For its latest title, EA has brought Bioware’s Mass Effect to iPhone. This installment builds on the story from the original critically acclaimed console game.

Set in the same universe as the original console game, Mass Effect Galaxy features a rich story peppered with action-packed gunplay.

As you’d expect with a game set in the Mass Effect universe, the game is driven by a strong plot, leading you from one shoot out to the next. Imagine an episode of 24 set in outer-space featuring feuding alien races, with you as an intergalactic Jack Bauer.

Talk First, Shoot Later

The story is compelling, but the conversation branching — being able to guide your character through interactive dialogue scenes — seems like smoke and mirrors. More often than not it seems thst there’s a predetermined outcome to a conversation and that there’s nothing that can be done to change it.

Setting dialogue navigation aside though, the artwork and animation is impeccable. Instead of going for hi-res 3D motion graphic sequences, we’re treated to a cartoony take on the Mass Effect universe. Indeed it was so effective that I was left hankering for a Mass Effect Saturday morning cartoon.

Tilt ‘n’ Tote

The combat sequences, slotted in between each dialogue segment, are played from a birds-eye view. The controls are a great twist on an established genre: your mercenary fires automatically, it’s up to you to tilt the iPhone, moving him to a more strategic area of the map.

Unfortunately, on my iPhone 3G, the combat sequences suffer from slowdown. At times, the game is rendered unplayable to the point that I rebooted the iPhone several times throughout the game. Plus, the game suffers from an occasional bug whereby a combat sequence begins but you’re unable to control the main character. It’s a horrid bug and, for EA and BioWare, unexpected and improper.

There are also long loading times between combat rooms. Its frustrating enough to have to wait a minute or more to play through a 30 second sequence, it’s worse still that EA has seen fit to place advertisements on the loading screens. It’s a real drag to be advertised to in a premium app, especially when the advertising breaks up the story and ruins what little immersion the game has to offer.

Summing Up: Rotten Apple Award

EA needs to up its game on iPhone. It may be the big boy on console and PC, but young upstarts like ngMoco, Chillingo and BulkyPix are making better games — games that are fun and stable.

Gamers who are familiar with Mass Effect would be forgiven for expecting more from the iPhone iteration. The game’s bugs are a major disappointment and, while it may be an interesting play for avid followers of the franchise, this is one to avoid for everyone else.

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Years ago I discovered a little futuristic hovercraft racing game on the PlayStation called Wipeout. The concept was simple, and in many ways it was pretty much the same gameplay as Mario Kart or Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart. What set it apart was that there were no cartoon graphics, and no toy weapons, just stunning futuristic graphics, unique craft handling (being hovercrafts) and the most important element: speed. These crafts could go really fast.

So as an avid fan of the Wipeout series, when I found out about Phaze I immediately had to try it. Phaze is pretty much a Wipeout clone for the iPhone. There’s nothing new added, it just takes the concept and translates it. This suits me fine. The question is how good the implementation is. Does it capture the magic that got me hooked to Wipeout all those years ago?

Game Mechanics

The basic game mechanics are simple and combine the following components: race track, hovercraft, weapons and three laps. As you fly your craft around with other computer opponents, the aim is to finish first, second or third. As you race around the track you can fly over special markers that will either give you an instant speed boost or drop a weapon into your slot. There are various weapons such as bombs you drop behind you, or missiles or rockets to launch at an opponent ahead of you. You can also pick up speed boosts to use at your strategic time, or shield top-ups.

You control your craft by turning your phone in the desired direction and adjust your speed by tilting the phone up or down. There are 10 different crafts to be unlocked over the game, requiring you to finish the game in Championship mode on various levels of difficulty. Of course, each craft handles differently and has a unique combination of power (speed), shield (take more damage) and agility (ease to control).

If you hit the side of the tracks, you slow down and take damage to your shield. Bumping into other opponents, or being hit with weapons, also damages your shield. When your shield is gone, you blow up. It’s not over; a new ship will get brought into play — but you suffer a significant time loss as this occurs. You can’t afford to blow up unless you’ve got a very strong lead on the pack.

