The fitRAIL is billed as an “exercise mount” for both the original iPad and the iPad 2. It’s a sturdy, collapsible aluminum and steel gadget that manages to be both portable and secure when holding your iPad, and it’s an elegant solution to a problem I’ve been trying to solve since getting my first iPad.

Your screen, your stuff

The fitRAIL is basically a harness for your iPad that folds out so as to clamp down perfectly on the display consoles of most upright cardio equipment — ellipticals, treadmills, climbers and the like. It folds down to a small size and comes with a pouch for convenient carrying, and features sticky (albeit easy to remove) pads to keep your iPad securely in place, along with a hook attached to a neoprene strap to make sure it won’t pitch forward. The stretchiness of the neoprene strap and double grooves in the base make the fitRAIL easily compatible with any generation iPad.

It hooks over the top of the machine’s console (and seems to work with every variety I could find), and then hangs there, buttressed by rubber bumpers in the back to keep it from bouncing around too harshly. That way, you can watch or read whatever you want as you work out (so long as you downloaded it before to your iPad or you have internet access at your gym) instead of being beholden to whatever your gym chooses to play on its televisions.

Not just a gym rat

The fitRAIL also works remarkably well outside of the confines of the gym, which is good news in case you’re not often the type to stick with your New Year’s resolutions. It can be configured to work as a display stand, or as an angled prop for typing, in which capacity it easily outperforms other devices with similar purposes, like Apple’s own Smart Cover. You can also hook it over a door for hands-free viewing in a pinch.

Smart design that avoids too tight a niche

My office is virtually a graveyard of iPad stands. Too many of these were single purpose devices that quickly outlived their usefulness when something that not only acted as a stand, but did something else, too came along (the PadPivot comes to mind). The fitRAIL is a stand, yes, but it also offers a very specific function that satisfies the demands of many like myself who’ve been looking for a simple, easy-to-install way to mount an iPad to cardio equipment. It’s smart design that avoids being too precious, and that’s why it’s got a permanent place in my gadget bag.

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Let me start by saying that if you’ve given up on Office for Mac after the disappointment of 2008, you should have another look at the latest offering. I feel like the Mac department over at Microsoft is finally getting the support and resources it needs from corporate to give its products a fighting chance alongside Apple’s own offerings.

General impressions aside, here’s what you need to know about the new PowerPoint.

More Windows and More Mac, All at Once

Amazingly, Microsoft managed to make the new PowerPoint interface feel more like its Windows-based twin, while also changing the design so that it looks more at home on the Mac desktop. One of the features that helped the new design is the inclusion of the ribbon. Yes, it’s a controversial feature, and many Windows users don’t like it, but I’ve grown accustomed to using it, and I welcome its inclusion on the Mac side of things.

The ribbon in PowerPoint 2011.

The ribbon, for those who haven’t tried any recent editions of Office for Windows, resides at the top of your interface underneath the tool bar. Commands and tools are organized by sections, like “Home,” “Theme,” “Charts,” “Slide Show,” etc. If you’re used to hunting around in menus for Office commands, you probably won’t like them, but for those new to the suite, it’s a much more logical means of organization.

Office 2011′s ribbon has all the same content as the Windows version, but it looks decidedly Mac, as you can see from the screenshots, so there’s no confusing what environment you’re working in. You can easily hide or show the ribbon, so it doesn’t get in the way of the presentation you’re working on. You can also customize it by rearranging tabs and changing commands, so there’s really no reason to dislike it unless you just prefer things not change.

Slide Layers Make Everything Easier

It’s hard for me to even convey how frustrating it is to manipulate the order of objects in past versions of PowerPoint, especially in presentations and slides where you’ve got a lot going on. I used to work at a company where we used PowerPoint as print publishing software, so that should give you some idea of how complicated layouts could get.

The new Reorder Objects tool in PowerPoint 2011 allows you to easily manipulate even the most complicated slides pretty easily. It looks like the new Windows 7 Flip 3D feature, fills your whole screen, and lets you click and drag layers to rearrange. No more hoping this is the last time you have to click “Send Backward.”

Media Manipulation

PowerPoint 2011 approaches the simplicity Keynote has in terms of adding media. You can use the Media Browser to drop photos, music and video in from various sources, including your iTunes, iPhoto and iMovie libraries. Even Aperture showed up in the source menu in my tests.

You can also edit stuff more easily — and with more options — from within the app. Doing basic retouching on photos is quite easy, and about on par with what you can do in iPhoto, only without having to leave the app. PowerPoint also has some other neat image editing functions, like the Remove Background tool I used to cut out Justin Long and John Hodgman in the screenshot below in about 30 seconds.

Better Cross-Platform Access and Collaboration

Working together with distributed teams is easier with the new PowerPoint, since you can collaborate wirelessly in real time, and communicate with each other via Live Messenger or Communicator. Plus, you can access and make changes to your presentations on the go with the PowerPoint web app. Finally, publishing your slide show to the web so that it’s viewable by others is a snap, and your audience doesn’t need to have the program to take part.

There are still some limitations to using PowerPoint 2011 on the Mac. You can’t access your presentations on the web from your iPhone’s or iPad’s browser, for example, and I still think presentations made in Keynote might look a little better, too.

Overall, that’s about all I have to say against PowerPoint 2011. Earlier today on Twitter I asked how many still used Office for Mac in some capacity, and was surprised to find that a lot of you still do. That Microsoft is delivering software at this level is great news for those users. If I was still in the business of regularly making presentations, this is definitely the tool I’d use to get the job done. In fact, it may just inspire me to include a slideshow the next time I give a talk.

Stay tuned to TheAppleBlog for coverage of what’s new in the rest of the Office 2011 suite, too.

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As with all Apple products, the unboxing of the Apple TV is a lesson in minimalism. It’s hard to imagine the tiny black square of plastic, hardly bigger than the gum-stick remote, bringing all your entertainment to your living room.

Installation and Setup

Compared to other set-top boxes, installing the new Apple TV exemplifies the “it just works” philosophy associated with Apple products, assuming you have an HDMI cable. Would it kill Apple to spend an extra 20 cents for an HDMI cable to ensure everyone can run it out of the box?

The Apple TV connects to the television (in my case a 60-inch 1080p plasma) using only an HDMI cable, so long as you have one. After that, just plug in the power cord. Here we see the first minor flaw in the new Apple TV. That power indicator light flashes, a lot. How that slipped past QA, I don’t know, but hopefully a firmware update will fix it. Until then, a spot of electrical tape will do.

