If you’re into bike-sharing, Spotcycle is an app that will help you find bikes closest to you to rent and show you the closest place to return your rental. The app won’t work everywhere, but it will work in a lot of places: eight countries and two dozen U.S. cities so far. The bikes tracked on Spotcycle are usually part of local public bike-sharing programs; they require memberships, but anyone can sign up.

AllTrails is basically Yelp for trails: it’s a location-based trail guide that will help you find a trail closest to you that fits your preferences. You can search by type of activity — running, hiking, riding, snowshoeing, rowing, and more — as well as by kid-friendliness and wheelchair accessibility. It also packs a ton of user reviews and tips for those who’ve experienced the trails before.

And once you’ve found your bike or trail, WalkTracker Pro is a great app you can use to track the distance you cover and the calories you burn.

The video below will walk you through each app:

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All Gojee needs to know is what staples or ingredients you have on hand, what meal or category of food you’d like to cook, and anything you absolutely won’t or can’t eat. Once this information is plugged in, Gojee produces not just recipes, but beautiful photos of food for users to swipe through and get inspired for an upcoming meal.

After being recommended to me by one of my colleagues, Gojee has been my go-to cooking app for several months. These days, I end up preparing at least two meals per week with this app and have rarely made the same thing twice, thanks to the sheer variety of food blogs it pulls recipes from. I think it could be a good fit for anyone, no matter their skill in the kitchen.

Here’s a quick tour of Gojee’s food recommendation app.

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We’re kicking things off with an app that’s part of a category very near to my heart: travel. This week I take you on a quick trip with Triposo, a free app for the iPhone. It’s a location-based app that has travel guides available for 8,000 locations around the world. I tried out Triposo during a recent weekend excursion. Here’s what I found.

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Desktube, which was released as a free app on the Android Market earlier this month, has a simple premise: It wants to become your Android tablet and phone’s default YouTube player, by being somewhat of a Swiss Army Knife for the Google-owned video site. Today, YouTube’s own Android app comes with limited features, and browsing a web site while on the go isn’t always the best experience. Desktube wants to fill the gap with features like the aforementioned response functionality, as well as access to some other of YouTube’s more advanced features.

Desktube also offers a dedicated group viewing mode for people within the same network. I wasn’t able to test this, but a company spokesperson made it sound by email like this could be lots of fun in dorms or during an office lunch break:

“Group Experience works when two or more users have desktube running while on the same network. When available you can tap to join in. Once you’re connected, all users are in control of what’s playing and everyone watches the same thing… You’re taken to video the group is watching at approximately the same time in the video. This uses peer-to-peer on the local network.”

I was also told that Desktube is working on some advanced social integration, and that an iOS version of the app is coming soon. The company has also released an Adobe Air-based desktop player for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux, but it comes with fewer features than the mobile version.

The Android version is already accessing some of the more experimental YouTube feeds to surface relevant and trending content that haven’t made it into YouTube’s official app yet, and the company told me that it wants to continue to push the envelope: “We get a chance to innovate on top of a robust platform even if the outcome doesn’t support YouTube’s overall goals as a business, which in the end is better for the users.”

Now, the question is: Would I replace my default YouTube app with Desktube? To be honest, probably not. Desktube looks a little too cluttered for its own good right now, and I’m not all that inclined to record video responses. However, anything that keeps YouTube’s mobile app developers on their feet is a good thing — and avid YouTubers may get a lot more use out of Desktube than I do.

Take a look at a few screenshots of the app below:

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Even though services like Skype, Gtalk, Yahoo, AOL, Twitter and Facebook make it possible to instant or direct message just about anyone online these days, some folks still swear by Internet Relay Chat (IRC). In fact, for many die-hard geeks and software development teams, IRC is the only way to fly.

There are plenty of Web-based and standalone apps that let you join IRC chat rooms (or, channels, as they’re typically called) from your desktop computer, but once you go mobile, your options dwindle. Colloquy, one of the most popular open-source IRC clients for the Mac, now has a spiffy new version for the iPhone that lets you stay connected in-channel while you’re on the road.

Once installed, Colloquy sets up easily in minutes. To add an IRC network to your preferred list, simply supply its address and your identity information. You can choose to automatically connect to the server and even individual rooms at launch.

It’s easy to remove networks from your list if you decide you no longer want to visit them.

Colloquy runs in the background to track conversations and tells you at a glance where the action is. It also alerts you when someone in the channels you’ve joined uses your nickname or keywords you’ve pre-designated.

Channel conversations are streamlined thanks to nickname and emoticon completion popups and support for all the common IRC commands you’re used to using with computer-based IRC clients.

Colloquy for the iPhone has a number of other useful features including support for landscape mode, a searchable room member list, and secure connections over SSL. Clicked links open with the built-in browser, and Colloquy even stays connected when you lock your phone.

