Posts in iPhone

Polyhedra. Geometric Addiction.

There this game I’ve been playing with during the past weekend that I think you should download right now. I don’t usually play that many games on my iPhone, as I mostly use it as a “productive” device for the stuff I have to do my MacStories like mails, tasks, projects and so on. But, since Canabalt came out some months ago I started buying these simple yet addictive games that are usually packed in weird pixellated graphics.

Anyway, this game I discovered is called Polyhedra, and it’s very simple. All you have to do is to fill a percentage of the screen with geometric shapes. To draw shapes, you have to tap and hold your finger on the screen: the longer you hold, the bigger the shape. So where’s the difficulty? First, you can create a limited number of shapes (the number changes for each level). Then, there are enemies (bouncing little balls) that will destroy the shape you’re creating if they touch you. Sounds weird, but it works.

Polyhedra

Polyhedra

The game is all about physics (for enemies and shapes) and gravity, as you can rotate the iPhone in an direction to move the shapes around. Graphics are colorful and fluid, soundtrack is awesome, there are many options to play with.

At $0.99 in the App Store, you should go buy this little gem and become addicted like me. One of the best games I’ve ever played on my iPhone.

See you on the leaderboard.


Twizzle: Simple, Free Twitter Client for iPhone

According to Wikipedia a new Twitter client for iPhone is released everyday. The average price point is between $0.99 and $1.99, but there are some exception where the Twitter client beast goes out of control and price itself at $2.99. Amongst the most famous Twitter apps for iPhone we should mention Tweetie, Twitterrific, Echofon, Twitbird, Twittelator and Birdfeed.

Then there are free Twitter apps, those apps that usually come with poor feature sets, ugly UIs and screwed up animations.

Today I’ll take a look at Twizzle, an application by Sahil Lavingia (One Week App) that is free and, actually, pretty good.

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Sneak Peek: Newsprint, A New “Professional Grade” RSS Reader for iPhone

I thought I was done with feeds readers for iPhone. I switched from Netnewswire to Byline, from Byline to Newsstand, from Newsstand to Reeder, and I’m currently using Silvio Rizzi’s elegant and minimal app as my only one RSS reader. So, I thought I was done with this kind of apps, as Reeder was (still is) the best and aggregator I’ve tried so far. Then, an icon showed up on Ember app’s image stream: it was wooden, with a newspaper delivering a..rss icon. It was beautiful, and the title was “Newsprint”.

I started searching for this new app, I was later invited to the beta testing and here I am now, giving you a sneak preview of this new RSS app for iPhone.

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MobileMe Gallery App for iPhone. See You Next Time, Apple.

I’ve been using MobileMe for some weeks now and I’m really satisfied with it. I can receive and sync mails, keep a backup of my important files, use a dedicated disk space, store my photos in the beautiful MobileMe galleries. Indeed, let me focus on these ones: in case you don’t know, I’ve created some open galleries where you can submit screenshots of your desktops, of beautiful Mac apps and cool iPhone apps interfaces. The galleries are currently online here, feel free to submit anything you think it’s noteworthy.

Anyway, you should probably know that Apple released a MobileMe Gallery iPhone application, which enables you to browse your gallery on the go. I haven’t found any good post about it, so I decided to write down my impressions so far.

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Snoozing to Awaken. Review and Giveaway.

With the market saturated by dozens of iPhone and iPod docks, no doubt do we at least have one in our homes that sport some form of alarm function. For those that utilize this tool, traveling becomes an issue when we can’t take our iPhone alarm clocks with us. The guys over at Embraceware understand that iPhone affectionados appreciate the simple comfort of waking up to their favorite morning power song, so they’ve taken their top notch Mac utility and made it mini.

Awaken for the iPhone is the dream app for those in need of a portable night stand that can kick some cool tunes.

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3D Bookshelf: When eBooks Feel the Power of Graphics

They say that most of times releasing a product is just about good timing. Understanding what people need in that precise moment, being sure that your app will be the only one that can appease the users for months. Until a new app will show up and beat yours to death, people usually adds. Then there’s another situation, pretty weird actually: you announce and release a product while one of your biggest competitors has announced a similar app that will go out in a few months and it promises to revolutionize your same market niche. Yeah, that sucks.

In this case, if you consider that a) the biggest competitor is Apple and b) the aforementioned app is iBooks, you can easily realize that c) it’s a game over before the game even starts. Man I wouldn’t recommend this stuff to my worst enemy. Or maybe yes. Anyway, fortunately the Ideal Biunary guys are not my enemies, and their newest app 3D Bookshelf is very good and promising.

Even though it’s very similar to iBooks and Classics, we should take a look at it. Because it has some chances to survive.

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Bills -Puts Other Financial Apps on the Table

Here I go again, talking about financial applications. If you’ve been following MacStories during these past months, you should have noticed I’ve taken the “financial apps for Mac and iPhone” thing pretty seriously: I’ve reviewed Moneybook for iPhone, then Chronicle and Billings for Mac. I’ve been using Moneybook and Chronicle until now, and I’m really enjoying them. They provide a good way to keep track of my expenses and stats (Moneybook) and recurring bills (Chronicle).

But you know, there’s something missing. An application that helps me keep track and receive notifications of my bills, directly on my iPhone - which is the device I carry around all the time. I don’t need stats for bills, I just need a good portable reminder. And here comes Bills  - On the Table to solve my problem, and make me fall in love with a new app once again.

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EXPERIMENTER, Science Made Easy.

Science has always been a sore subject for me. Maybe it was because I bombed chemistry class in senior high, or struggled with physics in college, but I could never wrap my head around the complexities of the world around me. That is at least until an iPhone app showed me just how awesome science could be. And while it’s not your LHC atom crushing awesome, it’s your accessible easy to do yet you never thought of kind of awesome.

If you’re ever interested in learning how to turn water into ice instantly with a touch of nothing but your finger, this is the app for you.

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