Initially, you control the Apple TV with the included remote. However, if, like me, you have an Apple Remote kicking around that came with an old MacBook, and think the play/pause button in the center of the wheel was the pinnacle of design, you can use that, too. Owners of an iOS device will definitely want to upgrade to the Remote app, especially to ease the pain of text entry.

From the setup menu, you choose a language, and whether or not to send diagnostic and usage information to Apple. After that, you add the Apple TV to your Wi-Fi network, though Ethernet is also an option. Lastly, you turn on Home Sharing, both on the Apple TV and in iTunes 10 on every computer you want to access content from. It’s as simple as entering your iTunes ID and password.

It’s important to remember that if iTunes can’t import it, the Apple TV can’t share it. If you want .mkv video, you should be using VLC on a home theater PC. But if you’re looking for ease of use, well, I had the Apple TV up and running in about five minutes.

iTunes

Not surprisingly, the UI has big text for readability and navigation, but the layout could be better. Simplified from the previous iteration, it’s a little too simple, dumping a lot of different content into non-intuitive “Internet” and “Computers” categories. As the prominent placement of two of the five main menu options indicates, the iTunes Store kiosk in your living room is still open for business.

Performance of iTunes was amazing, at least on my connection, which runs in excess of 20Mbps down/0.5 Mbps up. The top movies display as icons, and my screen was filled almost instantly. If you want the virtual equivalent of walking the aisles at Blockbuster, you can browse by genre, or do a search, which is predictive and offers movies and related categories like actors and directors.

A selected movie offers a trailer, the quality and price of rental, an “Add to Wish List’ and a “more” option. The last provides reviews from Rotten Tomatoes and customers, as well as links to other works by the principal actors and creators of a film.

The Television section works similarly, though the dearth of content becomes obvious when browsing by network. There are nine “networks” subdivided out of four: Fox, ABC, BBC, and Disney. Choosing a title provides information on quality and viewing license, and paying for the rental is easy, though delivery is a little annoying. There’s no indication when a download has begun, though you’re notified when enough of the content is available to watch, which took less than a minute in my experience.

The 720p video quality was, in my opinion, very good, and only the extreme videophile should have something to complain about. Overall, the experience at the iTunes Store is excellent, but then Apple makes coin on this, so why expect anything less?

Netflix

The Netflix experience is likewise excellent. Unlike the iPad and iPhone app, which is little more than a wrapper for the web page, the Apple TV version of Netflix is tailored to the device. Just one example, the Netflix iPhone app doesn’t handle television well, allowing you only to play the next show in a season. The Apple TV, by contrast, provides a list of episodes for each season.

Netflix on the Apple TV provides a half-dozen ways to browse content, as well as search. It’s nicely laid out, and works well, though not as smoothly as the iTunes Store. Movie icons take longer to load, and there can be a slight pause when navigating some menu options as the Apple TV “Accesses Netflix.”

Playback, however, is good. It takes about ten seconds for a video to start, better for me than running Netflix on a Core Duo Mac mini. Video quality doesn’t seem quite as good as Apple TV rentals, but, again, nothing to complain about, which sadly, isn’t the case with local content.

Streaming Local Content

Curiously, Apple chose to sort local content for home sharing by the computer it resides on, rather than by content, as with the previous Apple TV interface. It’s annoying, and there’s no real reason for it, since a pool of all available content would be much more usable.

Once you select a computer, the familiar, if dated, Front Row/Apple TV interface is presented. On a good note, streaming performance has been excellent, despite my efforts to stress the local network. I’d planned on using Ethernet to connect the Mac mini to the Apple TV, rather than relying on the 802.11 b/g of the older computer, but there was no need. So far, access is quick and content streams without issue.

Unfortunately, some of the other aspects of the Apple TV could be better. While photos load quickly, home movies don’t show up at all, neither locally or from MobileMe. That’s seems odd, since the Gallery app for MobileMe does play movies on other iOS devices.

Like photos, music seems an afterthought on the new Apple TV. It works, and streaming sounds great, but the means of access seems quite basic. The rest of the content (YouTube, Radio, flickr, etc.) seems not to have changed much. It’s all quite functional, but nothing special.

While opening the Apple TV to the App Store might substantially change the purpose of the device, its focus now appears to be video. From presentation to delivery, you get the feeling that most of the work went into making the Apple TV a top-line, video streaming device. With AirPlay coming soon, it’ll be even better at video. In short, the Apple TV seems to have finally lived up to its name.

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Hardware

13” MacBook Pro: It was time to retire my cira-2006 WhiteBook and I chose the low-end Pro model. I debated upgrading to the higher-end 13” or the 15”, but, since I had a 500GB drive I would be transferring, I decided on the low-end model. It’s a fantastic machine I don’t want to picture life without. No regrets.

Logitech Wave Keyboard: I’ve never been a big fan of Apple’s keyboards. The clear white model feels too squishy, and the aluminum one feels too firm. I got the Logitech Wave on an impulse buy at BJs Warehouse one day and I like it. My only complaint is it’s not bluetooth, and with the laptop I’ve stopped using it because I don’t want to lose the dongle or tie up a USB port. No regrets.

OS X Software

Parallels Desktop 4.0 Upgrade: I hadn’t planned on getting this — version 3 was doing fine for me. However, at some point the Version 4 trial got my system in a state where I couldn’t easily downgrade from it and preserve my virtuals and I ended up saying, “screw it” and upgraded to 4.0. I still use it heavily as there are Windows apps I need to use. It gets used enough I’ll likely be upgrading to Version 5 next year. No regrets.

Things: I’m constantly struggling with managing my to-do list. Until I got Things, no system worked for me. I tried Moleskine notebooks, Google Tasks, Evernote, having my wife remind me, iCal alerts — you name it. I got Things because of its iPhone integration (more on that in the iPhone section) and I love it. I was the site lead for an ISO audit and it was incredibly helpful managing the project. No regrets.

The Sims 3: The Sims franchise and I go way back; I’ve played all of them. Once I got the new Macbook and could actually run games, I grabbed the Sims 3. Overall, I like it. I was hoping it’d let me run without the CD like Spore does, and that’s probably the biggest reason I don’t play it much — I thought it’d be a perfect on the train game, but I tend to forget to grab the CD. Slight regret, only because I don’t play it as much as I’d like.