If you use IRC for online communication, then Colloquy for the iPhone’s $1.99 price tag is well worth it. The app is easy to use, even for a novice, and has a great user-community that can help you get started or answer any questions that arise. Once you have the app up and running, be sure to come by TheAppleBlog’s IRC channel and say hi.

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

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

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

Talk First, Shoot Later

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

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

Tilt ‘n’ Tote

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

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

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

Summing Up: Rotten Apple Award

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

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

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Doom Resurrection is aptly named, the archetypal shooter having risen from the grave for the iPhone and iPod touch. The thing is, though, when the dead return, they never come back the same.

You know the story: future, Mars, research facility, teleportation experiments, hell unleashed. Mayhem ensues as you, the sole surviving marine, attempt to thwart the evil and escape, killing anything that moves along the way.

The game itself is clearly derived from Doom 3, the 2004 re-imagining of the PC franchise. Remade again for a handheld experience, Doom Resurrection is visually stunning. The textures, the models and the lighting all are superb, as are the sound effects. Doom Resurrection made me forget I was playing a game on a phone or a media player. The detailed graphics are something I would expect to see on a PlayStation Portable, and yet the frame rates are fluid on my iPhone 3G.

Controls

However, unlike the PSP, the lack of physical controls on Apple’s devices has condensed Doom Resurrection, too. At 80MB and eight levels of play, there is still plenty of game, but it’s a different kind of play.

Accelerometer = Aim/Look

The biggest change is the control scheme with the accelerometer being used to look and aim by tilting the device. It’s a responsive, well-designed implementation, as is the solution for player-controlled movement: eliminating it. A “shooter on rails” has been the pejorative refrain from critics describing the lack of free roaming in Doom Resurrection. Instead, the player is moved along a set path through the levels, pausing for combat and story exposition, the latter playing out in IM chat bubbles — voiceovers, please!

Doom Resurrection User Interface

The UI is built around the core of the Doom franchise: shooting things. Up to three weapons can be cycled through, most of which need reloading. Ammunition, as well as health packs, are scattered and hidden on the levels. Touching them on the screen picks them up, but since movement is guided, they can be easily missed.

Shake Move

Besides shooting, there are three other actions the player can take during the game. On the first few levels, fat zombies will attempt to grapple and bite. Shaking the device pushes them off.

Dodge Move

Dodging missile attacks like fireballs is accomplished by using the special move button located on the bottom, opposite the fire button. Timing is everything, and it’s best to learn early. Dodging is used throughout the game, as is cover.

Uncovered

Some enemies will stand off and shoot at you. In that situation, by toggling cover you can hide behind objects and avoid damage.

Under Cover

Whether behind cover or not, a yellow hexagon will appear as enemies fire. That shrinking hexagon represents enemy accuracy, and when it turns red you’ll start taking damage if you are out in the open.

Overall, the control scheme is great for a multitouch device. The question then becomes whether the game itself is worth playing, not to mention paying $9.99.

Gameplay

Three most important rules for Doom Resurrection: headshot, headshot, headshot.

Play begins with acclimation to the control scheme and introducing the story that continues throughout the game. While some exposition can be skipped, other dialogue has to be tapped through, annoyingly even on replay. The story and dialogue could be better, too. One character, a little plot device robot that follows you, makes sounds in lieu of speech. Does a game that’s based upon blowing bodies apart with a shotgun really need a cutsie R2-D2 knockoff?

You see this? This is my BOOMSTICK!

The repetition of the storytelling is a small annoyance; a larger one is the repetition of the killing. Sadly, there is no random spawning of monsters. The game is exactly the same, regardless of difficulty setting, and that would be the third disappointment. The four levels of difficulty are based upon how much damage attacks inflict. One other complaint would be that only a single saved game is allowed. Still, the complaints on play are small, and the praise deservedly big.

I said stay down! Bad dog! Here, have a chainsaw chew toy.

The first time through, around three hours at moderate difficulty, was a riot. The lack of roaming was never missed, the near-constant combat keeping me fully engaged. It’s not just point and shoot, either.

Two-headed monkey demons, meet the chaingun, chaingun, demon monkeys.

Nicely migrated from the franchise is the need to match weapon to foe. There are eight seven weapons: assault rife, shotgun, double-barrel shotgun, chainsaw, chaingun, plasma rifle, and, of course, the BFG. In my opinion, the assault rifle is a concession to the casual gamer, what with an infinite ammo supply, but the rest require judicious use of supplies.

Attention, monsters, there’s a blue light special on aisle nine, the plasma gun.

The best firing solution is short bursts when possible. If not, switching weapons often takes less time than reloading. Frantically reloading while an unspeakable evil charges down a hallway is another hallmark of Doom. Resist the Pavlovian urge to reload after every kill, as there is often an immediate follow-up attack.

BFG: good times, good times

Of course, bosses require an entirely different approach: biggest weapon to smallest, full auto, keep shooting. The exception is the BFG. That weapon requires holding the fire button down as long as possible, releasing a correspondingly large plasma discharge. I love the BFG, and I love Doom Resurrection.

