It’s Halloween and so my top pick for this week is Alive 4-ever, a top-down zombie shooter with plenty of guts and gore to go around. I’ve also been checking out TowerMadness Zero, NASA and WordPress 2.

Alive 4-ever ($1.79)

As it’s Halloween, I thought that at least one of my top picks this week should be themed for the occasion. Despite the clumsy sounding name, Alive 4-Ever is a surprisingly polished top-down shooter. The plot is simple and disgustingly cliché: for whatever reason, a zombie apocalypse happens, you take to the streets to rescue other survivors.

The game takes its inspiration from some of the best zombie titles out there, including Resident Evil and Left 4 Dead. There’s a battalion’s worth of weaponry on offer, including zombie-slaying classics like the AK-47. Plus, if you’re after more firepower you’re able to purchase bigger, stronger, faster guns in the shop after each level.

There’s also a Bluetooth multiplayer mode, allowing you to jump into the action with three other friends. Alongside guns, zombies and survivors, the game throws in experience points too. Completing a stage earns experience points, these precious points go towards upgrading your character. In effect, you’re able to become the ultimate undead-destroying warrior.

TowerMadness Zero (Free)

Earlier this month, our own Alfredo Padilla took a look at 49 different tower defense games for the iPhone. Owing to the epic nature of his list, days later Alfredo distilled the document down into five tower defense games worth owning. All of Alfredo’s picks costs a few bucks though and, in this cash-strapped climate, some of us don’t have much money to burn on iPhone games.

That’s where TowerMadness steps in. The game is available in two monetary flavors. You can purchase it for a couple of bucks, or you can download the Zero edition: a totally unrestricted ad-supported version of the game for free. The ads are unintrusive and targeted in such a way that, for the most part, they feel relevant.

Of course the iPhone doesn’t need another tower defense game. Aside from being free, TowerMadness is a pretty good representation of the best qualities of the genre. All the usual TD staples are there — waves of enemies, upgradable towers, strategic play — but it’s all wrapped up in excellent graphics too.

NASA (Free)

National organizations seem to be slowly switching on to the iPhone. Last year, the BBC decided to create an iPhone-specific version of its excellent iPlayer site. Canada’s National Film Board just released a wonderful app for viewing its content on the go. And now NASA has released its very own app, allowing us earthlings to keep up-to-date with space mission news.

The app is essentially like having a tiny mission-control in the palm of your hand. There’s a listing of all NASA Missions, all of which have awesome names like Mars Express and Mars Odyssey. Tapping through to a mission section provides a mission briefing, photos, videos and an ever-so-slightly ominous countdown timer.

For me, the best part of the app is the video section. Rather than attempt to visualize the various space happenings described in the app, the videos bring these extraordinary happens closer to home. You can observe spacecraft launches, see astronauts float around in zero gravity, listen to people in space describe their experiences, and watch history in the making.

WordPress 2 (Free)

The original WordPress app just wasn’t so hot. With a clunky and convoluted interface that was all function and no form, it immediately felt dated. And, for writers and bloggers alike, it certainly wasn’t the most inspiring environment in which to attempt to pen a post.

The user interface has been updated but still, on first look, the app looks worryingly basic. In fact, it’s disconcertingly similar to its clunky counterpart, WordPress 1. I appreciate that the WordPress app is here to serve a function, but, discounting features, surely it could have been executed with a little more pizazz?

Anyway, looks are not the most important thing with WordPress 2. This version introduces several new features to the mix. There’s automatic saving and restoring of posts. A new comments interface which includes author URL and Gravatars. The app even stores password in the keychain. If you’ve got your own WordPress blog, this is certainly an app worth checking out.

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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• Mobile Q4: All Eyes Were on Android, 4G and the Rising Tablet Tide
• Report: A Mobile Video Market Overview
• In Q3, the Tablet and 4G Were the Big Stories

The first week of September has seen a deluge of new arrivals at the App Store. It’s time for me to search through the latest releases for iPhone and hand-pick my recommendations for the past seven days.

This week I’ve been looking at Button, Facebook, BlogPress and Quicksilver.

Button (Free)
One of my favorite sci-fi novels, “Better Than Life,” oscillates between a deep space distopia and an almost perfect Earth as it follows the surviving crew members of the Red Dwarf mining ship. It’s soon revealed that the crew’s collective vision of Earth is actually a highly addictive massively multiplayer online game beamed directly into their brains, leaving their real bodies in a seemingly catatonic state. Rather than take a giant leap towards this sinister style of multiplayer gaming, Button instead takes baby steps. There’s a big button, everyone around the world sees the button, when the button lights up you must push the button, sometimes you win a prize, usually you don’t. Button is effectively a nonsensical distraction that seems to tickle just the right bit of your brain. Plus, you can ramp up the futility by playing as a team. I’ve created a special team called tab just for readers of TheAppleBlog, come join my group and let’s push buttons together.

Facebook (Free)
The official Facebook app has finally received its first major update for some time, bringing the service’s iPhone implementation almost (but not quite) up to speed with the 3GS and 3.0 firmware. For starters, the app’s user interface has been streamlined and tidied up — gone are the tiny buttons, pointless scrollable horizontal groups bar and crash-happy inbox. The main feed benefits from having a clutter free interface and now incorporates likes and comments. The menu screen features several big chunky buttons, designed for ease of navigation. Notably, the app now allows video recording and uploads, a real boon for iPhone 3GS users. However, it’s seems that when Facebook update their app, there’s always something missing. In this case, there are no Push Notifications, an OS 3.0 feature which could have been designed solely for apps just like Facebook.

