Secret of Mana for iPhone Goes Live Internationally, Coming To The U.S. Tonight

Secret of Mana, also known to the Nintendo nerds among us as Seiken Densetsu 2, was an action RPG for the Super Nintendo release by Square in 1993. I remember playing this as a kid on my SNES, and I remember the pleasure of playing it again a decade later on a modded PSP through a SNES emulator. Secret of Mana is considered one of the best games ever released on Nintendo’s 16-bit consoles, or one of Square’s finest action RPGs, period.

The fact that Secret of Mana still holds up to most similar games 17 years after its original release says a lot about the current status of role-playing games and the excellence of Square’s team back in the golden days. Still, let’s focus on yet another comeback of SoM, this time on the iPhone. Which is the same Secret of Mana you know and love, only with a couple of virtual buttons on screen to move you character, attack and change weapon. Yes, the Ring Command menu system from the original game is still there. Nothing else seems to be different.

The game is now live in most international App Stores and will likely become available in the US in 3 hours.

Sorted, Simple To-Do App for iPad, Gets A Lot Better With Version 2.0

Sorted is a very simple (and beautiful) to-do / list app for the iPad we first reviewed in May. The iPad was “the new hot thing” back then, not so many productivity apps were available and Things was my GTD app of choice. Sorted managed to stand out because it was elegant and provided a new way to simple list creation and task management on the tablet. It wasn’t meant for the average GTD power user still it captured the hearts of many hardcore users by being the “alternative” to more popular software like the aforementioned Things or, months later, OmniFocus for iPad.

I liked Sorted because it was the app I used to create lists out of my daily GTD environment. In fact, I still have the app on my iPad. But it’s a lot better now, as version 2.0 was released in the App Store a couple of days ago and it’s really good. Read more

TomTom Updated To Include Map Share: Don’t Get Lost Again

You’re casually driving in your pink tank when your TomTom alerts you with a Map Share update. “Warning! Landmines ahead!” Thank god for your iPhone, because you’ve just potentially avoided both disaster and what would eventually end up being the day’s longest traffic jam. With TomTom’s latest update, you can avoid this and other manmade disasters thanks to other drives like you who just want to get to work without being bothered by road construction, falling bridges, or meteor showers. TomTom figures they can’t possibly update the entire landmass of the United States everyday, so you have the opportunity to trust your fellow drivers to update the map and point you in the right direction. If we’re cynical, we might just direct you into a gigantic lake for lols all around, but hopefully those that paid the premium for satellite driven directions won’t be spreading any sort of misinformation. With new roads being added each day, visiting that town in Pennsylvania won’t leave you dazed and confused.

On sale for $40.00, everything from traffic jams to instant route changes can be delivered to your iPhone for the comfort of knowing you can drive safely.

Whited00r Project Brings Folders To Older iDevices

Whited00r is a project aimed at bringing several features of iOS 4 to older devices such as the original iPhone or the iPod touch 1st generation that are “stuck” on iPhone OS 3.1.3 as Apple officially dropped support for them earlier this year. Some of the features include multitasking, voice control, substrate processes via jailbreak, Springboard wallpapers and Bluetooth tethering. We last covered Whited00r in July.

A new version of Whited00r, released a few day ago, adds support for folders on iPhone OS 3.x. The feature, though, is not a straight port of folders from iOS 4, the developers created a new version from scratch instead and made it running on older devices as a MobileSubstrate addon. As you can see in the video below, those folders look just like the standard iOS 4 ones.

More information about “iOS 3 Folders” are available here, and make sure to check out the Whited00r installation guide here. Demo video below. [via iSpazio] Read more

Textie Hits 1.1, Now For Both iPhone & iPad

One my favorite text messaging solutions on the iPod touch is Textie, and it’s just hit version 1.1. Bringing a myriad of customization features such as custom chat bubbles and font sizes, photo previews, and the ability to see which of your friends have Textie, free text messaging is getting a much needed facelift. Not on a phone? Textie now allows you to initialize Facetime, perfect for folks like me who opt for the free-model of an iPod touch communication device. It really is an excellent companion for the Facetime icon on your homescreen, and you can download the latest version in the iTunes app store right now.

Dring - Beautiful Ringtone Creation and More for iPhone

Ringtone creation on the iPhone is still new to the App Store; there are several out but only a few that have a great UI and functionality. Wake Apps’ Dring arrived last week and does it look beautiful and work wonderfully.

Dring has a finely tuned, gorgeous retina display UI that lets you customize and create your own ringtones right from your iPhone with sliders, toggle switches and buttons that look real. I can almost feel the textures under my fingertips and they lay perfectly on top of on a wood grain background. Every little detail looks absolutely great, even the spinning tape recorder wheels that come up after hitting record look authentic to a time of analog that’s long lost. Julien Martin is the magic man behind the UI of Dring, I saw some dribbble shots of Dring months ago was drooling then. Read more

Apple Launches iAd Producer - HTML & CSS Layout App for iAds

A few minutes ago Apple launched a new app for the Mac called iAd Producer which is aimed at developers and designers willing to create visually rich, interactive iAds. iAd Producer “automatically manages the HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript behind your iAd” and also offers advanced Javascript editing and debugging.

iAd Producer is available for download on Apple’s developer website and it requires Mac OS X 10.6.5, Safari 5 and iOS SDK 4.0. A user guide is available here. Read more

Dungeon Defenders Will Bring Android & PC Cross-Platform Multiplayer to iOS

Dungeon Defenders (universal, $2.99) is a recently release game for iPhone and iPad that it’s like a mix between Diablo and the classic Tower Defense; it’s got nice graphics and loot system but apparently gets lost when it comes down to UI (lots of huge buttons on screen) and 3D camera controls. In spite of the flaws of the first version, we should all look forward to the next update. Dropping sometime next year, an updated Dungeon Defenders will bring proper iOS, PC and Android cross-platform online multiplayer.

Several developers tried to follow the road of mobile and desktop cross-platform online battling before, and most of them failed. In the video below, though, you can see the DD developers playing the same game at the same time on an iPad, a PC and two other Android tablets. It all looks smooth and fast. It’s cross-platform multiplayer between the desktop and two different mobile OSes. Pretty intriguing.

We, too, do wonder whether the game’s servers will actually hold up once the update goes live, but right now – it looks perfect. iOS, PC and Android running the same game online? Don’t tell this doesn’t make you excited. At least a bit. [via TouchArcade] Read more