There are 16 tracks, with most also requiring you to complete the game in Championship mode to unlock them. These are available in four difficulty modes: Easy, Normal, Hard and Extreme. Once you’ve unlocked a track, it can then be played in Single Race mode.

What’s Great

I’m always very skeptical of accelerometer controls, but these handle impressively. They’re well tuned, and the sensitivity can also be adjusted manually in the options, although I found I didn’t need to touch them at all. I handed my iPhone to some friends who were also skeptical and they agreed — I had a hard time getting my phone back.

On my iPhone 3G the graphics and animations are very smooth and most importantly, that sense of speed is realized strongly — which is an absolutely crucial element to this type of game. One slight wrong move doesn’t just give you damage to your shields, but really slows you down. You feel it, along with the horrible metal grinding sound that provides great audible feedback.

The game autosaves when you exit it, even in mid-race, and allows you to have quick games while passing time without worrying about wasting any progress made. This isn’t absolutely stable, however. I received an SMS during game play and instead of saving my position and exiting cleanly, the game crashed — I lost several levels from my progress. This only happened once, however, and didn’t take me too long to catch up, so I suspect it was an anomaly.

What’s Missing

The biggest element missing from this game is an on-screen map overlay so that you can see where you are on the track, and more importantly, where the other players are. Knowing how far ahead or behind you are provides a crucial tactical advantage in these kind of games. Without it, you can feel like you are miles ahead and then with one small bump to the side of the track you get overtaken by three crafts without realizing they were even on your tail.

While you can choose to have the in-game music and sound effects or turn them off to keep listening to whatever you were playing on your iPhone, I’d prefer in-game sound effects with my music. Ideally they will update the game to support the 3.0 OS’s ability to select a personal playlist from the iPod.

While the graphics are smooth and look great, the tracks all have the same general look, except for the backgrounds for the level. A little more visual variety here would be nice. Additionally, a ‘mirror’ track mode would instantly turn the 16 provided tracks into 32 with little effort. You can also notice on some parts of tracks the clipping that occurs so only the next few segments of track is drawn. No doubt this is for speed, but it does look funny.

Summing Up

The issues with this game are minor, but for me, if addressed, would take this game from a Silver rating to a Gold. Ultimately, the comparison has to come back to Wipeout. The truth is that it doesn’t feel like a cheap Wipeout rip-off. It could be an official part of the family. It brings back those warm fuzzy feelings I had playing too much Wipeout on my PlayStation years ago, and has provided much enjoyment. For the small price, I think any other Wipeout fan would find the same.

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Due to hefty 3G roaming rates, Apple’s Maps app just won’t cut it when you’re out of the country. The oMap app lets you download maps for offline viewing — dodging a shocking bill post-vacation.

The iPhone is an almost perfect companion for travels to distant lands. With a bit of foresight and time set aside for planning, it’s possible to mix and match the perfect blend of vacation apps, ensuring you make the most of your journey.

My own package of essential travel tools includes Evernote, QuadCamera, Gengo Flashcards and HearPlanet. Without a 3G connection overseas, though, Apple’s Maps app proves utterly redundant — if I can’t connect, I can’t use it.

oMaps brings offline mapping to the iPhone. The app includes GPS, multiple zoom levels, map bookmarking and search functionality.

Don’t Google It

Notably, oMaps doesn’t make use of Google Maps. The developer, Thomas Bonnin, cites licensing restrictions from Google as the reason. Instead, the app utilizes OpenStreetMap, a service referred to by Bonnin as “the Wikipedia of maps.”

Despite being a community-maintained mapping service — meaning that there may be lower detail in some areas — in practice, the maps seem to be accurate, detailed and certainly useful for tourists. Even better, OpenStreetMap includes restaurants, ATMs, bus stations and other notable landmarks — a boon for lone travelers.

Best of all, because oMaps makes use of an open-source solution, after purchasing the app, individual maps are free to download. Admittedly, in-app purchasing of new maps would have been a neat iPhone OS 3.0 feature, although for me to grumble about that is akin to performing extended dental work on a gift horse.