BlogPress ($2.99)
The official WordPress app just isn’t working out for me. While I appreciate the WordPress app being free, I’m still not impressed by the app’s sluggish navigation and overly technical user interface. In essence, the WordPress app doesn’t feel pretty and it doesn’t work as it should. With this in mind, I’ve been on the hunt for a replacement and BlogPress seems to be just the app to knock WordPress off my iPhone. The app features a WYSIWYG editor, incredibly important as you certainly don’t want to be tweaking your latest post’s code on your iPhone’s keyboard. There’s also video uploading, something which the WordPress app doesn’t currently support, handled by uploading your video to YouTube and then embedding within your latest post. BlogPress also supports posting simultaneously to multiple blog services, including Blogger, MSN Live Spaces, WordPress, Movable Type, TypePad, LiveJournal, Drupal and Joomla.

Quicksilver ($1.99)
And finally, while on the subject of replacing apps, I’ve been on the hunt for an alternative to Nimbuzz — while it’s an excellent feature-rich iPhone IM app, and free too, I’ve been feeling like I need a more streamlined solution. With it’s minimal iChat-esque interface, Quicksilver is the perfect app for a quick bit of iPhone IMing, with one caveat: it’s made for XMPP-compliant servers only, which, in non-geek-speak, means it’ll work with Google Talk but not MSN. The really great thing about Quicksilver is that it incorporates Push Notifications, making it more than worth the two buck asking price. When you close Quicksilver, you’re not logged out of chat, instead you’re status is changed to away. If one of your contacts should get in touch, the message will arrive on your iPhone as a push notification.

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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• How to Market Your iPhone App: A Developer’s Guide
• Virtual Worlds: Trends and Opportunities

I have to admit that I’m still working on the Game Design Document. Something which I thought would take only a few days has grown to incorporate minute details alongside gargantuan fundamental gameplay concepts. This document is essentially Tetris in written form: piling on concept after concept, attempting to make it fit together before the whole thing becomes too unwieldy to manage.

While work on the GDD should finish this week – Matias has stated that this Friday is the absolute deadline – I’m finding the time to explore other related areas of app development. In my last entry I spoke to Mills, one of the founders of ustwo, a growing independent mobile content studio.

Mills provided me with some revealing data in terms of development costs and sales. Looking at ustwo’s costs for app development relative to the revenue that they generated led me to think about how I could lower our own development costs while increasing the app’s desirability.

I’ve managed to find three different solutions that add value to our app and cost either very little or absolutely nothing.

Recycle That Code

Recycling and reusing code is a tried and tested convention in software development, particularly in the game industry. When you write a piece of code once – for example a game engine for a first person shooter – why spend time and money writing it again for the sequel? It’s far simpler to copy, paste, modify and deploy.

Working for a game developer a few years back, there were times when I noted that code recycling wasn’t necessarily in the customer’s best interests. In particular, I remember a top-down shooter – in the style of Grand Theft Auto – recycled as two different titles. The artwork was redrawn, the in-game dialogue was chopped and changed, but it was quite clearly the same game.

We plan to be a little smarter in choosing how and where we redeploy certain pieces of code. The PearComp coders, Matias, Markus and Ben, are currently working on Facebook and Twitter integration for the game. The plan is that, from within the game, players will be able to post their high scores to the two social networking services.

Facebook and Twitter posting is the value-adding feature du jour. Being able to link an app to these services provides a seamless connection between a user’s social life and the app in question. For games in particular, it’s a great way of enabling players to shout about their achievements while generating publicity for the title among their social connections.

In effect, the code that the PearComp team have created for the game can be re-used for future iPhone app developments. It’ll benefit some of PearComp’s clients, plus it’ll cut costs, and save time and resources.

Find Your Voice

John J. Dick is a voice actor and DJ who happens to be pretty badly in debt. His biggest gig was working on Serious Sam, an explosive shooter for hardcore gamers. John’s husky vocals helped flesh out Sam, the game’s main man: an alien destroying, gun toting, time traveling mercenary.

Back in the real world though, John’s debt has become such a problem that he’s come up with a cunning way to bail himself out. John has decided to offer his voice acting talent at an incredibly competitive rate: $1 per word.

Commissioning John to record a few words for the game was an easy decision – it cuts costs for sound recording and should save us some time later in the project. Having John’s name, and by extension Serious Sam, attached to the project could also make for some fun PR when we launch.

Collaborate & Communicate

In the previous installment of the App Developer Diary, I found out a little more about ustwo’s MouthOff app for iPhone. After speaking to Mills. I realized that there was potential for a really exciting collaboration.

I called Mills back the next day and pitched my idea: ustwo would create a special version of MouthOff featuring one of the characters from our game. We’d take the MouthOff code from ustwo and put it into our app, essentially this exclusive MouthOff would be accessed from within our game.

Featuring an exclusive MouthOff mode within our app adds some serious fun and replay value to the game. It would also garner some added exposure for ustwo’s app. Of course, we’ll ensure that there’s a link to the App Store for players to purchase the full version of MouthOff.

By recycling code, finding a great deal on audio assets and collaborating with an awesome dev studio, we’ve made our game even better without breaking the bank.

Next time: I finally submit the Game Design Document to the coders at PearComp.

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• Mobile Q4: All Eyes Were on Android, 4G and the Rising Tablet Tide
• Report: A Mobile Video Market Overview
• In Q3, the Tablet and 4G Were the Big Stories

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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• How to Market Your iPhone App: A Developer’s Guide
• Transient Apps: The Consumer Influence on Enterprise Mobility, Part 2
• Mobile Overview, Q2 2010

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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• How to Market Your iPhone App: A Developer’s Guide
• Transient Apps: The Consumer Influence on Enterprise Mobility, Part 2

This is the first installment of one journalist’s diary designing a game. It is a genuine, behind-the-scenes look at what it’s like to develop an app, from conception to release, for Apple’s iPhone.