LaunchBar 5: I had to upgrade when I went to Snow Leopard. I use this tool every day and still barely scratch the surface on its features. As an aside, check out ScreenCast Online’s excellent LaunchBar tutorials. No regrets.

iLife 09: Granted, it came with my new MacBook, but I had also purchased a license on my old laptop. I only really use iPhoto and it’s been a mixed bag. The Faces feature thought my wife was both a booth babe from E3 and a bearded game developer. I like the Flickr and Facebook exports, but I’m disappointed it doesn’t sync photos I’ve uploaded to non-iPhoto created sets. However, I like having a central photo storage that I can get to from any application (using the new Services in Snow Leopard).  Slight regret.

iWork 09: I’ve been waffling between iWork and Office for most of the year. Each have their advantages, but I’m finding how well iWork integrates with Snow Leopard’s Services has resulted in me using it more. Keynote simply rocks; I used it for every presentation I had to give this year. No regrets.

iPhone Apps

I started going through my iTunes receipts to give an accurate list of everything I bought … and rapidly decided that list was too long to bore you with, so instead I’m just going to mention the high and low points. There’s also a few I bought just because there was a great deal on them, so I’ll ignore them for now, too.

Games

Myst: I got this trying to relive my gaming youth. While it’s an amazing technical accomplishment — it’s the entire Myst game, right there on your iPhone — I’ve been disappointed; I just don’t think it scales down well to the iPhone screen. This one is a regret.

Flight Control: Holy cow, is this game addictive or what? Not only do I regret getting this game, I think my boss regrets me getting it too — when he got an iPhone and asked for a game recommendation, it was the immediate choice and we’re both infatuated with it. Seriously, though, no regrets.

Peggle: This is a game that’s hard to describe; it’s like an inverted version of Blockout merged with pinball. The idea is to make these colored blocks go away by aiming a canon of sorts at them. It’s a fun game, but my one big issue is being color blind, I have a hard time telling the difference between some of the blocks.

Productivity

Quickoffice and DocsToGo: I bought them in a hope that my iPhone would become a netbook of sorts, and it didn’t quite work out that way. It’s not a fault of either program (they are both good) but my own work habits. While it’s rare I’ll attempt to do work on these, the few times I’ve had to use them puts them in the no regrets column.

Things: I’ve covered this already, but the iPhone app is a perfect companion to the desktop; I tend to use the iPhone app more than the desktop version. I only have two complaints: I can’t define Areas of Responsibility on the iPhone, and the data sync doesn’t happen via the cloud, but they seem to be working on that.

Byline: I float between Byline and the Google Reader web app. I frequently use Byline more because it’s a stand-alone app and syncs very well with Google Reader. However, both of them expose a limitation of the iPhone OS that drives me nuts: because apps can’t talk to each other, I can’t “send to Evernote” as I can when viewing Reader in a traditional browser. No regrets.

Wooji Presentation Remote and Apple’s Keynote Remote: This was the year where I had to give a few presentations, and, being the geek that I am felt I needed an app on the iPhone to control Keynote. It was a disaster, Since it uses a Wi-Fi connection to the laptop the iPhone battery drained too fast and I felt myself looking down at the iPhone for my cues, falling into the dreaded “staring at the index cards” presentation method. I ended up going back to the Apple physical remote and using my Macbook and Keynote in presentation mode.

In 2008 it felt like I had more regrets than 2009. Perhaps that was a case of the App Store launching and just going nuts buying it, or this year I was more discerning about my purchases. How about you? What purchases did you make in 2009 you liked or regret?

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During the first three weeks of operation, the MicroCell was down form some period of time on nine separate days. Periods of outage lasted from 15 minutes to several hours, but were usually less than an hour. There was no discernible pattern, and for every instance but one the fix was: unplug, wait, plug back in.

The single outlier was a little more insidious. While my iPhone reported “five bars,” attempting to make a call would result in immediate failure. That episode required deactivating the MicroCell with AT&T, reinstalling it as if it were new equipment, and about three Zantac.

If this makes the MicroCell sound like a product not ready for sale to the general public, it’s not. Those paying $150 for a MicroCell in eligible cities are participating in a “public trial.” If one didn’t know they were a beta tester, the uncharacteristically helpful technical support gives it away.

Diagnosing my problem, it was suggested that updates to the firmware by AT&T may have been responsible. Of course, the MicroCell is supposed to reboot itself when the firmware is updated, but even a tech support placebo can make you feel better. It was also suggested that I try priority mode configuration, and that appears to actually have worked.

By switching the connection order of the MicroCell and wireless router, the MicroCell supposedly reserves sufficient bandwidth for voice and data at all times. Why it needs to carve out a 3G slice of bandwidth on a Wi-Fi network remains a mystery, but I’m not complaining. The outages stopped after changing the device setup. My initial fears concerning bandwidth throttling proved unrealized, or maybe a firmware update solved that, too. Either way, speed tests with and without the MicroCell connected have the same results.

While it appears that my hardware issues have been resolved, a longer look at call performance is not as positive as my initial assessment. To the MicroCell’s credit, it has yet to drop a call. Further, call quality to and from individuals remains generally very good, but, strangely, there are problems calling some businesses.

Maybe my MicroCell hates talking with people in India, but calls to and from toll-free numbers or businesses are often choppy. My observation is that phone numbers that aren’t point-to-point, one number to one number, are far more likely to break up. It may be anthropomorphic on my part, but it’s like the MicroCell hates being put on hold and transferred, but then who doesn’t?

Finally, I continue to be disappointed with the range of the device. AT&T says 5,000 square feet, but I say 50 squared, or about 50 feet in a straight line. That’s very close to being unacceptable for me, but being as Apple is still playing coy with Verizon, or vice versa, my options are limited. If yours are too, the AT&T 3G MicroCell remains a relatively pleasant cell on AT&T’s prison network.

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• Mac OS X 10.5: Resetting the SyncServices folder
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There are even more support articles around the web, although I think you get the picture. Let’s be clear, syncing any type of data is not trivial. Syncing multiple forms of data (contacts, calendar, bookmarks, etc.) is even less so.

If you use Sync Services and you don’t have issues, count yourself amongst one of the lucky few. If you use Sync Services and you have problems, then read on…

To cure your Sync Services woes, The folks at Spanning Sync recently released a great set of three applications called Spanning Tools. Here is what the package includes:

• Calendar Cleaner: resolves calender conflicts, duplicates, etc.
• Contacts Cleaner: resolves duplicate contacts, bad data with contacts and more.
• Sync Tune-Up: the big-kahuna tool. This one enables you to completely remove any bad Sync Services data and then start syncing with fresh (clean) data.