Making Your Map

To create a new offline map, you simply open the app, browse to the location you’d like to view later and click save. Maps can only be downloaded via Wi-Fi, due to potentially large download sizes (the app saves the current zoom level and each increasing level of detail beyond that).

Although the developer states that you can save unlimited maps, there is one major constraint. The app will only start saving a map from a certain level of detail. If you zoom too far out — in my case when trying to download all of Helsinki — oMaps will refuse to save.

Essentially, the app draws a line as to how much you’re able to download in one go. It certainly doesn’t ruin the app or its functionality, but it’s a seemingly arbitrary obstacle, surpassed simply by downloading a given area in several separate chunks.

On Your Travels

Downloading a useful portion of a given city takes time and requires a stable connection. To make the best use of oMaps, you’ll need to plan ahead and prepare at least a day or so before traveling.

Once you’re offline and on the move, the app comes into its own. For me, flipping the iPhone to Airplane Mode and opening oMaps felt like cartographical witchcraft — the app located me immediately and I could zoom in and out, viewing my surrounding area in various levels of detail.

It’s worth clarifying for less tech-savvy users how this works. Your data connection — 3G, Edge, GPRS — may cost money to use overseas, usually at an inflated rate. The GPS in your iPhone — used for locating you — is free. oMaps uses the GPS to locate you and requires no data connection because the data itself, the map, has already been downloaded and saved to your iPhone.

Just like Apple’s Maps app, oMaps includes a GPS button. Pressing the button will locate you, assuming you’ve downloaded the corresponding map for the area you’re occupying. There are a few differences and drawbacks, though.

Unlike Maps, once you’re on the move, there are no directions or search functionality. Directions may be an arguably complex function, however Search does seem like something that could have been achieved — even if it means downloading a little more data when initially saving the map.

Summing Up

The app has a few issues that, while irritating, don’t ruin the overall functionality. Saving multiple maps for one city can be a drag, but then it’s all free and can be used offline, even with GPS. Plus, the lack of search functionality means that you may have to do a little extra pre-planning before setting off.

Rather than comparing oMaps to Apple’s Google-powered Maps, it’s perhaps best to see the app as a replacement to a traditional map. It saves purchasing horrid foldout maps and, as such, is more discreet and agreeable for meandering tourists.

Most importantly though, oMaps is a time and money saver. Although it won’t prove useful at home, when you’re in foreign lands this really will be an essential app.

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GyPSii brings GPS-fueled social networking to the iPhone, but do we really need to sign up for yet another network?

Any effective social-network connoisseur will already have a bevy of accounts to frequently check. Aside from the regulars — Facebook, Twitter, and so on — there’s already a stack of networks I’ve tried and duly abandoned, including fading giant MySpace and location-centric services Dopplr and Brightkite.

GyPSii is a social-networking app for the iPhone which, similar to Loopt and Brightkite, is based around your mobile lifestyle. The app makes use of the iPhone’s GPS, camera, and on-the-go connectivity.

Navigating GyPSii

Due to the immense wealth of features and functions on offer, the app is split between several sections which, in turn, are separated into an array of sub-categories and menus.

With such a large selection of sections, categories, menus and buttons, the app will prove overwhelming for first-time users. There’s no tutorial or first-time guide either, so attempting to get acquainted feels like being blindfolded and thrown into the ocean for a game of Marco Polo with several friends who insist on whispering.

The general idea behind the app — and the service — seems to be based around tagging places you visit, ideally with images, staying in touch with friends in the vicinity, and making new friends. There’s no clarity of purpose that GyPSii boils down to, though, so it ends up being a blur of user-enriched maps and traditional social networking.

The News section, for example, features a compose message button and drop pin button, alongside sub-categories for recent events, friends in the area, local places and messages or invites. For one section to be jammed with so many different options suggests that the developers just kept jamming ideas in there, not knowing when to stop.

People & Places

Moving on from the aforementioned mess of options, buttons and pages — delving deeper into the app, it’s clear that GyPSii’s true potential rests in the People and Places sections. These areas of the app give you access to locations and individuals (friends and strangers) in your vicinity.