This isn’t your regular developer diary. There’ll be no talk of code and classes, no discussion of the intricacy of integers or vileness of variables. In fact, before we begin my journey into game design, I’ll take a moment to set the scene.

Late last year, I hit the 3-year mark working at a big name mobile game publisher. My grand scheme, after graduating from college — studying for a degree in “Computer & Video Games” — was to take a job at an established game studio, learn my trade, garner some valuable industry experience and then go solo. Deep down, I wanted to make the kind of games that weren’t being made enough: Katamari Damacy, Rez, Jet Set Radio Future and Vib Ribbon.

I wasn’t exactly sure what going solo entailed, but I knew it involved me ploughing my own creative furrow. More importantly, after doing the full-time thing, I also knew that my solo endeavors wouldn’t involve a regular 9-to-5: I work best during night hours, while the city sleeps, like Batman, but with less scowling and cape swishing.

Fresh from college, when many of my peers were jobless, or asking their ‘clients’ if they wanted to supersize, or, worse still, working in QA for a game developer, I landed myself a producer role at a big-name mobile publisher. In just my first year as producer, I found myself working on projects for hit Hollywood movies and my favorite comic book characters.

A New Beginning

For three years I rolled around the company, shifting job titles and launching products, hoarding experience like a demented katamari. When the time came, though, I packed up my Mac mini — the only Apple device in the office — and moved on.

And here I am now, a freelancer, doing what I love — being a creative consultant, journalist, musician. Except that in the process of working for that game publisher, disillusionment set in. I still love playing and talking about games, but those three years sitting behind the wizard’s curtain utterly dissolved my passion for creating games.

Until last week, that is, when I was approached by an iPhone development studio to get involved with their latest project. The three-man team, located in Barcelona, the UK and Finland, had developed a game engine prototype for iPhone.

Breaking Out From the Mold

The dev team’s prototype takes a traditional bat-and-ball game and injects it with physics. They need me to introduce some depth to the game’s design, though, working on everything from the gameplay mechanic and fundamental rules to artwork and sound effects.

As a game concept, though, bat and ball is a dead donkey that has been flogged, with the bat, until only dust remains and then the dust has been flogged some more, just to be sure. And then somebody set fire to the dust. A quick search for Breakout on the App Store reveals a torrent of bat-and-ball games, all reiterating the same concept.

There are some exceptions, however. Paper Breaker takes the breakout concept back to the drawing board, literally. It’s got a hand-drawn aesthetic that, although it doesn’t introduce any notable new twists on the genre, still feels good to play.

Most of the clones aren’t as imaginative as Paper Breaker, though. They seem more like thinly veiled attempts to quickly cash in at the App Store before the bubble bursts. But I’ve got an idea, something that’s going to take the traditional bat-and-ball genre and twist it into something utterly new. Now I just need to convince those clever coders to make it.

Next time: Olly pitches the concept to the coders. Is it really a new twist to an old genre? And do the coders even like his idea? Find out in the next thrilling installment of TheAppleBlog’s App Developer Diary.

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• How to Market Your iPhone App: A Developer’s Guide
• Virtual Worlds: Trends and Opportunities

The week may be drawing to a close, but here at TheAppleBlog we’ve got an array of apps to get your through the weekend.

As ever, I’ve got four notable new iPhone releases from the App Store to tell you about. Before we jump into the apps, though, let’s take a look at the week that was with a quick news roundup.

The week kicked off with a bit of a downer as news broke that Apple will be charging for re-downloading premium apps that you’ve already purchased for iPhone. It’s not a big deal — it seems downloading via iTunes will still be free — but it’ll be an inconvenience to users who are prone to deleting and re-downloading apps while on the go.

Next up, Microsoft is well and truly on the warpath with its forthcoming Zune HD, and what’s more, it’s gunning for the iPod touch. The new device will have a touchscreen, web browser, Wi-Fi, HD radio and, I think, looks rather scrummy. Delicious-looking it may be, but I still don’t know if that makes it a true contender.

Our own Henry Balanon stepped up to the plate with a seriously impressive iPhone development resources article. He managed to squeeze in 43 different links to various resources around the ‘net. Coders should head on over to the article and bookmark it immediately; it’ll prove useful as a reference tool.

Another new feature coming to the iPhone has been doing the rumor-rounds: Apple is integrating geo-location within Mobile Safari. Are location-aware web sites the next big thing? Setting aside Google Latitude, I’m not entirely convinced. Hit up the article for Darrel Etherington’s take on the matter.

Pipping Apple’s new devices to the post, Palm’s Pre should be hitting the shelves today. Owners of the Pre will be pleased to hear that Palm’s new devices will sync seamlessly with iTunes.

To celebrate the recent release of Dave Matthews Band Revenge for iPhone and iPod touch, I’ve got three promo codes to give away. To be in with a chance of winning, leave me a comment explaining why you’d like to play this new game.

Moving on to the picks, this week I’ve been looking at Put Things Off, Jaman Free Movie Fridays, Pocket Alan, and Terminator Salvation Lite.

Put Things Off ($2.99)
My essential iPhone tool for staying organized is Evernote, however, sometimes I seriously consider switching; especially in the case of Put Things Off — an app that packs in the functionality I need, with great visual design, too. The app allows you to focus on the tasks you need to get done on a given day, filtering everything else out of your immediate to-do list. The aesthetic strikes the right balance between satisfyingly tangible, with office-esque paper trays, and functional. My favorite feature is the auto-nag mode: putting off a task for too long moves it to your “Today tray,” forcing you to complete a given item rather than endlessly procrastinating.

