Warner Bros. name. It’s bright and colorful, instantly pleasing to the eye and, although it’s not an established brand, the game has an artwork style that is very much its own.

The attention to detail, especially important from such a big publisher, pervades almost every aspect of the game. Even the name-entry screen is fun, finding you spinning an alphabet wheel, and dragging letters around to spell your name.

Musically, the game features a chill-out soundtrack pinched straight from the beaches of Ibiza. It’s absolutely out of character for a puzzle game — especially one featuring a mischievous cartoon genie.

And yet it works: When the puzzles get tougher, the mellow background music makes it feel more like you’re chillaxing, as opposed to seriously flexing your cognitive problem-solving muscles.

Control Your Inner Genie

Before jumping into the first level proper, there’s a tutorial section. The tutorial explains the basics: By tapping and dragging, you control an orange ball moving through a labyrinth.

Your aim, in each level, is to collect the other balls dotted around the maze. The mazes are incredibly simple, and collecting the balls is achieved simply by colliding with them.

The real challenge is that the balls stick to your orange ball as you collect them; your shape grows and changes with each added ball. Maneuvering through the maze becomes tougher as you collect each ball, and forward planning is key to solving each puzzle.

Misadventures in the Maze

My sojourn through the freaky genie’s labyrinth hit a major roadblock, though. Closing the app to take a break, due to a tough level, I returned hours later to be sent back to the start of level one.

Apparently, Stuck Genie features no auto-save functionality. This means that to save, you have to exit the game by first pausing it and then clicking exit (which instigates a save). Simply tapping the iPhone’s Home button will exit, but it won’t save.

Furthermore, after working my way back to the tough level I’d been stuck on, I discovered that there’s no rest or rewind button. This is an all but essential feature for this genre of puzzle game.

To reset the level, you have to open the menu and select rewind; it doesn’t ruin the game, but it’s an oversight nonetheless. Far more preferable would be, say, tapping the genie to use a magical time-reversing crystal, or even just a plain old rewind/reset button.

Summing Up

There’s something about the cartoony yet ornate artwork, which, when melded with the Café del Mar-esque chill-out soundtrack make for a very mellow but challenging puzzler.

This mellow vibe is immensely important in Stuck Genie’s case, because some of the puzzles had me literally roaring with frustration — the good kind of frustration, though, when you know you’re being beat by a devious puzzle and you’ve just got to solve it.

Despite being so much fun from the off, the difficulty curve was unexpectedly steep. Nevertheless, fans of challenging puzzlers should download Stuck Genie and get stuck in immediately.

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Just when you thought the weekend couldn’t get any better, along comes a selection of the freshest picks from the App Store.

This week I’ve selected four playful picks for you to toy with over the weekend. It’s not all fun and games, though, as before we get to the apps, I’ve got a roundup of the week’s news.

Another week closer to the release of the iPhone 3.0 update means another leaked addition to the new OS. This time, Apple is bringing video purchasing to the iPhone. All well and good, but I can’t imagine how downloading a 2GB movie is going to work over 3G.

Our own Nick Santilli procured a selection of apps that raise the potential for photos taken with the iPhone’s camera. It’s essential reading for iPhone owners who are disappointed with the device’s awful camera. My pick of the bunch is QuadCamera — it makes shooting with the iPhone fun again.

The iPhone made the front cover of The New Yorker this week, though not in the way you might expect. Using Brushes, a cute little painting app for iPhone, artist Jorge Colombo created the cover illustration for the latest issue. Brushes isn’t exactly a pro-level art package, but it can generate stunning results — budding artists can grab the app for four bucks (it’s currently on offer) and start practicing now.

Tweetie for Mac, the excellent older sibling to the iPhone Twitter client Tweetie, received a fun little upgrade this week. The app now allows video tweeting, via the iSight camera or a quick .mov file drag ‘n’ drop. This article is particularly worth checking out because you get to watch a Twitter video of me, playing Sigur Rós, on the glockenspiel — blog-based musical interludes do not get better than that.

And finally, there could be an Apple game console on the incredibly distant horizon. This is according to the CEO of gaming giant Ubisoft. Frankly, I don’t see it happening, but then who am I to argue with the CEO of the company that brought us Splinter Cell and a refreshed Prince of Persia franchise?

Moving on to the picks, this week I’ve been looking at Space Ace, Light Wars, BeatRider Touch and Drum Tracker.