The People section brings up a list of other folk in your local area. It’s an enjoyable and almost voyeuristic way of window-shopping through the locals, incognito, picking and choosing who to make friends with.

The Places section is similar in that it grabs a listing of nearby venues, buildings and locations that other GyPSii users have tagged. The problem is that the list comes across as a slapdash random catalogue of questionable curiosities. There’s no quality control, and it’s certainly not comprehensive, meaning that apps like Locly end up proving more useful in the long run.

Having said that, iPhone owners with a sense of adventure may have fun with GyPSii’s People and Places sections. Assuming there’s an active GyPSii community in the vicinity, it could present some exciting options, particularly useful if you’re on vacation, or even moving to a new city and looking for new friends or places to go.

Summing Up

Using GyPSii, I can’t shake the feeling that, despite the app’s wealth of location-centric features, the service itself is somewhat redundant.

The obvious, but no less insightful, comparison is Facebook. With Facebook’s massive hive-like installed user-base, the first hurdle for any new GyPSii user seems to be convincing friends and contacts to download the app and register an account. And that’s all before getting to grips with the GyPSii app and platform, which is buggy at worst and crawls along like a confused baby at best. The app, like the online service, feels cluttered: For first-time users, it’s an overwhelming mess of menus.

There are alternatives, too: Brightkite and Loopt, which, while they may have slightly different feature-sets than GyPSii, are polished and have a higher penetration in terms of frequent social networkers.

Despite GyPSii’s best efforts to create a formidable service, the app isn’t up to spec, and the service feels redundant — as such, this is an app to avoid.

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By converting your voice messages into text e-mails, Quick Voice Pro could be a time-saving boon for busy iPhone owners.

Empowered by our emails, tweets, IM conversations, and blogs, we’ve become modern-day information conduits. We collect knowledge, then discharge it into the ether, spurting out a constant fountain of fact, fiction and entertainment.

Quick Voice Pro is a new tool that could make sharing your thoughts even easier. The app converts audio recordings into text-based e-mails, using an online voice-recognition system.

Learning To Talk

If there’s a thought on the tip of your tongue, Quick Voice Pro immediately accommodates: The app loads up in a snap and is ready to record from the off. You’re able to open the software, blurt out whatever is on your mind, and get it converted, all in a short amount of time.

The layout of the app is incredibly simple, too, meaning there’s no possibility of friction with the interface. All the different functions are presented on one page; plus, there’s no settings screen and absolutely no configuration needed for first-time users.

While the tech-savvy may be impressed with the app’s advanced voice-recognition capabilities, Quick Voice Pro really seems to have been designed with novice users in mind, offering a big red record button and a large play button. And it doesn’t feel patronizing, either. The app simply incorporates well-considered, functional design.

It’s not all perfect, though. Recordings are all named MyRecording by default, which will make sifting through them a real chore for regular users. There is a button for renaming recordings, but it just doesn’t feel as intuitive as it could in comparison to the rest of the app.

Speaking of Email

Tapping the record button initiates record mode. Although you can’t go back and edit a recording once you’ve saved it, there is a pause button, letting pensive people stop for a moment and gather their thoughts before continuing.

Once recorded and saved, the app can auto-generate an e-mail for you, leaving you to enter the from and to address. The body copy of the email will be your recorded message. The actual voice-to-text conversion doesn’t happen on the iPhone; it’s all handled server-side. There was a major issue that stood out with the emailing process: The subject line always reads, “You Have QuickVoice Mail!” There’s no way to change it, and so effectively, you’re sending your contacts a message headed with an advertisement for the app.

Speaking Aloud

UK-based startup Spinvox provides the voice-to-text recognition and conversion. It’s incredibly accurate, which was surprising, and of note was that it’s comfortable with long words and both American and English accents.

To test the app, I made up a nonsensical sentence with a few long, potentially clumsy-sounding words thrown in:

“Rebellious, insidious individuals, find it highly probably that they will be libelous for their erroneous actions.”