Jaman Free Movie Fridays (FREE)
Never turn down a free dinner, and never turn down a free movie, either. Free food almost always tastes scrumptious, and free movies can make for unexpected fun. In the case of this app, Jaman bring you a new movie to watch every Friday. There are a few big names in there, like the complete collection of classic Superman cartoons and black-and-white spook-fest Nosferatu, however, you won’t find the latest Transformers, Terminator, or Star Trek films on the list. Most notably, though, there’s a great selection of independent full-length features, alongside new short films.

Pocket Alan (99 cents)
It’s interesting that Apple seems to have no sort of process in place for protecting the intellectual property of copyright holders. Interesting but, in this case, lucky for us, as Alan Partridge has unofficially arrived on the iPhone in the shape of a handy soundboard. Essential classics such as, “Ahaa,” and, “Jurassic Park,” are there, alongside oft-forgotten, but no less amusing sound-bites, including my favorite, “Jackanackanory.” Plus, fans of Partridge with friends named Daniel will be be able to make good, repetitive use of the, “Dan,” button. Cheap and fun, nothing more than a novelty item, but a perfect toy for fans of the show.

Terminator Salvation Lite (Free)
Gameloft seems to have surpassed itself with its latest movie-based game. Terminator Salvation packs in convincing 3D environments, reminiscent of console games, alongside a well-designed control-system and game mechanic. Of course, the real joy is trudging through the distopyian, post-apocalyptic devastation, offing shiny silver terminators with a variety of weapons. TheAppleBlog’s David Appleyard checked out the iPhone version of Terminator Salvation a few weeks back. If you’re looking to try out the game without spending five bucks on the full version, download the Lite edition today.

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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• How to Market Your iPhone App: A Developer’s Guide
• Virtual Worlds: Trends and Opportunities

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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Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, even better, it’s a super selection of fresh picks, plucked from the App Store, especially for you.

But that’s not all I’ve got in store for you this weekend: After perusing the week’s happenings right here at TheAppleBlog, I’ve prepared a swift run-down of Apple news from the past seven days.

The folks over at Amazon kicked off the week by dropping an update to the Kindle for iPhone app. A few weeks back, Amazon acquired the company behind Stanza, the free e-Book reader. It seems as if Amazon is still pushing forward with the Kindle for iPhone app, rather than, as I would have expected, focusing its efforts, and considerable resources, on rolling Stanza and Kindle into one.

TheAppleBlog’s Henry Balanon helped melt away those Monday blues with a new iPhone Dev Sessions tutorial. For coders and tech-minded musicians alike, this should be a particularly interesting one, as Henry’s latest article is all about creating a drum machine app for iPhone.

On Tuesday, Microsoft launched a shot across the bow of Apple’s iPod, with its latest Zune advertisement. The ad features Apprentice-losing certified financial adviser Wes Moss, explaining why a Zune is much more of an economically savvy purchase than the iPod.

Perhaps signaling the end of the line for the iPhone 3G, Apple has now made it possible to purchase the device online. It’s the latest in a long line of what seems to be inventory-clearing tactics from Apple, making way for the rumored iPhone refresh this summer. Potential buyers should consider holding out for a possible iPhone announcement in the coming weeks.

Also this week, David Klein posted an excellent tutorial on setting up Google Sync for Mac and iPhone. This is essential reading, both for Gmail users looking to integrate their iPhone more closely with their Google account and for MobileMe users looking for a free alternative to Apple’s service.

Moving on to the picks, this week I’ve been looking at When Sysadmins Ruled The Earth, Guru Meditation, Resident Evil: Degeneration and Peggle.

When Sysadmins Ruled The Earth (free)
Blogger, journalist, author and super-smart guy, Cory Doctorow, has had one of his excellent short stories brought to the iPhone, courtesy of Robot Comics. The story centers around a bunch of sysadmins as chance survivors of a global apocalypse. Although the comic book reader software is incredibly bare-bones, it doesn’t matter, as the story makes for incredibly compelling reading. For fans of short science-fiction stories, this is a must-have app for the iPhone and well worth checking out over the weekend.

Guru Meditation (free)
Whether you use your iPhone for work or play, it’s just as important to get away from the incessant flow of e-mails and PDFs, zombie apocalypses and pachinko-esque puzzles. If you want to relax but just can’t seem to break away from your iPhone, Guru Meditation could be just the app you need. Created as an homage to an old mythical Amiga game, Guru Meditation could be considered a game in the loosest sense; it’s more a tool for encouraging relaxation and calm, albeit with a retro Atari-style look. To play, you simply find a quiet place, sit in a comfortable meditative position and then hold the iPhone still for as long as possible.

Resident Evil: Degeneration ($6.99)
If meditating isn’t your bag, though, and you’re just on the lookout for another zombie head to pop, this may be just the app for you. Capcom’s Resident Evil: Degeneration is an incredibly faithful addition to the long-running series, featuring excellent 3D graphics, shake and tilt to fend off zombies or reload, and, of course, a panoply of disgruntled undead folk to unleash your sweet gunnishment upon. It’s a deep, action-packed experience, certainly ideal for fans of the series, and, at the moment, this is as close to console gaming as the iPhone can get.

Peggle ($4.99)
We’re finishing up this week with Peggle — a pachinko-style puzzler, which is a genre that seems to be all the rage on the iPhone at the moment. Arguably one of the titles at the forefront of this genre, at least in the online casual gaming space, is PopCap’s Peggle. The iPhone version is astonishingly good value for money and an example of just how much of a better experience a little polish and attention to detail can bring. The game packs in 55 levels, various game modes, loads of score-modifiers, replays, and even an array of weird characters, all of whom give it an Adult Swim-lite vibe. Just like Rockchinko, which I reviewed earlier this week, it’s a brilliant game, but it could still do with downloadable levels and online connectivity.

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 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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You can’t have pizza without cheese, socks without shoes, a sandwich without bread, or a complete week without hearing about the freshest iPhone apps.