Where Sync Services gets crazy is when you begin using additional applications that leverage the functionality. Some of these applications include: MobileMe (AB, iCal, Safari, etc.), Microsoft Entourage, Daylite, Missing Sync, Google Contact Sync (from Address Book), Spanning Sync, BusySync, iSync phones and many, many more

What I like about this software suite is that it is focused. You have a specific toolset to resolve some potentially big data synchronization issues. What’s also great is that this suite of tools is very inexpensive – $20. Thus, for a nice crisp Mr. Jackson, you can own a complete toolset to ensure that your Sync Services data is kept clean, fresh, and consistent.

If you’re looking for a something sync-oriented to add to your utilities arsenal, then definitely head on over to the Spanning Tools site – you won’t regret it.

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The developers of iBank, the robust alternative to moribund Quicken for the Mac, have gone mobile with their latest product. With iBank Mobile for the iPhone and iPod touch you can bank on the go, but probably not go it alone.

To be fair, there is no perfect personal finance manager (PFM) in the App Store. There are standalone apps like the cryptically-named iXpenselt, and cloud apps like Mint and Quicken Online Mobile — which unbelievably does not sync to Quicken for the Mac or PC.

Synchronization with the desktop is where iBank Mobile comes in. Certainly, it was a much improved experience over using it as a standalone application. Creating fake accounts, transactions, and categories using iBank Mobile for the purpose of review was incredibly time consuming. Having said that, once iBank Mobile is up and running, it follows the money pretty well.

Accounts

Left, the Home screen provides an overview of accounts and access to the spartan control scheme: Home, Spending, Settings, Sync, and New Transaction. The Spending screen shows categories and activity. Drilling down from Spending lists transactions sorted by category, each transaction selectable for details. Transactions can also be accessed by account.

The interface is straightforward and useable to this point, with one minor complaint. Accounts can only be sorted alphabetically, though they can be grouped in two lists: Primary and Other.

There is also an issue regarding general performance, at least on an iPhone 3G. Upon first accessing accounts, totals may appear as “calculating” until iBank Mobile catches up. Scrolling through transactions is a little sluggish, too.

Transactions

Creating a transaction is a guided process: Account → Transaction Type & Amount → Payee → Categories & Memo. Payee editing benefits from autocompletion, which is great, but lack of a “back” button through every step of the transaction process is not so great.

Split transactions work well, especially if you already have a list of categories, as there is no autocompletion here: select or create. Categories are best derived from the desktop software, which underscores an important point. Whether using iBank Mobile is a chore or a pleasure really comes down to whether or not you use iBank for the Mac. Syncing is where iBank shines.

Synchronization

Even if you don’t plan on syncing with iBank, the passcode option protects your transaction data on the iPhone, while encryption is used during syncing. As for syncing itself, it just works. Via Wi-Fi, MobileMe, or WebDAV, setup is simple. Syncing more than 5,000 transactions took about five minutes, while normal syncing after setup takes seconds.

Summing Up: Bronze Award

As a standalone application, iBank Mobile is rather spartan; no online options, no bill calendar, no charts, no budgeting, just transactions and spending. According to the developers, customer feedback will be a driving force in updates, though direct download of transactions from financial institutions is a priority. For now, I don’t recommend iBank Mobile as a standalone PFM, but then I don’t recommend any standalone PFM application for the iPhone and iPod touch. However, I do recommend iBank Mobile as complement to the desktop product.

The value in iBank Mobile is tracking where your money goes as you spend it over time, like cash from an ATM withdrawal. That information then easily integrates into iBank for the Mac through the excellent syncing options. What you do with that information is up to you, but the first rule of personal finance is knowing where the money goes, and iBank Mobile makes that possible wherever you are.

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I think I may have achieved a grasp of Gameloft’s concept design strategy for their iPhone catalog. It seems to have something to do with being “inspired” by titles and franchises that are already wildly successful. You can’t help but see the similarity between Hero of Sparta and God of War (even syntactically). Likewise, with Rise of Lost Empires ($4.99, iTunes link), their new real-time strategy game for the platform, which resembles a certain other title in which humans and orcs do battle strategically.

Don’t get me wrong, Gameloft’s “inspiration” strategy is not something I’m against. It has resulted in some very fun games to date, and Rise of Lost Empires is, hopefully, just one more opportunity for them to get iPhone gaming right with yet another lovely homage. If the original dev studios aren’t bringing the platform any love, I’d rather Gameloft did than no one at all.

RTS On a Phone?

Once upon a time, I was a devout real-time strategy fan; Warcraft, Starcraft, Command & Conquer, Age of Empires, and so on. I like that they’re generally easy to grasp, but become very challenging very quickly. I also like building and resource management, which is something very few other types of games offer.

But on a phone? A touchscreen phone, no less? I used to play Warfare, Inc. on my Palm pilot back in the day, and the iPhone port was fairly successful, but in general, good RTS games require a depth which doesn’t seem to fit with the iPhone’s casual vibe.

Surprisingly, I found Rise of Lost Empire’s controls to be very intuitive and easy to use. Whether or not depth of play is sacrificed on the portable platform is another story.

Graphics & Audio

Rise of Lost Empire doesn’t look bad, but it doesn’t look amazing, either. The isometric perspective works very well for buildings and structures, but characters and sprites look a little generic and lazy, in my opinion. It all adds up to give the game sort of a retro/RTS traditionalist vibe, which is not a bad thing.

Audio is pretty good. Characters even have recorded vocal snippets for when you click on them, order them to do things, etc. I really appreciate that opposing factions have different death cries so that I can keep track of what’s going on, even if I’m not watching the action at the moment.

What surprised me about the game’s graphics was that even though I’m playing this on a 3GS, occasionally there is actual lag when the action gets intense. It only happens when there’s an inordinately large number of sprites sharing the screen at the same time, but considering how fast the game boots and loads, it still came as quite a shock.

Gameplay

Gameplay is where Rise really falls for me, and unfortunately it’s the most important category of all. I give credit to Gameloft for trying to find the right balance between gameplay depth and ease-of-use, given the platform, but I find that they don’t quite find the right mix. In fact, they may miss the mark on both counts.

The game takes resource gathering out of the equation, having revenue come in automatically from your home castle, and any farms you build. It takes the problem of commanding grunts or peons off your hands, but that’s an integral part of the RTS experience, and as a result Rise feels more like a shallow RPG (thanks to Hero leveling).