This was then converted to the following:

“Rebelious(?) insidious individuals, find it highly probable that they will be libelous for the erroneous actions.”

Voice to text email brought to you by QuickVoice.

Note the question marks on words the software is unsure of. It’s a nice touch, clarifying that it has taken a chance and may be incorrect.

Summing Up

During testing, I found that messages take around 10 minutes to convert and arrive in the recipient’s mail box. Considering the impressive degree of accuracy, this is an acceptable amount of time.

On the flip side, there’s a 30-second limit to all recordings — this can wind up being a drag if you’ve got a lot to say, however, it’s understandable. SpinVox probably doesn’t want people clogging up its server, trying to convert entire hour-long presentations.

The only substantial problem is that, since this isn’t a free app, it doesn’t seem fair that paying users are responsible for spreading advertising it via email subject lines. And, just in case your contacts didn’t notice the branded subject, the message text always ends with, “Voice to text email brought to you by QuickVoice.”

The voice-to-text conversion works, however, I would hesitate to send any emails that contain such clear advertising for a product that, while effective, sees its users as billboards rather than valued customers.

This could have been a Silver TheAppleBlog Award, but, due to its uncalled-for product placement, Quick Voice Pro earns a Bronze.

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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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Amplitude pushes the iPhone in a new direction, transforming the device in to a hand-held James Bond-style surveillance tool. An intriguing concept indeed, but would Q approve?

Setting aside the more recent Bourne-esque gritty romps of the latest Bond movies — which are, for the record, utterly brilliant — I’ll be forever enchanted with the classic laboratory scenes where Q presents 007 with an array of innocent-looking yet lethal gadgetry.

Amplitude transforms the iPhone in to a surveillance device, allowing you listen in on distant conversations.

Covert Conversing

Originally released under the guise of iHearClear, the app was designed specifically for individuals who are hard of hearing. The intention being that the iPhone could act as a tool for amplifying quiet sounds.

Gripwire, the folks behind the app, suggested that iHearClear could be used in a variety of ways such as improving the sound quality at a movie theater or at parties and gatherings to communicate easier with friends.

Amplitude is a re-skinned, re-imagining version of iHearClear, designed with a younger audience in mind and pitched more as a tech-styled spy gadget than a listening tool.

With both apps, your iPhone essentially becomes the electronic equivalent of one of those unsettling old-time ear trumpets. Certainly not as glamorous as Bond, but perhaps a more accurate description of what the app does.

Seeing & Hearing

The app is designed to look like a kids-version of a spy gadget with all dark brushed metal, exposed screws with a couple of buttons, and a big slider. The centerpiece to Amplitude’s visual is an oscilloscope, a pulsing green screen ripped straight out of a scientific laboratory.

The idea behind the oscilloscope is that it allows the user to view, and visually quantify, signal voltages, as you’re able to see the volume of the sound your listening to. More importantly though, it lends the app some much needed visual authenticity — in short, it looks super-cool.

The slider beneath the oscilloscope controls the amount of microphone boost to be applied. This is essentially the active component of the app — the useful bit — as, in essence, Amplitude is merely boosting the volume of the sound coming in to the iPhone mic.

There’s also a mute button, enabling the app to be muted (useful in instances where the sound-level may have jumped up unexpectedly) and an info button. The info button, aside from displaying the credits, provides access to a settings screen where you’re able to set the app to mute on startup (advisable as a precaution for your ears).

Spy Games

In testing the app, I decided to try out a few different situations. My initial experiment consisted of listening in on two friends whispering to each other.

Pointing the iPhone’s mic towards the duo and plugging my headphones in (note that the app works best with headphones without a built-in mic), I discovered that, despite a bit of hum, I could hear them whispering.

However, upon removing the headphones, I discovered that I could still hear them whispering and, without the hum of the boosted iPhone microphone, everything sounded much clearer. My next test — listening to a friend’s heartbeat — ended similarly. I discovered that while Amplitude could aid me in listening to their heartbeat, my ears did a much better job.