Before I present you with a hand-picked selection of the latest iPhone releases to hit the App Store, as is tradition, we’ll take a moment to review notable news and take stock of the week that was.

For iPhone supporters, the week seemed to start on somewhat of a downer as news broke that RIM’s BlackBerry Curve is the belle of the ball, surpassing the iPhone in popularity. Plus, darkening the mood a little more, it seemed that the developers gathered for our Monday App Store Roundtable were, understandably, none too pleased at the App Store’s review system.

By Tuesday, the week began to pick up with speculation that Apple may adjust their app approval policy upon the release of the iPhone 3.0 update this summer. In short, there’s a possibility that “adult-only” apps will appear in the App Store; perhaps tasteless topless images will become the new novelty fart sound maker?

Also this week,Bento, the personal database application for desktop, was released on the iPhone. David Appleyard was on hand to provide an excellent overview of the app. Although I use Evernote for collecting info on the move, users who need to go beyond lists and start making databases will find Bento to be an indispensable tool.

Midweek mirth was provided courtesy of Apple, when someone on the Cupertino campus inadvertently approved a listing for QuickPWN — the iPhone jailbreaking tool — in the official web app directory.

The other notable rumor of the week concerns a possible feature coming to new MacBooks in the future. Based on a job posting straight from Apple, it’s looking likely that the next Macbook will have integrated 3G. Although 3G may be the death knell for USB sticks touting the same functionality, on the flip-side it means less peripherals and more connectivity for Macbook-users.

Moving on to the picks, this week I’ve been looking at Offmaps, GadgetTrak, Kids vs. Zombies Lite and Battalion.

Offmaps ($2.99)
Having Maps on your iPhone is all well and good, but when you’re out and about without a data-connection, the app is essentially useless. For frequent travelers (or even iPod Touch users) Offmaps compliments Google Maps perfectly. The app allows you to download specific maps directly to the iPhone, even allowing the user to set the zoom level — useful for those looking for a high level of detail. A worthwhile companion to the embedded Maps app, and surprisingly cheap given the excellent functionality.

GadgetTrak (Free)
This seems to have been released back in August last year, and while I try to feature the latest apps, it’s occasionally worth rewinding a moment if I’ve missed something worthwhile. GadgetTrak is incredibly similar to Caught You! Both of the apps create a dummy icon on your iPhone which, in the event of your device being stolen, a thief will hopefully click. The dummy app then e-mails your iPhone’s GPS coordinates to you. Unfortunately, Caught You! seems to have gone AWOL from the App Store — I’ve checked both U.S. and UK stores, and it’s no longer available — as such, it’s worth checking out GadgetTrack as an alternative (and free) tracking tool.

Kids vs. Zombies Lite (Free)
Recommended to me by Larsonian, via the comments section of last week’s App Store Picks, I thought I should take a look at this game. In the midst of a zombie apocalypse, you take control of three kids who happen to be armed to the teeth. In terms of gameplay, it’s a coin-op-esque shooter, wrapped in gorgeous cartoony 3D graphics, with a sprinkling of the undead. Each of the characters have different attack abilities — close combat, long range and explosives — plus, you’re able to visit the Hardware Store and upgrade the weaponry for even more effective zombie devastation. Check out the free Lite version first and, if you enjoy destroying the living dead, upgrade to the full version for only two bucks.

Battalion (Free)
If you’re looking for a 3D shooter with a retro vibe, then check out Battalion. The game was originally developed for the Cave Automatic Virtual Environment, aka CAVE (I love a good recursive acronym), and found the player becoming a movie-style giant monster, literally stomping around a town and taking on the might of the military. The controls are incredibly tough to get used to, combining a mixture of tilting, tapping, double-tapping and even dragging, however, after an initial learning period, it’s good fun (and a strangely effective stress reliever). While this version is certainly not as immersive as the original virtual reality Battalion, you get to choose from one of four cute but angry B-movie monsters. Recommended for those looking for a free and fun new game.

We’re all done for the app picks this week. In keeping with our usual schedule, I’ll return next week 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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All of the thrills, adrenaline and drama of ping pong arrives on the iPhone, courtesy of Skyworks.

I’ve tried many sports — rugby, basketball, hockey, even lacrosse — and discovered that physical exertion is not my bag. I much prefer my Macbook Pro and a bowl of edamame for company any day. As a sport, ping pong is special though: it’s high-speed, it’s intense, it’s got a silly name, and it requires very little movement on my part.

Skyworks Ping Pong aims to capture the energy of the real thing, but requires even less physical exertion. The game features a single-player International tournament mode, polished graphics, online scoring and even single-device multiplayer.

Eye of the Tiger

World Cup Ping Pong has been given a dynamic, sporty design with each game playing out on a 3D table. For such a simple game, it’s incredibly polished. Yet, this polish is more akin to a a high-class video poker game than an iPhone app and, as such, the game feels somewhat lacking in character.

This feeling of emptiness, like there’s something missing, could also be attributed in part to the sound, or lack of. The menu and option screens are eerily silent, save for a few chirps on pressing buttons. In-game, there are two cheap ‘n generic dance tunes to choose from — worse still, they get repetitive quickly.

Aside from the gameplay, the classic ping pong sound is one of the most important components of a great ping pong game: that percussive smack of the ball being slapped across the table with a paddle. World Cup Ping Pong gets it exactly right, and, paired with the rhythm of the ball bouncing back and forth, makes for satisfying matches.

Bat & Ball

There are several different game modes to choose from. Players looking for a traditional competition experience will want to jump straight in to Tournament Mode. There’s a choice of teams, including the USA, Russia, Finland and Germany, and a choice of paddles, too.

Arcade Mode provides a more immediate entry point for jumping in to World Cup Ping Pong. With half the table propped up, Forrest Gump-style, you bash away at various targets, attempting to rack up a high score.