Finally, the difficulty seems manageable enough, but level design leads to massive gaps in how achievable a particular goal is. Castle defense against waves of enemies seems unmanageable, while simple attack-and-destroy missions require little more than a quick trigger on your hero’s “Heal” ability and a small group of tightly clustered soldiers.

Verdict

Lag issues and questionable difficulty scaling mar an otherwise nicely put-together iPhone RTS in Rise of Lost Empires. In other words, unless you have a really bad RTS itch, and you need to scratch it with an iPhone offering while you wait for Starcraft II to come out, you might want to skip this particular Gameloft offering. Try out the free version (iTunes link) before you go coughing up any cash, at least.

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I was not terribly impressed with The Sims 3 for iPhone, but as I said in my review, it did whet my appetite for the Mac desktop version of the game. So much so that I went out yesterday afternoon to pick it up. Best Buy was all out of the collector’s edition, but I wasn’t committed to the idea of carrying around a Plumbob USB drive anyway, so I picked up the regular copy for $49.95 and got to playing god.

And play it I did. I played for nine straight hours yesterday, and another few today, eating in a hurried frenzy only when my Sim was sleeping. All for you…a truly selfless act. Here’s what I found as a result of my living-by-proxy marathon.

Graphics

The Sims 3 definitely looks better than its predecessors. Objects and sims are more detailed, textures are smoother, and animations are better looking. The real difference with regards to graphics, however, doesn’t have to do with any landmark improvements in the basics (there aren’t any astounding changes), but rather with the way the world as a whole is set up.

Nice, interactive vistas

The Sims experience has always been primarily compartmentalized, with your house being one location, and social settings and the houses of others being entirely different, closed-off modules. In The Sims 3, the walls between modules are largely taken down. If you zoom out, and pan, you can see and interact with your neighbors’ houses, parks, and community buildings, and even the ocean.

Clicking on objects that you can see results in actions being made available, without ever having to exit out to a town map. The town map is still available, though, in case you want more simple navigation across greater distances.

Visually, the open world makes The Sims 3 look and feel much more like the life simulator it’s meant to be, and it’s one of the biggest reasons to upgrade from The Sims 2, in my opinion.

My test machine was an iMac with 4GBs of RAM running an ATI Radeon 2600HD graphics card. The game should run fine any any computer using the new NVIDIA cards, too.

Sound

Simish is back in full force, and it sounds just as silly as ever. They seem to say “zune” a lot more frequently than most other words, so either that’s the sim version of “the” or Microsoft’s done some very keen product placement.

Sweatin' to the oldies

Music is well done again in The Sims 3, with a decent variety of tracks available for your stereo systems, and some genuinely pleasant sounds coming from your sim’s guitar if you build up their Music ability.

Other ambient sounds are all fine, although it does seem at times like the game is far too quiet considering everything that’s going on. I suppose finding a nice balance between too noisy and too quietly for a life simulator like this would be quite the challenge, and it’s the type of game that you like to have something else on while playing anyway.

Gameplay

Let’s take a look at a few different aspects of gameplay within the new Sims.

Work

As in real life, I generally prefer to keep my options open and succeed as a Sims freelancer by selling paintings, working as a writer, and, new in Sims 3, selling the fish that I catch. The last one is not one that I actually do in real life, in case you were wondering. No good fishing spots in Toronto, is the problem.

For the sake of this review, I decided to pursue a career in rock stardom to see what sticking to the more conventional professional pursuits available in the game was like.

As in previous games, in order to earn promotions in your chosen field, you have to build up your skills and keep your mood elevated. Depending on what you do, you also might have to strive to get along well with your co-workers, and in The Sims 3, you actually know which fellow sim is your boss, and you can butter them up.

I found career building not quite as challenging as in previous versions, which is good because other aspects of the game are now much more rich and deserving of attention. Also, I tend to forget that your sims now have a limited lifespan (since Sims 2), so the pacing is actually entirely appropriate. Currently, I’m a pop star, but I’m approaching retirement age, so I’m not sure I’ll reach the top of my career ladder.

This is where I rock sold out crowds

Work is much more interesting than in past games because you can influence your performance by changing how you are working. A context menu attached to the task in the upper right-hand corner of the screen lets you choose between a variety of different ways of working, including working hard and slacking off, which affect your mood and job performance. This is a huge improvement over the hours of doing nothing in previous versions.

Play

There’s so much for your sims to do in their spare time in this game that it hardly feels like they have any. As mentioned above, you can go fishing, and check out various other activities in town. You can also grow your own food by gardening, and paint as in prior installments.

Frankly, I didn’t find time to do much in town, though the options are numerous. In-town activities also include random events like sales, concerts (both performing and attending), and chess competitions. I actually ended up trying to find mood modifying cheats so that I could enjoy them all, but no such luck.

Life in General

Overall, the experience is just far more rich and detailed than in previous versions. They’ve taken out some things that were annoying, and added some that are much more fun, so it doesn’t feel too cluttered. That said, I think trying to further detail day-to-day affairs would really hamper my enjoyment of the franchise. As it is, it feels like too much to do, too little time, which is exactly the opposite of the iPhone version.

Me playing a computer game in the computer game I'm playing

Verdict

If you like the previous Sims games, you definitely won’t be disappointed with Sims 3. Some things have been taken out, but better things have been added, resulting in a much more enjoyable experience overall. This is a must-have for Mac gamers.

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It arrived shortly after midnight on Tuesday, the same day as the release of the desktop version, and I was all over it. “Pumped” would probably be the best way to describe me at 12:45 a.m. on Tuesday morning as my iPhone was syncing with my Mac mini and the Sims 3 ($9.99, iTunes link) was being installed.

I only briefly tested the game last night, but today, I spent many an hour becoming well acquainted with EA’s latest offering for Apple’s mobile platform. So much so that I was tempted to run out and buy The Sims 3 right away. In some circles, they call that a “starter drug.”

But does The Sims 3 for iPhone hold up as a game in its own right? After playing for several hours, and looking at all aspects of the stripped-down portable version, I think I can finally answer that question.

Graphics

The Sims 2 was quite the graphics pig by Mac standards. I remember being able to run it on my black polycarbonate MacBook, but just barely, and it definitely wasn’t a pleasurable experience. Sims 3 for iPhone acknowledges the limits of the platform, but still gives you a look and feel that is true to The Sims franchise.

One of the limitations of the portable version is a significantly reduced character customization engine. People generally look similar, but at the resolution the game is rendered at, it isn’t that big of a deal. You can still get a character to more or less resemble yourself, so long as you’re fairly average-looking.