The creators of the app posed the question, “Have you ever heard the sound of a hummingbird’s wings beating back and forth.” Yes, it’s like a tiny motorcycle being driven by a little biker man. “Using Amplitude it’s a truly amazing experience.” No, if I could locate a real, live hummingbird, using Amplitude, I’d most probably discover that the sound is slightly louder and more annoying than just listening with my ears.

Summing Up

According to the marketing text in the App Store, Amplitude can be used a tool to help fix your car. Or to spy on baseball players communicating in the batting circle. Or any number of a variety of utterly bizarre situations where, in actual fact, I doubt Amplitude really would work. Unless of course you stood next to these people, in which case you wouldn’t need the app anyway.

Amplitude is about as much actual use as a novelty fart apps. However, setting aside the grotesquely exaggerated claims of Amplitude’s ability by the app’s creators, it’s good fun as a 99 cent novelty app.

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Music, Internet, Google Maps, telephone calls, taking photos, and now fixing your broken relationship… is there anything the iPhone can’t do?

For most of us, the iPhone makes life better — it’s like a gorgeous bio-mechanical addition to our bodies: augmenting almost everything. And, in an odd sort of way, I suppose it seems natural that this super-device — this digital deity — should turn its attention to our relationships, in an effort to make life better. To make our relationships just work.

Available for iPhone and iPod touch, RelationTips aims to proffer advice and helpful suggestions for your close relationships.

Honeymoon Period

The app begins with a quick configuration process. There are eight empty picture frames, in which you can access advice for eight different relationships, with accompanying photo, from a pre-defined selection: husband and wife, girlfriend and boyfriend, son and daughter. Having eight relationship slots will come in handy for users with several children. Or a mistress.

Intuitive to configure and with a beautifully designed interface, RelationTips feels like a luxury item from the App Store. Attention has been lavished on the smallest details, with welcome embellishments such as being able to change the type of frame on photos of your loved-ones.

The advice proffered is split in to three different categories. The Dates category provides suggestions for things to do, such as train journeys, picnics or a day at the movies. If you’re in need of inspiration for something to say, the Words category focuses on communication. Finally, if you feel like actions speak louder than words, the Actions category contains pearls of wisdom like, “Surprise your husband by cleaning out his car and gassing it up.”

With Dates focused on injecting fun and/or romance in to the things you do with your partner or child. The Words and Actions category offer up suggestions that are intended to display or communicate how important this person is to you, or how much you love them. The language is occasionally a little stuffy, but most of the time (aside from the amusing example above) it’s arguably good advice.

However, there are a couple of problems with the library of advice. The first being that the suggestions, regardless of who they are aimed at, are much the same — even to the point where your husband is swapped for your wife — it’s just not personalized enough. The other problem is that there isn’t that much advice to go off: it’s not long at all before the helpful suggestions start looping and the ideas run dry.

We’ve Got Issues

The advice offered up by RelationTips isn’t always useful, though. Playing the role of iPhone-toting wife, the first piece of advice proffered to me was the following: Is there a chore that really needs to be done but seems to always get pushed down the line in priority? Tell your husband you’ll wear his favorite lingerie and help him complete it. He’ll make the time.”

It’s true, if my partner put on her lingerie and helped me to complete a given task, like clearing the blocked gutters, this would indeed be a welcome encouragement (I suppose someone has to hold the ladder).

However, this shining nugget of advice is merely a lump of steaming fool’s gold. It would be a shame if my partner felt that in order to encourage me to do something helpful for both of us, she had to objectify herself in this way. If the relationship is at this point, maybe there are deeper issues worth discussing. I dig a bit of naughty fun, but in this instance the advice just seems like the wrong way to be tackling the situation (and impractical too — holding a ladder in your lingerie can get uncomfortably cold).

Summing Up

The idea behind RelationTips, to provide gentle relationship guidance, is very sweet. However, if your relationship is in such a condition that you really are turning to an iPhone for this kind of support, there may be deeper issues at play. This app won’t fix what is already broken and, conversely, it’s more than likely not needed if your relationship is working. There are some things that an iPhone probably shouldn’t do and one of those things is dishing out automated morsels of relationship advice.