Totally unexpected was the Head to Head gameplay mode — with a birds-eye view of the table, you and a friend can both play simultaneously on one iPhone. It was an absolute treat, utterly at odds with Practice Mode. This final game-type had very little use: no lesson, no guidance, just a dry run of Tournament Mode.

Bat In Hand

Once you’ve selected either a Tournament or Arcade Mode, it’s time to choose your paddle. There are three to choose from, not only differing in color but also impacting your technique, in terms of energy and spin. Once you’ve made your choice and have a tight grip of your paddle, it’s time to start a match.

There are absolutely no buttons to learn and, as such, the controls are incredibly simple. Dragging your finger around the screen controls your paddle; serving is as simple as quickly swiping up. The major issue with this control method is that your finger may occasionally obscure the on-screen action.

Once you’ve grasped the basics, the game begins to have a little more depth. Mastering spinning the ball means matches become much more fun. However, the opponents occasionally feel a little too tough, and rallies become repetitive chores, devoid of the drama and pace of real ping pong.

At the end of a game, you’re invited to submit your score online to the global score board. Unfortunately, you’ll have to register and log-in first. Forced registration to access in-game features are loathsome — frequently a thinly veiled excuse to harvest e-mail addresses and rarely genuinely needed. In the case of World Cup Ping Pong, it’s not clear just why I have to register simply to submit my high-score online.

Summing Up

While World Cup Ping Pong isn’t necessarily awful, it just didn’t blow me away, either. The game is missing character and depth, the graphics and music lack charm, and the gameplay, while effective, just didn’t leave me wanting more.

This game certainly isn’t an outstanding pick from the App Store’s Game section; it’s just a fun little time-waster. Fans of the sport won’t find any depth relating to the real thing, but those looking for a quick-to-learn time-waster will certainly glean a little pleasure from this game.

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Who’s that knockin’ at your door? Why it’s none other than the freshest pickings from the App Store, joined by a smattering of Apple news.

Before we get stuck in to this week’s iPhone picks and recommendations from the App Store, let’s shift our focus for a moment and have a quick recap on what went down this week.

There’s so much to get through here, so let’s kick off by rewinding back to Monday where Apple launched a new iPhone OS 3.0 beta, sliding in a selection of new features including settings for push notification and audio scrubbing in the iPod app. Plus, David Appleyard took a look at iStat for iPhone. The $1.99 app is a useful tool for remotely monitoring your system performance and resources.

The very next day, Amazon swallowed up iPhone developer Lexcycle. A significant purchase indeed because Lexcycle is the brains behind Stanza, a wonderful — and absolutely free — eBook reader for the iPhone. Also on Tuesday, our own Clayton Lai continued his Jailbreak series, looking at how to jazz up the sedate iPhone lock screen.

Rumors abound as Verizon CEO Lowell McAdams has apparently, “talked to people at Apple.” Speculation has turned to the possibility of two new Apple products: an “iPhone Lite,” and apparently a “media pad.” The latter of which would essentially be an oversized iPod Touch.

The latest addition to TheAppleBlog’s journalistic lineup, Gavin Bowman, launched the App Store Roundtable article series. His first post brings several developers together to look at the growth of the App Store and the initial gold rush. And finally, Apple stealthily launched Live Chat support for MobileMe. (It’s still not going to convince me to move over from DropBox, though.)

And in other news, UK-based artist Jon Burgerman has teamed up with UsTwo, the app developers behind Steppin and MouthOff. The team are currently cooking up an iPhone music toy, titled Inkstrumentals, featuring a crowd of Burgerman’s odd and awesome characters.

Moving on to the picks, this week I’ve been looking at Pixel Contact, Wolfenstein 3D Lite, MusicNeon and Lilt Line.

Pixel Contact (99 cents)
Since purchasing my iPhone, I’ve been disturbingly fastidious when it comes to keeping my Address Book tidy. It’s particularly important to me that I have an image for every single one of my contacts. The problem is that when swapping contact details, it can be somewhat awkward to ask someone I’ve just met if I can take their photo. Can give the wrong impression, you see? This app allays an awkwardness by providing an array of pixellated people that you can assign to your Address Book contacts. It’s super cute and incredibly useful, too.

Wolfenstein 3D Classic Lite (FREE)
The original PC-based Wolfenstein was, I’m proud to say, my first FPS. The seemingly massive environments, the strange new control scheme, stealing weapons from dead enemies — it was a fresh and exciting challenge, something I’d never experienced before and, crucial for me as a young lad, it felt like games had started to grow up. Doom would, of course, take all of this even further for me, but until then, Wolfenstein reigned supreme. The iPhone version hit the App Store a couple of months back for only $1.99; those looking to try before they buy, download this free version and try out three levels.

MusicNeon (FREE)
Burgerman’s forthcoming Inkstruments toy for iPhone got me on the hunt for music games in the App Store. After searching for something fun but also free, I tracked down MusicNeon. Coming from the collective mind of Shanghi Gokei, an app development outfit from Japan, MusicNeon is a nonsensical sound toy meets Bejewelled-esque puzzle game. As the clock counts down, it’s your job to link the glowing neon tubes up from left to right, ensuring you trigger the seemingly useless bonuses along the way. The gorgeous glowing visual style, paired with the jaunty music selection (including a few Christmas classic, for no apparent reason) make this a tongue-in-cheek but nevertheless fun game.

Lilt Line ($2.99)
However, fans of music games looking for some serious action should perhaps skip the weird Japanese oddity that is MusicNeon and skip straight to Lilt Line. The game combines a deliciously messy Dubstep soundtrack — courtesy of London-based crew 16bit — with retro high-speed shoot-em-up action (except without the shooting). As a white line glides through empty neon caverns, you play by tilting the iPhone left and right and tapping the screen to the shuffling groove. Developer Different Touch describes the game as, “hack’n'slash dubstep vehicle synthesis simulation action.” Whatever it’s meant to be, it’s one of the most original games to hit the App Store so far and is highly recommended.