There are some clipping issues in the game where there shouldn’t be, and the isometric perspective and camera controls sometimes make it annoying to perform certain actions and interact with other Sims. Some graphics (the fish, specifically) are just re-colored to cut corners, which I find a little sloppy in a game of this caliber. By and large, though, graphics issues are minor and not cause for serious complaint.

Sound

Music is typically Sims-ish (light, whimsical), but is only really active when you change locations/activities. It fades out pretty quickly, and then you’re left with absolute silence (no sound effects, either). Buying a stereo allows you to play Sim-ish music, and hear that now-familiar nonsense language, but it quickly becomes grating, in my opinion. Sound is definitely not this game’s strongest suit.

Control

Generally, controls work the way you’d expect them to on a touch-sensitive Apple device. You tap things you want to interact with, which brings up a menu of options from which to select. Some menus have sub-menus, and some are can be scrolled through in order to access more options (took me a little while to figure this out). But they’re relatively simple, which is a smart move considering the platform.

Camera controls are also fairly straightforward. Slide your finger around the screen to pan the camera, and use a visual slider on the right-hand side of the display to zoom in and out. To rotate the view, you touch with two fingers and move your fingers clockwise or counter-clockwise accordingly. Pinch-zooming seems like it would’ve been a perfect fit, but it’s possible developers decided against it due to interference with camera rotation.

Mini-game controls leave something to be desired. While cooking, you have to tap on boiling pots to select and raise them, then shake your iPhone to cool down the pot you’re holding. The game is incredibly easy, but such fidgety controls and odd positioning make it a little frustrating at times.

Gameplay

Your main task in The Sims 3 is to keep your Sim happy, hale, and hearty. This goal is a lot easier to achieve than it is in the desktop version, having presumably been tuned down to accommodate the more casual mobile platform of the iPhone and iPod touch.

To give you an idea of how easy it is, by the end of the first weekend (I started my job at City Hall on a Thursday), I was Vice President, romantically involved with my boss, and friends with everyone in town. Shortly after that, I married another woman, and upgraded my house. At no point did my satisfaction meter dip below “Very Happy.”

There are some interesting new elements for veteran players thanks to mini-games like cooking, repairing things and fishing. I’ve described the cooking game above. To repair an object, for example, you have to swap out broken parts for good ones on a circuit board before the timer runs out.

Fishing, for me, is probably one of my favorite aspects of the game. To do it, you buy a Fishing Kit at the hobby shop, visit the lake in the middle of town, and tap on a Fishing Spot action icon. You can catch a few different kinds of fish, all of which carry a different value at the town’s store. I quickly mastered the fishing skill, and it then became a very profitable hobby. Much more profitable than my day job as Vice President, in fact. Fishing bought me an upgraded house, a big-screen TV and a fancy new bed, all in one day.

Verdict

Depending on what you’re expecting, you might want to pass on The Sims 3 for the iPhone. It starts out as a fun, addictive little game, but it quickly becomes boring and repetitive. And the speed with which you accomplish goals results in little satisfaction when you do well. EA may have wanted to dial down the difficulty to accommodate casual players, but even the most casual of players will find this far too easy, I fear.

That doesn’t mean all hope is lost. It’s still a Sims game, and as such, I’ll probably keep going back to it just to accumulate enough cash to buy all the nicest furniture available. Also, the demo at the initial iPhone 3.0 event and some in-game clues (the Pawn Shop, for instance, which isn’t yet open for business), leads me to believe that EA has much more planned for The Sims 3.0 following the release of 3.0.

For now, save your money for something more important. Like The Sims 3 for Mac.

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As a general rule, racing games tend to leave me cold. My brother is the car buff and racing fan. I’ve enjoyed a few, like Gran Turismo, but I tend to give them a pass. Need for Speed Underground for the PS2 was another exception to the rule, mostly because of the RPG-type elements of customizing and upgrading your car, rather than the racing elements themselves. Oh, and I loved Mario Kart, but that doesn’t really apply here (Nintendo will probably never allow that dream to come true).

Need for Speed: Undercover, one of EA’s big iPhone releases for 2009, recently went live in the App Store, and I spent this past weekend being a hot shot street-racer. Well, a pretend hot shot, anyway. Those familiar with 2001′s The Fast and The Furious will recognize the plot basics in Need for Speed: Undercover. You’re an undercover (surprise!) cop, who’s trying to infiltrate the street racing world to recover some important stolen cars and/or arrest people. The story wasn’t exactly gripping enough for me to pay close attention to.

Graphics

Developer EA took a cue from the Command & Conquer series in NFS: Undercover and decided to go with live-action cuts cenes instead of CG. That means cheesy acting seems even more cheesy, but it also means they hired a bunch of hot female actresses to trot around looking sexy for no good reason. Actually maybe that’s the reason I couldn’t follow the plot.

In-game graphics are pretty good, although I found that your car looks a lot better in the garage than it does on most of the tracks, depending on the lighting conditions. Maybe it has something to do with the custom paint job I applied to my ride, but it looked off in most of the races, though perfect in the shop. Other than that, the in-game tracks and other vehicles actually look very good on the iPhone’s small screen, and there is no noticeable lag or slowdown, even when you’re going at top speed or using your nitrous boost.

I’m a huge fan of collision damage on car models in racing games, and unfortunately, NFS: Undercover is missing those. Maybe it’s too much to ask for in an iPhone racing game, though. Other graphic effects, like when you enter slow-down precision steering mode, or when you trash an opponent car or encounter police cruisers, work well but can become annoying if you have to replay a level a number of times. An option to turn off at least the cruiser-spotting effects would be a nice addition.

Audio

Sound was a bit hit or miss for me, but my experience may not be representative. First, I thought it was odd that there was no music during the intro/opening. But then things were working fine for cinematics, so I assumed it was just a choice the devs made. When there was nothing playing in-game, I started to worry (before you ask, I installed from iTunes and reset prior to playing, so it shouldn’t have been install issues). Eventually, the audio did start working.

When it did, I sort of regretted that it had. The soundtrack is OK, but very limited, and hearing the same songs over and over quickly gets tiring. You can always opt to listen to your own iPhone music, though, making this sort of a non-issue. Although I think developers taking shortcuts on game soundtracks for the iPhone just because it has a music player built-in is a pretty lame cop-out.

Gameplay

NFS: Undercover is very reminiscent of Underground when it comes to gameplay, and that’s a good thing. You start off with $25,000 and three cars to choose from. Once you’ve made your purchase, you get down to racing. There are a variety of types of races, including Battle, Sprint, Hot Car and Takeout, so even players who don’t like the repetition of most racing games shouldn’t find this one too redundant.