Summing Up: Gold Award

Doom Resurrection is bloody fun, if you swing that way. For those that do, but worry over a “rails” ride, Doom Resurrection is “rails” like a roller coaster. For those wary of repetitious play, the replay value is in the perfect level as scored at the end. New features will diversify play with future updates like leaderboards, downloadable content and cooperative multiplayer, but even without new play, Doom Resurrection is golden.

Scoring a Level

Doom Resurrection is the best game to date for the iPhone and iPod touch. Seriously, it is, and if $9.99 seems like a lot, it’s really not, not for a game that can compete with content on dedicated handhelds like the PSP. The big brains at id Software have done it by creating the next evolutionary leap in casual gaming, and it has teeth like razor blades.

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

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

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

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

Don’t Google It

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

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

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

Making Your Map

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

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

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

On Your Travels

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

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

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

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

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

Summing Up

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

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

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

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Mixing neon visuals and techno music with top-down shooting action and inertia-based movement, circuit_strike.one pushes the limits of Apple hardware, and possibly the patience of the casual gamer.

Setting

The player is pilot of a virtual ship that hacks network nodes, in a stylized metaphor for a computer network. A mission is completed by destroying a shield generator protecting the data core, then by destroying the data core itself. Against the player are enemies rendered as wireframe polyhedrons, attacking by ramming and/or shooting the player’s ship.

Player firing laser and missing badly

An animation sequence follows loading, complete with an ancient modem sounding over a phone line, which is a nice touch. There’s a lot of that in circuit_strike.one. Die, and you are mocked in l33t speak. Attacking enemies pulse to the bass of the background music. The graphics are lavish: transparent overlays, trailing, lens flares, a visual experience designed as much to impress as to kill with distraction, as if the game wasn’t good at that already.

Controls

Basic control scheme

Everything about circuit_strike.one is deceptively easy to understand. The zoomed playing field is a wraparound with the shielded data core located in the center. You rotate the ship using the thumb-control on the left. Fire button is on the right. Tapping accelerates the ship, while swiping downward brakes. Braking is crucial because movement is inertia-based, though a ship in motion will not remain in motion forever. It feels not so much like flying through space, as sliding across ice, but the learning curve is steep. Here are a few tips.

• Don’t move. Seriously, that’s the most important advice for beginners. New players should practice turning the ship and firing at enemies before ever using thrusters.
• Tap, then swipe. That’s the way to learn moving and stopping the ship.
• Chasing powerups is a good way to learn basic movement.
• Intermediate movement begins with thrusting forward, spinning the ship and shooting back along the flight path.
• Learning to circle enemies by rotating the ship and thrusting, while strafing, too, is an advanced technique (at least for me).

Two enemies, ship, green Ghost Data

Gameplay

The main form of enemy attack is ramming the player’s ship. Enemies differ in that some are fast, some slow, some take multiple shots to kill, some split into more enemies or swarm, and at least one shoots back. One other common characteristic is that destroyed enemies leave behind Ghost Data, and Ghost Data means Bullet Time.

Bullet Time, 1.83 seconds left

By shaking the device, the player can induce a kind of slow-motion mode of play. While the player’s ship speed remains constant, enemies are perceptibly slow. In addition, the player’s ship becomes temporarily invulnerable, and that’s an invaluable feature for completing the level.

Top left, Shield Generator, bottom left, Turret, center, Imminent Death

Shield generators are defended by stationary turrets which track the player’s ship and shoot projectiles. While taking out the turret is not required to destroy the shield generator, it’s a good idea. However, it’s also a good idea to do so without using Bullet Time.

Data Core, top left, overlaid by timer, 4.04 seconds left

Once all the shield generators are destroyed, the data core, which is located in the center of the playing field, is vulnerable. It will take several seconds of constant fire before the data core is destroyed and the level completed. This is the best use of Bullet Time, as it also slows the self-destruct timer. Advancing to the next level means more enemies, more shield generators, and less time to destroy the Data Core. That’s circuit_strike.one, and that’s why I hate it.

Summing Up: Silver Rating

I hate circuit_strike.one, and that’s the highest compliment that I can pay any game. It’s the kind of hate that brings me back again and again to try to beat it — not play it. That is the difference between “hardcore” and “casual” gaming for me, and that’s why circuit_strike.one may not be for everyone. There’s also the occasional freezing glitch during play, most likely from my iPhone 3G receiving a beat down rendering the visuals. I contacted the developer, and an update will be forthcoming. It addresses memory overhead and allows the player to reduce visuals and other CPU-intensive settings.

At 99 cents, it’s not about the money, but your time. Whether or not you want to make the kind of investment required to play circuit_strike.one comes down to how much of a challenge you are looking for. I strongly recommend finding out.

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

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

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

You Look Like You’re Stuck

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

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

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

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

Control Your Inner Genie

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

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

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

Misadventures in the Maze

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

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

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

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

Summing Up

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

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

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

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