That’s all the picks we’ve got time for this week. Meet me right here, same time, same place, next week for more of the week’s news alongside fresh picks from the App Store.

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

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It’s only fitting that a serious crossword puzzle app has a seriously verbose title.

The daily puzzles offered up by The New York Times are a classic staple in many crossword puzzle players’ diets. Kicking off each week with Monday’s easy offering, the puzzles get gradually more difficult each day, peaking with a fiendishly difficult grid on Friday.

The New York Times Crosswords Daily 2009 is the official NYT crossword app. The app features daily downloads of the latest New York Times crossword puzzle, alongside leaderboards and player profiles.

Sophisticated and Stylish (6 letters)

The game opens with a seriously smooth New York vibe: the Big Apple’s skyline sits atop the menu, rendered with a newspaper-style aesthetic, all backed with light-hearted jazz.

The cheery music and mellow tone was initially off-putting, perhaps due to my current diet of awful iPhone action games. After a few minutes though, I had adjusted to the breezy pace of the game and started to appreciate the gorgeous menu animations.

Zipping through the different menu screens, the animations are utterly gorgeous. Before even setting a single letter on to the grid, it was clear that this is a different breed of iPhone game — it’s smart, paced and incredibly classy.

To Make A Link (7 letters)

Prior to playing, you’ll need to set up a profile, which enables you to access the game’s array of community features and downloadable puzzles. Even though the registration process takes place within the app, it’s still a bore. I resented having to give my email address away, simply to access the game content.

Another issue with the registration process is that you’re automatically given a Magmic Profile. Magmic, the developers of the app, had, quite unexpectedly, created a profile for me on their site. It seems somewhat inappropriate for Magmic to be harvesting user-data for the game in order to create unrelated public profiles on their site (and without prior warning, too).

Once registered, the app is given an injection of content. You’re immediately able to download and play the latest daily crossword from The New York Times. There’s also a small archive of puzzles available to play, dating as far back as 2002. And best of all, downloading happens in a snap, which means you can be playing a fresh puzzle only moments after opening the app.

Corbijn’s Directorial Debut (7 letters)

Once a crossword has been opened, the timer starts ticking, giving the game a sense of pace and competition. Navigating each crossword is surprisingly intuitive. I expected clumsy navigation, and yet the interface design is solid and incredibly easy to grasp.

To select a square on the grid, you simply tap it. The clue is then displayed at the bottom of the screen. Tapping the same square again toggles between Across and Down, while using the left and right arrows (which flank the clue text) scrolls through the clues sequentially. You’re even able to zoom in and out of the grid by pinching, Mobile Safari-style.

Separate to the main crossword grid is an excellent clue view screen. The clue view screen is a useful tool when attempting to solve a grid; it’s a space where the clues are clearly laid out, enabling prolonged perusal and consideration. Plus, solutions can also be entered on this screen, too, enhancing its usefulness.

Summing Up

Magmic says that the app “includes access to daily and archived puzzles until the end of 2009.” It’s not clear exactly what this means, though. Does the app stop downloading all crosswords — even old ones from the NYT archives — when we hit 2010? The lack of clarity is an issue; if the app is essentially a subscription, it should be made clearer from the offset.

Setting the app’s description discrepancy aside, despite it’s overly verbose title, The New York Times Crossword Daily 2009 was an unexpected pleasure to play. The app’s design is classy, and the excellent user interface means that solving the crossword on the iPhone is just as engaging as the real thing.

The real joy of this app is the way in which it stretches your mental capacity. And taking on such a challenge — giving your brain-box a thorough testing — really does make you feel immediately smarter.

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Don’t let life get you down, put your punchin’ gloves on and show the world you’re a champion in this retro boxing game.

In these economically egregious times, we all need a little release from the fiscal pressures dumped upon on our already strained shoulders. Even I need some respite from the current monetary melee, having just conducted a thoroughly British argument with my thoroughly British bank manager, both of us politely snarling, in a disturbingly reserved manner, down the phone line.

Allowing you to take your troubles to the ring, Fist of Fury is a retro-style boxing game for the iPhone. The game features five muscle-bound walking clichés for you to attempt to beat the pulp out of.

Round One

Before you’ve even set fist to face, or foot in ring, however, you’ll be struck down by the inordinately long load time. For a game that has the technical depth of a caveman dressed as a robot, it’s surprising that Fist of Fury takes so long to load.

Once past the loading screen comes the disappointment of seeing what took so long to load. The graphics on the title screen, like those in the rest of the game, look unfinished, more akin to placeholder graphics in a beta version. Only moments into the game, it’s apparent that very little effort has been spent on its visual design.

In the ring and on level one, my opponent was a beefy, retro-styled juggernaut. And yet this juggernaut, the boxing ring, and even my own character reminded me of something. A quick Google search later and it’s clear that Fist of Fury bares a striking resemblance to Nintendo’s NES classic Punch Out.

The audio in Fist of Fury, however, doesn’t bare any resemblance to Punch Out’s glorious blippy bloppy sound effects, nor is it reminiscent of the NES classic’s oddly jaunty music. Fist of Fury features no musical accompaniment and the sound effects, while satisfyingly 8-bit and tinny, are few and far between.

A Hollow Victory

Fists of Fury pits your character, the imaginatively titled John Doe, against five gargantuan opponents. John stands square in the center of the screen, riveted to the spot, perhaps through sheer fear. The only option open to the player is to keeping throwing punches while attempting to dodge your opponents’ onslaught of fists.