That said, I can see this app providing support for individuals as part of a larger effort to improve a relationship. For those that may have trouble communicating, need ideas for romantic treats or inspiration for meaningful displays of affection, RelationTips may not fix your relationship, but it could provide a point in the right direction.

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Do you tweet? Then maybe you should Boo! It’s like a multimedia Twitter, designed especially for iPhone users.

Over in the UK back in 2008, Channel 4 (Britain’s edgy TV channel) launched a unique funding program entitled 4IP. Cut to 2009 and, having just announced a dedicated iPhone 3.0 fund, the suits over at 4IP seem particularly keen on Apple’s device as a platform for pushing interactive wares. In fact, 4IP has announced a fund for developers, with almost $150,000 up for grabs at a maximum of approximately $40,000 per app.

Made possible by 4IP and developed by BestBefore, AudioBoo is among the first of Channel 4′s original iPhone commissions to hit the App Store. As developers ready their funding proposals, AudioBoo is set to be a showcase of the kind of app 4IP will be looking for — making use of various media formats, community-focused, and integrating with the most popular social platforms.

Designed to work alongside Twitter and iTunes, AudioBoo is an audio blogging platform created especially for iPhone.

Anatomy of a Boo

On paper, AudioBoo’s feature set reads excellently — it’s a tour de force of current buzzwords and trends. Using the iPhone you can record an audio message, the message pops up on your Twitter stream and there’s even an automatic, iTunes-compatible RSS feed for your followers to subscribe to.

The sign-up process is simple, taking place either on the iPhone (via a Safari link within the app) or on the desktop version of the web site. Plus, once signed in, it only takes a couple of clicks to link your Twitter account and activate Facebook Connect. The site even grabs your Gravatar, saving the hassle of uploading a profile picture.

It’s worth noting, however, that there’s not much to do on the desktop version of the site. AudioBoo really has been designed for iPhone; the app is where are all the key features are and, as such, there’s no way to record a Boo via the site.

Making the Perfect Boo

Once logged in on the iPhone, the app displays the main Boo stream, similar to Twitter’s public stream. Unlike Twitter, though, there’s no way of following other users; this seemed somewhat odd to me initially, until I realized that — with Twitter and Facebook Connect integration — it’s not needed: AudioBoo pushes messages to the big social platforms where all the action happens.

The focus throughout the app is on simplicity and ease of use. This is reflected in the audio-recording interface — there’s no friction with the technology and so creating a Boo is so quick it retains a real sense of fun throughout.

Although the App Store page states that recordings can be up to three minutes long, there’s actually a maximum length of five minutes. It’s the perfect amount of time to do a blog-style update, sing a little tune or make an impassioned rant.

EmbeddaBoo

Each Boo can be posted alongside a photo, either from your photo album or taken with the iPhoto camera. You can also add tags and, if you’re not the secretive type, even include GPS data. After that it takes a few seconds to publish a Boo — even over slower Edge connections — resulting in a page like this.

If you clicked the link to my test Boo, you’ll have heard that the audio quality from the iPhone mic itself is surprisingly good. And, because I’m a Twitter user, I’ve linked up AudioBoo to auto-tweet for me too. The site even generates code so that you can embed specific Boos on your blog or web page of choice.

There’s one feature, though, that seems to be a real stroke of genius on the part of BestBefore: Alongside an RSS feed, your Boo page also has an iTunes button — clicking this button automagically subscribes users to a podcast feed within iTunes of your Boo updates.

Summing Up

Despite having launched in the App Store, AudioBoo is still clearly in its infancy. The site design is incredibly dull, profile pages lack any sort of personalization options and the iPhone app can be a little crash-happy, too.

While there’s still a long way to go with the main site, the core technology works and, after configuring your account, you’ll find yourself primarily using the iPhone app and never having to visit the main AudioBoo site again — everything is automated for you.

The technology, and all the other added extras, more than make up for any complaints. It’s genuinely exciting to be armed with this fun little tool that enables you to record an audio message (with accompanying photo) and instantly publish to Twitter, Facebook and iTunes.