Winning races wins you money, which you can then use to purchase new cars, or to outfit your current ride with performance and aesthetic upgrades. A new paint job, lowered suspension, huge shiny rims, and a lot more are available, with different custom equipment for each car. There’s also tons of cars to unlock, so you won’t lack for motivation, even when some of the races are a lot more challenging than most and have to be replayed over and over. If you ever get stuck, you can go back and re-run old races to build your bank and buy upgrades and/or better cars.

Car control during races is kept simple, which is ideal for the platform. Your engine is going full speed by default, and tapping the screen anywhere will apply your break. Swiping down enters the slowed-down improved control mode, and swiping up activates your nitrous. You turn by tilting your phone in either direction, and doing so with a quick jerk will let you drift around corners. I find that I never use the slow-mo mode, though other might find it handy. In general, handling is good, and doesn’t feel either too sensitive or too loose.

Verdict

Despite not really being interested in the import car racing scene, or racing games in general, I really like Need for Speed: Undercover. It has good replay value, lots of unlockables, and customization that amounts to a leveling system. If you’ve passed on every other racing game for the iPhone and iPod Touch to date, this may be the one to get.

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There was a time in distant memory when Twitterific was my iPhone Twitter client of choice. I loved it, too. The look, the function, the icon, everything was great.

Over time, my Twitter usage changed, and Twitterific was no longer meeting my needs. So, when Tweetie came on the scene and provided a lot of the features I was missing (built-in Twitter search, follow/unfollow abilities, easy account switching), I followed Olly’s advice and jumped ship. I haven’t looked back since.

Twitterific (iTunes link) today gave me a reason to look back, since their 2.0 update has gone live in the App Store. The new version brings all kinds of great new features, like follow/unfollow, full profile view, threaded conversations displayed on their own page, integrated Twitter search and trending topics, and a nice UI overhaul. Basically, it brings everything it was missing to the table, making it a much better client for heavy/advanced Twitter users, especially if you manage multiple accounts.

Honestly, I’m a creature of habit, and I wasn’t expecting Twitterific to be able to woo me away from Tweetie at this point. After spending only a couple of minutes with the new software, however, I’m not so sure I’ll be able to resist changing horses. Twitterific is (and always has been) graphically beautiful. Tweetie is no slouch when it comes to looks either, of course, but in my opinion, it doesn’t hold a candle to the gorgeous Twitterific interface that Craig Hockenberry and the Iconfactory team have come up with.

With the 2.0 update, Twitterific no longer sacrifices any features or function in exchange for its good looks. The new “Sources” menu is a great way to organize multiple accounts, access the public timeline, perform a search, or see trending topics. You can also create and save your own custom searches, and then they’ll show up as Sources in this menu, so you don’t have to go to another page. The one-stop shopping approach is better even than Tweetie’s implementation of the same features. When I’m away from the computer, I really miss the multicolumn/window layout of programs like Tweetie for the Mac, Nambu, and TweetDeck, but Twitterific’s Sources page goes a long way to making me feel more at home with a mobile client.

They’ve also done a good job with mentions, DMs, and favorites by hiding them all in a filters menu indicated by a funnel-shaped icon. It provides quick access to everything, including their own “Marked tweets” feature which allows you to save Tweets for later without actually making them a favorite. The only complaint I have with the bottom menu is the asterisk icon for contextual actions when tweets are selected, since it doesn’t intuitively seem like the place I would look for re-posting, etc. The features offered within that menu are excellent, and include threaded conversation viewing, emailing, searching @author, and viewing the author profile.

Even though I never considered it before, I’m probably going to pay up for the full version of Twitterific Premium ($3.99, iTunes link) thanks to this update. Sure, the ads don’t really detract much from the user experience with the free version, but it’s such a polished, well put-together piece of software that I genuinely feel like rewarding the devs directly for their efforts. Cheers to Iconfactory for really taking the time to make this update an awesome contender for the iPhone Twitter crown. Pay attention, Tweetie, because the glove’s now been dropped. And when your competition offers a free, ad-supported version, that’s not something you can take lightly.

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Graphics

The game looks good on the iPhone, about as good as it does on the DS, judging from the screenshots I’ve seen online. Going from dual to single screen means that some game elements change, but it never felt like I was missing out on anything by not having the second display. Gameloft throws in a video introduction which is gorgeous, with gameplay footage taken from the PS3/Xbox 360 installment of the series. It might mislead people not familiar with the graphics limitations of the platform, but it’s not a big deal.

In-game CG video segments are just plain bizarre, though. Often I had trouble figuring out what was going on, and they’re shown in little frames in the center of the screen, making them very, very small. Also, during non-playable interactions using the actual sprites, character movement was often improperly synced with voice-over audio, which just seems unprofessional in a title of this caliber from this particular developer. I also think that some video segments just plain didn’t play, because there were times when I had no idea how I got to be where I was.

Still, minor issues aside, it’s a good-looking game, and gameplay only slowed a couple of times — pretty much on par with Hero of Sparta, or Gun for the PSP.

Audio

Despite sync issues, and problems with the game’s writing and storyline, voice-over work was actually pretty impressive in Altair’s Chronicles. The audio quality of the voice tracks is great, and the acting isn’t terrible. There seem to be a lot of arbitrary differences between what characters actually say and what the subtitles think they’re saying, but it’s more amusing than anything else.

Soundtrack and sound effects are both done well. I especially appreciate the sound that indicates a special action button is available, because I’d miss it without the auditory cue most of the time. My largish thumb generally obscures that part of the screen.

Gameplay

I actually haven’t played Assassin’s Creed for either the PS3 or the Xbox, so my impression of the gameplay here won’t be comparative with that title, which I don’t think is fair anyways, considering the disparity between the platforms. The most important factor for gameplay on the iPhone/iPod Touch, for me, are controls. In this case, Gameloft stuck with the formula that worked for them in Hero of Sparta and Brothers in Arms: Hour of Heroes. That means you control movement via an on-screen D-pad, and jump/attack/perform actions with buttons on the right side of the screen. The difference is that where those games were primarily action-oriented, Altair’s Chronicles is very much a platformer.

It works well enough, although there were a few very frustrating moments when it seemed like bad camera angles and awkward controls combined to make simple tasks infuriatingly difficult. In fact, that probably helps explain why Gameloft peppered in Checkpoints with such frequency. It almost makes frustrating control experiences seem like challenging gameplay. Almost, but not quite.