Space Ace ($4.99)
A quick refresher for readers who may not have come across Space Ace — the game is a gorgeously illustrated animated adventure from the folks behind Dragons Lair. Those who remember the original will be pleased to note that, visually, it’s still as vibrant as ever; however, it’s also just as frustrating in terms of gameplay. The game is essentially one long animation in which you just perform the correct actions at the correct time to keep the story moving forward. Frequently silly, regularly annoying, but it’ll have you coming back time and time again.

Light Wars (99 cents)
One glance at this game and any seasoned gamer will tell you that it’s a direct rip of Geometry Wars — an excellent console mini-game that brings classic messy shoot-em-up Robotron to mind. Light Wars is incredibly fast-paced and frenetic, throwing tron-style nasties at you from all angles as you speed across the vector map, dodging enemy ballistics and racking up insanely high scores. Currently on sale at 99 cents and definitely worth checking out for fans of arcade-style shoot-em-ups.

Beatrider Touch Lite (FREE)
Tap Tap Revenge may be the current king of rhythm-action games on the iPhone, but that shouldn’t stop other titles from trying to topple the game from its well-earned throne. Beatrider Touch incorporates more sliding than tapping, plus it brings something entirely new to the genre — song uploading. Upload your favorite tune and you’re able to play it as a level in Beatrider. The free Lite version supports one song upload, the premium version — retailing at five bucks — lets you upload up to 20.

Drum Tracker ($1.99)
If you’re not in the mood for gaming, but beats are your thing, then Drum Tracker may be the app for you. The developers, a team calling themselves Simple is Beautiful, have squeezed a fully-featured drum machine down into one gorgeous-looking iPhone app. This is a tool that, while it could be tons of fun for anyone looking to toy around with a few beats, could prove useful for electronic music producers on the go. Worth checking out for the more musical readers of TheAppleBlog, especially as it’s priced so competitively for a sound app.

That’s all the picks for this week. I’ll be back in seven days with more news from the week and picks from the App Store.

In the meantime, what apps have you been using this week?

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If we were to liken the iPhone to a Greek hero — all muscle-bound and chiseled man-face — it would surely be Achilles, the guy with the wonky heel.

The iPhone is our modern-day electronic hero, savior of our interconnected lives. Yet it is a hero with one tiny flaw, a weakness that even its fondest admirers are prone to point out: This wonder-device features an awful camera.

Face Fun aims to put your iPhone’s questionable camera to good use, using face-recognition technology to place your face in a variety of amusing situations.

Funny Looking

Upon launch, the app immediately dishes up two options: Select a photo from the iPhone photo album, or take a new photo using the camera. There’s no tutorial, no funny splash screen or amusing introductory animation — just two options to choose from, with no indication of what might happen next.

As such, even before Face Fun has properly started, it feels half-finished. There’s no attempt to build a fun, playful environment and no effort to explain exactly what’s going on.

Once a photo has been loaded, clicking the Detect Face Button starts the magic happening. The app “automagically” detects all the faces in the image you’ve selected. Given such a shaky start, it’s surprising to find that the face recognition really works — never failing to detect faces, despite weird expressions and odd angles.

With the automagical detection done, you’re then able to select one of the faces out of a thumbnail lineup. The face you chose is then superimposed — as if by tiny Photoshop imps inside your iPhone — onto a larger scene.

Funny Ha Ha or Funny Weird

The app presents a selection of 19 varied scenes to choose from, almost all of which are dismal attempts at kooky humor. You can choose from scenes such as the laugh-a-minute “your face on a TV screen while a cat watches,” or the downright giggle-fest that is “your face projected on the screen at a business conference.”

I really do have a sense of humor. I pride myself on taking regular rides in the ROFLcopter; Face Fun though, isn’t much fun and the humorous situations on offer fail to amuse.

Within this disappointing mess of humorless instances are a couple of acceptable attempts — my favorite being creating a jigsaw puzzle out of the face, an imaginative and well-realized scene. It’s worth noting, though, that the jigsaw puzzle isn’t playable; it’s just a static image.

Inter-Face Fun

Besides lacking any sort of scene-setting introductory tutorial, the app also lacks aesthetic flair and, thus, feels somewhat drab in terms of user interface. Face Fun is, in effect, a wonderful example of poor interface design. The app feels cheap and lazy: There’s either been no usability testing or no effective feedback from testers.

For instance, to create a scene with your face in it, you have to physically drag the face thumbnail over, and onto, the scene thumbnail. It’s a smart and literal method interaction, however, there’s nothing to explain this in the app.