Simply put, AudioBoo is great fun and totally free. For Twitter users, Facebook members, potential podcasters, and regular folk who have something they’ve just got to voice, it’s well worth a download.

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Developed by Mobelux, and formerly known as Tumblrette, the official Tumblr iPhone app has now arrived.

Tumblr is essentially the short ‘n sweet side of blogging: Posts are ultra-snappy, comprised of mixed-media uploads such as images, quotes, audio and video. The service is free, via Tumblr.com, and, since the site is so intuitively designed, it’s incredibly easy for new users to dive straight in.

The result of this platform, paired with such a simple and effective interface, is the ultra-diverse Tumblr community. Browsing through various tumblelogs is like sifting through the Lost and Found Department of the entire Internet. It’s a beautiful mess of everything and anything, from the shocking to the spectacular.

Over on the iPhone, the official Tumblr app integrates all the features of the main site, plus a couple of unexpected welcome additions.

Get Ready to Tumble

The app is split in to three panels. First-time users are initially presented with the Tumblr Settings panel (accessible only via the app itself as opposed to the iPhone’s Settings app). From here you’re able to sign in to your Tumblr Dashboard, register a new account and configure Dashboard settings.

Although there’s a Sign up for a Tumblr Account button, the registration process doesn’t occur in-app. This means that tapping the button drops out of the app and moves in to Safari; it works, but it’s certainly not an elegant way of handling new registrations.

Furthermore, the Settings panel displays the name of your primary tumblelog but doesn’t display the name, or otherwise even mention the existence of, any other tumblelogs you may own or contribute to. For prolific users, this could be quite a drawback.

Dashboard Confessional

Once registered and set up, you can configure the Settings panel to always display an iPhone formatted version of the Tumblr Dashboard every time the app is loaded. The Sites panel displays your Tumblr Dashboard — an overview of new content posted to tumblelogs that you’re following.

Clicking on a post in the Dashboard allows you to view it in full, plus there are two buttons: Like and Reblog. Clicking the Reblog button allows you to post content from other tumblelogs straight to yours, automatically crediting the source too.

Rather unexpectedly, and again quite inelegantly, clicking Reblog actually loads the standard web-based Reblog page embedded within the app. It feels clunky to have the standard web-interface within the app and ends up being ineffective for quick-fire tumbling.

Those prolific users that I mentioned earlier may be pleased to note that the Dashboard panel provides quick access to all tumblelogs of which you’re a member. The drawback, though, is that there’s still no configuration options on these pages — it’s simply an embedded page within the app’s browser — so there’s no clear benefit to this feature and as such it feels half-baked.

Mixing Your Media

The Post panel is where the action happens. There are six different post types that can be sent directly to your tumblelog: text, photo, quote, link, chat and audio.

Without copy/paste on the iPhone, the text, quote, link and chat options seem particularly redundant. There is apparently a bookmarklet available, although I couldn’t find it in spite of various Google and Tumblr.com searches.

The other two posting options, photo and audio, are downright brilliant, grin-inducing joys. The former allows you to snap images on the iPhone camera, add text and then upload directly to your tumblelog. The latter is exactly the same, except instead of imagery, it’s all about making sound recordings.

Being able to get away from the computer, snapping and capturing images and sound from the world at large, is exactly what Tumblr is about. It sums up the essence of tumbling while furthering the concept and freeing Tumblr users from their desktop computers.

Summing Up

The inelegant registration process and embedded web page for reblogging only stand out as issues because, the rest of the time, the Tumblr iPhone app is so coherent in its design and ease of use. These niggles will, I hope, get resolved in future updates.

As for the post options for chat, links, quotes and text, these will become incredibly useful once copy/paste is introduced to the iPhone.

The app comes together when you find yourself out on the streets, wanting to capture a moment, an incredible sight, or an odd overheard conversation. The photo and audio features that make this possible are deliciously addictive.

If you’re a regular Tumblr user, or you’ve got an eye (or ear) for interesting happenings when you’re out and about, the Tumblr app will be your ideal companion.

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