Even so, I did finish the game the same day I started playing it (albeit on “Easy”), so the control issues weren’t enough to make me give up altogether (although I did have to take a couple extended, frustration-based breaks). The game is thoroughly playable, and some of the mini-games, like picking people’s pockets or interrogating people, are perfectly suited to the iPhone platform.

Verdict

If you liked Hero of Sparta, and/or Brothers in Arms for the iPhone and iPod Touch, you’ll probably also enjoy Assassin’s Creed: Altair’s Chronicles. Don’t go looking for a great and illuminating story line, however, since it seems like a broken and hastily cobbled together prequel at best. Also, be ready to wish you had a physical D-pad, which for me is just part of the iPhone gaming territory at this point, and a trade-off I’m willing to make for some more traditional platform gaming from time-to-time.

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Well, it did. Enough of one to warrant a rejection of the update by Apple. And this isn’t the first time the iPhone-likeness has gotten a developer in trouble, either. Pocket God, which owes its popularity at least in part to the weekly content updates from developer Bolt Creative, was also blocked at the beginning of April for similar reasons. Obviously, this was more than a minor inconvenience since it completely threw off Bolt Creative’s update schedule, which is the main selling point of their app.

Apple didn’t point out exactly what had caused the rejection in the case of Pocket God, but it did refer to the use of copyrighted images. Bolt eventually decided that it must’ve been an image resembling an iPhone that they’d introduced in an options screen, but Apple didn’t just identify the offending graphic right away, which would’ve been too easy.

I haven’t seen the image Pocket God used that caused their rejection, but Instapaper developer Marco Arment has posted screenshots of the icon that he used to inspire Apple’s wrath. It’s exactly the same as one used for FileMagnet, another (approved) iPhone app currently available. I’m sure the icon is identical because Arment got it from Joshua Keay, the guy who designed it for FileMagnet in the first place.

The problem then appears to be one of consistency. Depending on who’s looking at your app, and on what day, you may garner a rejection when on any other day, you’d slip through unnoticed. Whatever standards Apple has adopted in-house as the criteria for rejection, they obviously need to be looked at again to establish better, less ambiguous, and more consistent standards. As they stand, it must be like asking three different people to draw a house, and getting three completely different images back. The task for Apple is then to pre-determine the nature of the house so that they get consistent results back when they ask different people to go out and draw the same one.

At this point, Apple can’t really get by on the assumption that these are growing pains with the app review process. This kind of multiple standard really undermines the fairness of the app store, especially when the only thing at issue is the use of an image that resembles the device the app is being sold for. If you want to maintain your tyrannic control over apps, at least show us you’re a just and consistent tyrant.

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Initially the two actually appear to have very little in common. Yahoo is more of a fully featured portal than Google’s search-focused application. To begin with, when the app launches, you get a screen with a search bar at the top, but also a list of feature stories from Yahoo.com, including summaries, and pictures, when available. There’s also a list of popular search topics, which depressingly included “ShamWow” when I was writing this up. Depending on what your goal is, this might be more or less useful than Google’s straightforward search bar/search history home page.

Continuing the trend of acting as a more broadly focused news and information application, Y! News is the next available menu item in the app’s navigation bar. There’s a featured story, and then a number of others broken down by category. It’s a fairly nice feature, and it uses your phone’s location to determine what kind of regional and national content should be shown. The content is well formatted for easy reading using the built-in article viewer, too.

The “My Interests” page is also pretty handy. You can add various types of feeds here, including weather, stock alerts, RSS feeds, and more. Basically, it allows you to build your own iGoogle-type all-in-one home page. It could actually replace a standalone RSS reader.

“Connect” offers a full-service social media aggregator, with integration for popular web mail services (Gmail and Windows Live Hotmail included, and Yahoo Mail of course), and Yahoo Calendar. All of the major social media networks are supported, including Facebook and Twitter. Once you’ve added your accounts, you can view updates from all your networks in the “Social Pulse” stream. In all cases, social network contact images can be used for your own Yahoo address book contacts.

There’s more, like direct in-app access to Yahoo Messenger, but you can check that stuff out on your own. Suffice it to say, Yahoo is trying something different with their mobile app, rather than competing directly with Google. If you’re looking for an all-in-one solution that doesn’t necessarily go in-depth in any one particular area, this might be a good solution. In theory, it clears four or five apps off your home screen, and I’m always a fan of decreasing app clutter.

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It’s still the only Mega Man game I’ve ever actually played through to completion, and it’s still a cult favorite among fans, and now it’s available for the iPhone and iPod touch. I’m talking about Mega Man II (iTunes Link), Blue Boy’s second adventure, originally released for the NES in 1989. Obviously, I had to download it as soon as I spotted it. And at $4.99, it’s not going to break the bank, either.

I’m only slightly ashamed to admit that I’ve already purchased the mobile version of Mega Man II for a my old LG Shine dumbphone. Capcom Mobile seems to have basically ported that version over to the iPhone platform, though they’ve implemented some device-specific changes, like the control interface.

Speaking of which, I’m afraid the controls feel rather clunky overall. You get an onscreen joystick and “R” and “L” buttons, which control jumping and shooting, respectively. For my largish digits, the interface feels cramped and even getting Mega Man pointed in the right direction is at times challenging. That said, I breezed through Flash Man’s level, and only really felt the control limitations when I got to the boss battle, which I still managed to win without much trouble.

I probably managed the victory because the game has had its difficulty rebalanced for the iPhone port. Enemies are easier to kill, you take less damage, and you can jump higher and further than on the original console version. That might not please the more traditionalist gamers in the crowd, but in my opinion it renders the game playable, whereas it would not be with the game’s original balance left intact. Metal Man felt pretty quick as well, but I was playing on easy, so higher difficulty levels probably offer more of a challenge.

Game saving isn’t exactly perfect, since exiting doesn’t save your state, but it does at least remember which bosses you’ve cleared automatically. Just choose “Continue” after you’ve selected “Start” from the main menu, and your stage cleared status will be restored.

There are a few caveats you should be aware of before you go buying this game. You will become frustrated with the controls, and the screen size used for the actual gameplay portion of the app might have you squinting to see what exactly is going on. Despite those failings, the game is very playable, barring some big headaches when jump-or-die platforming comes into play. Just like the version I had on my dumbphone, however, I predict Mega Man II for iPhone will prove amply distracting on those long subway and bus rides.

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