Tapping the left and right punch buttons cause John to flail the appropriate fist in the general direction of his enemy. It feels ineffective and devoid of any strategy. For your defense, by leaning the iPhone left or right, you’re able to dodge your opponents advances.

As there’s no tell, or indication of any sort, for when your opponent may punch, nor is there any strategically effective method to dodging and attacking beyond that of randomly leaning left and right, while bashing each punch button alternately. With the gameplay being so lacking in depth, each win in Fist of Fury feels frustratingly futile.

Note that I’ve not mentioned options or settings because there are none. There’s no way to change the game’s difficulty, no tutorial or control overview (understandable, given Fist of Fury’s strategic simplicity), nor is there the opportunity to change your character’s name or add a profile picture.

Summing Up

While the sound and graphics aren’t necessarily awful, they don’t bring anything new to retro-style gaming and are more of a rushed rip than an outright homage. The control mechanism and general game mechanic — no efficient strategy beyond whacking the punch buttons — is a disgustingly poor attempt at mimicking the depth and effectiveness of 8-bit boxing games.

At this point, my only hope is that this review shames the developers of Fist of Fury into either taking app development and their customers seriously, or throwing the towel in and leaving the industry. To summarize, I’ll be blunt as a punch square in the face: Avoid this awful game.

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Put your iPhone in the air and shake it like you just don’t care, because it’s time for my pick from the week’s freshest apps.

Before you start waving your iPhone with a blatant disregard for those around you due to the sheer excitement you feel from reading about the latest apps, I’ve got a brief rundown of the week’s news.

We began the week with news that Buy.com had begun offering unlocked iPhone 3Gs for purchase. As such, it’s looking increasingly like it’s time for stockists to clear their inventory and prepare for the impending arrival of the next iPhone. And at only $799 for your very own legit unlocked iPhone, you may as well take two.

Staying with the subject of unlocked iPhone’s, our own Clayton Lai posted a new guide as part of his Jailbreak article series. Clayton covers the myriad options available for owners of jailbroken iPhones looking to use copy-paste (before the official 3.0 iPhone OS update drops this Summer).

On Wednesday, Apple revealed the most downloaded apps so far. In the paid section, Smule’s social musical instrument Ocarina made the list, as did Tap Tap Revenge over in the free section. Oddly enough though, Rolando is notably absent — perhaps the impending sequel, details of which ngmoco released this week, will garner even more downloads than the original.

Next up, a tasty bombshell dropped in the shape of a possibly/maybe/potentially reliable leak: a list of ingredients for the forthcoming new iPhone. Unlike one of my tasty risottos, there was no mushroom or asparagus on this ingredient list, however there were a few chips. Hit up the full article for a delicious rundown of what could very well be in store for the next iPhone iteration.

There’s also been speculation that Nintendo and Sony are freaking out over the very real threat that the iPhone presents to their respective chunks of the handheld gaming markets. Insightful but amusingly tactless comment of the week goes to TheAppleBlog reader Youda Farmer:

“All you DS/PSP dunderheads need to get over yourselves. Nobody in there [sic] right mind carries a DS/PSP with them at all times. But ALL iPhone owners NEVER leave home without it.”

With the smoke of news blown away by the vacuum of fact, it’s time to move on to this week’s picks from the App Store. This week I’ve been looking at UniWar, QuadCamera, GO! Manga and Birdhouse.

UniWar (99 cents)
It seems I’m spending too much time playing on my iPhone, due to several hyper-distracting recent releases — Briscas, ElementalMonster TD and Leaf Trombone: World Stage, to name but three. During the week I decided to check out UniWar, a strategy game that blends Starcraft-style sci-fi landscapes with the turn-based fun of Advance Wars on the DS. Although the pixellated graphics are gorgeous, I wasn’t expecting to be so impressed by the gameplay. The learning curve is just right, trying out all the different units is great fun, the only problem with this game is that the hours literally disappear every time I play.

QuadCamera – Multi shot (99 cents)
This app was actually released back in March, but, after accepting that my iPhone camera gets almost no use these days, I decided that it was time to re-ignite my passion for iPhone-based photography. QuadCamera really takes Apple’s poor iPhone camera and turns it in to a fun photography toy and, what’s more, the photos are good enough to show off. Take a photo and the app actually takes 4-8 serial shots which are then displayed together (a la Lomography’s Action Sampler). What’s more, there’s a variety of effects to choose from, giving your images an extra injection of character and depth. Alongside Flickit, QuadCamera is must-have for iPhone photographers.

GO! Manga (99 cents)
Amazon’s Kindle for iPhone has been giving me a few issues of late. To be more specific, it’s less to do with the app and more to do with accessing Amazon.com’s U.S. service as a UK citizen living in Finland. Kindle or not, I need to get my read on and find my next fix of fiction, and so I’m immensely grateful for GO! Manga. The app provides access to a massive library of English-language Manga content for free. I don’t know the details of how GO! Manga did or didn’t wrangle deals with relevant publishers to get this content out there, but setting that aside, what we have is an overwhelming treasure trove of authentic manga. Download this app and then I highly recommend you start by reading Death Note.

Birdhouse ($3.99)
With Tweetie as the Twitter client of choice for many — including me — it’s surely tough for any other app to compete. However, the aim with Birdhouse is to compliment your favorite Twitter client rather than attempt to replace it. The killer feature is that the app allows you to compose and save multiple drafts for multiple accounts. The $3.99 price-point is a little too lofty though, especially if, given sufficient demand, I expect Tweetie will follow suit and integrate multiple draft-saving, making Birdhouse an expensive luxury rather than an essential tweeting tool.

And with that, we’re done with this week’s picks. As always, I’ll be back same time, same place, next week with more from the App Store.

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

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