I spent a couple of minutes single tapping and double tapping until it dawned on me to try dragging. There’s no other dragging within the app and no indicator that to access this part of the interface I’d need to drag.

The Detect Face Button is another example of drab design — it’s just a plain text-button in the bottom right corner. This button exemplifies the app’s biggest issue — there’s nothing fun or exciting going on, certainly no wacky sounds or kooky user interface. Face Fun is just an expensive, and drab, tech-demo.

Summing Up

It’s not a great app, lacking as it is in both functionality and content. At the core of the app, where there should be a cavalcade of content, there’s just an incredibly limited amount of scenes, many of which just aren’t amusing.

And what’s worse, there’s no way to mail your silly creations to friends or to upload to your favorite social network (apart from saving the image out and doing it manually). It’s interesting technology, though, and so, while I can’t recommend this app, I do hope that the developers invent some much more compelling uses for their face-recognition system.

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A bag of metal balls, a rockabilly soundtrack, exploding pegs: Rockchinko is the pachinko machine from hell.

Harking back to the old American parlor game Corinthian Bagatelle, pachinko has captured the imagination, and yen, of Japan. While the game may not have invaded Western casinos, there’s a steady stream of pachinko apps arriving for the iPhone.

Rockchinko gives pachinko an injection of rock ‘n’ roll, featuring physics-defying tilting, plectrum powerups and tons of guitars across more than 40 levels.

Pinball Wizard

Breaking away from the seedy glitz and smokey fog of traditional pachinko parlors, Rockchinko restyles pachinko’s dated look for the rock generation — installing a twisted metal board coated in a neon glow.

The design can be a little inconsistent at times though, one moment shiny metal, the next pixellated skulls — it’s a messy milieu that floats between edgy and geeky.

Of course, there’s a rocking soundtrack too: Each stage is based on a different sub-genre, including blues, rockabilly and straight-up rock ‘n’ roll. Although none of the music seems to be directly licensed from well-known bands, à la Tap Tap Revenge, the music certainly captures the theme of the game.

Scales and Modes

There are three main game modes, two of which are initially locked and unavailable. To unlock the two game modes, you’ll have to complete Normal Mode — a feat that’ll only take a couple of hours at most for a new player.

Once Normal Mode has been beaten, Randomizer and Rock Mode are unlocked. Randomizer allows you to play through the array of stages on offer in Normal mode in a random order — it’s simple and effective, and revisiting even the early levels can still present a challenge to seasoned players.

The third game mode, Rockstar, contains a set list of brand-new stages to launch, tilt and turn through. The Rockstar stages blend together all the previous features and gameplay twists discovered in Normal Mode.

Everyone Can Play Guitar

The aim of each level is to destroy all the red pegs by bouncing your metal ball around the stage. The balls are fired from the funnel at the top of the screen, which can be adjusted by dragging side to side.

Tapping anywhere on the screen launches your shot and, once the ball is in play, the iPhone can be tilted, affecting the ball’s direction. With enough practice it’s possible to move the ball around the playing field, squeezing out each shot’s destructive potential.

There are obstacles, too, unlocked as you progress through Normal Mode. Windmills, moving platforms, and warp holes can prove formidable hindrances or useful tools, depending on your perspective. Also enhancing the puzzle aspect of the game is a range of effective powerups, from the tame Triple Ball to the impressive Flame Thrower and bombastic Mega Ball.

Destroying all but one red peg instantly throws the game into “Matrix”-esque slow-motion. The camera dramatically crash zooms on your ball and you’re given full control, even the ability to turn the iPhone upside down, sending your ball plummeting upwards and defying the laws of physics.

As your metal ball speeds across the screen, combusting any pegs it collides with, you’re thrown in to slow-mo for your coup de grâce. Oddly, this destructive slow-mo finale reminds me of Burn Out (the hyper-destructive crash and burn driving game) as it’s so exciting, needlessly dramatic, and satisfying.

Summing Up

Even with the levels I couldn’t beat on first try, I knew I could adjust my strategy, come back and keep advancing through the game. And that’s where Rockchinko introduces depth. You’ll need to be strategic, planning out your shots and tilts before hand, for each stage.

There’s still work that needs to be done, though. It needs more stages, online scoring, and some kind of competitive element. Plus the load times are abominable. However, the main game is executed almost perfectly. It’s incredibly satisfying, so much fun, and has consistently left me wanting more after every session.

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