N.O.V.A. 2 Coming December 16th On The App Store

N.O.V.A. (Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance) by Gameloft is one of the most popular first-person shooters for the iPhone and iPad, featured by Apple at the tablet’s announcement in January. The first N.O.V.A., released on the iPhone last year, quickly jumped the charts of the App Store thanks to its stunning graphics, good gameplay and large maps.

The second iteration of the FPS – N.O.V.A. 2 – is coming out on December 16th and it looks like it will be a lot better.

N.O.V.A. 2 will feature a new multiplayer mode in 10 new maps with 10 players simultaneously. No word yet if this has been achieved through Game Center or not. The game will of course come with new weapons and improved AI for enemies, but as far as gameplay goes Gameloft has added the possibility to drive vehicles during missions. Reminds me of Halo. Graphics have been optimized for the Retina Display and previous N.O.V.A. customers will get access to “extra bonuses”.

We can’t wait to get our hands on this new version, which hopefully will be released as a universal app for iPhone and iPad this time. In the meantime, check out the new trailer featuring in-game footage below. Read more

Final Fantasy Tactics for iPhone Delayed, Again. Coming Spring 2011

For all those of you who were hoping to get your hands on a mobile version of Final Fantasy Tactics: The War of Lions (announced in June) before Christmas – I’m sorry, folks. The game’s not coming this year, as reported by TouchArcade. It will be released, according to a note appeared on Square Enix official Facebook page, in Spring 2011.

The iPhone version of FFT was first unveiled at this year’s E3 and scheduled for a September 15th release. Square Enix then claimed they never thought to release the game in September, and told the press FFT was still “TBD”. Various delays aside, it looks like SE has been busy improving the new game menu graphics, designing new controls specifically for the iPhone.  The new screenshots look better than the old ones, and here’s to hoping that Square Enix is taking the extra time to make the entire game better, perhaps with new features, quests and enemies. An additional storyline for iPhone users would be great, for instance.

Still, these delays with brief press releases always make me worry. Because you know what else is coming in Spring 2011? The white iPhone 4. Read more

8-bit Angry Birds Makes Me Want An Apple Game Boy

Speaking of Angry Birds: can you imagine if iOS’ most successful game was created 20 years and made available on the Game Boy or SNES instead? Frankly, I cannot – but these mockups posted over at Penney Design can give you an idea of what it might have looked like.

While the graphics are cool – and nostalgic – I don’t think Angry Birds’ current control scheme would be easy to port on handhelds without multi-touch. Angry Birds was built around the iPhone, and eventually released on Android devices. How would you control the slingshot on a Game Boy? With the D-Pad?

Game controls debate aside, Angry Birds in 8-bit looks great. I think the world would have been a better place with the birds & pigs in 1992. [via]

#MacStoriesDeals

Another new feature here at MacStories! Last week we started our 2010 App Roundup here at MacStories, and today we’re starting another new feature, this one being a daily occurance. We’re calling it #MacStoriesDeals.

In this new series, we will recommend great deals every weekday on iOS apps, Mac apps and gadgets that are on sale for a limited time. We will be scouring our resources and providing you direct links to what we think are deals you shouldn’t miss out on. Whether it be games, health, lifestyle, music, weather, etc. - we’ve got you covered. So expect some choice picks starting later today!

Wikileaks Releases 140,000 Emails From Steve Jobs→

Wikileaks Releases 140,000 Emails From Steve Jobs

Scoopertino:

Overall, the emails reinforce the image of Steve as a man of few words. A cursory review of this massive email dump reveals that 88% of his messages contain three or fewer words, with 84% of those offering only one: “No.”

He did get a bit wordier in an exchange with North Korean bad boy Kim Jong Il. Kim, aching to get a pre-release iPod touch for his son back in August, wrote to Steve requesting “a favor from one dictator to another.” In this case, Steve doubled the syllable count with a quick “Hell no.”

I have to admit this made me laugh.

Update: in case you have any doubts – yes, of course this is fake. Scoopertino is a website that reports “unreal Apple news”. Still funny.

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Angry Birds iPhone Cases Now At Apple Stores

First came the games, then the movie rumors, plush toys, more games…and now Angry Birds are sold at Apple Stores. As iPhone and iPod touch cases. As reported by TechCrunch last week, Gear4 announced a series of Angry Birds-themed cases for the iPhone and iPod touch – available on the official website at $24.99 – which feature red and yellow Angry Birds and the green Pig King. They’re made out of hard plastic.

I went to the Apple Store (Roma Est) yesterday, and it looks like the official Angry Birds cases are sold there, too. Actually, tons of them were available on the shelves and Apple even managed to put them in a very visible position. As you can guess, many people were checking them out and laughing at them. Not in a bad way – they’re awesome.

Another photo after the break. Read more

Google Latitude App Back In The App Store, You Can Download It This Time

Well, that didn’t take long for Google. After last week’s mysterious appearance in some international App Store and a rapid removal minutes after that, the official Google Latitude app is here and it’s available in the US, too.

The Google Latitude app allows you to automatically share your location in the background using iOS 4, or tweak the privacy settings in-app and decide to manually your location, and share it only with some people. The app features Retina Display-ready graphics and it even comes with pull-to-refresh in the main screen to update your friends’ location. Guess Loren Brichter’s gesture gained a few fans over time. Google Latitude also enables you to add friends via email address, from your iPhone or Google Address Book and browse “suggested friends”.

Google Latitude is free and available here. If the app doesn’t show up in iTunes yet, download it via the App Store on your device.

A Rapper, 10 iPads, 20 Apps

What would you expect from a rapper and his crew freestyling with 10 iPads and 20 music apps? A Youtube video that’s making the rounds of the Internet, you’re right. Featuring hip hop vocalist Tinchy Stryder and his crew using apps such as djay or the popular ReBirth and I Am T-Pain, the result is cool, although we would have loved to see more. Perhaps we’ll just have to wait until the next rap.

Check out the video below, and full list of apps after the break. [9to5mac via iPadevice]

Read more

How The iPhone Springboard Becomes An Endless Spiral

Of all the neat Cydia tweaks we’ve covered on MacStories so far, this has to be the craziest. Still in development and released in Cydia as early alpha, IconSpiral will turn your iPhone Springboard into a spiral of icons. Yes, a spiral.

What’s the purpose? I don’t know. I guess it’s pretty useless. Yet, from what we can see in the video below, it looks cool.

If you want to go ahead and enable the tweak, make sure to uninstall any other tweak that modifies your Springboard, such as Barrel, Iconoclasm, Parallax or Infiniboard. If you don’t, your iPhone will likely enter an infinite loop state. Not that infinite loop, but you get it. The repo you have to add in Cydia to find IconSpiral is: http://www.aaron.ms/repo.