iPhone App Blog

There haven’t been many iPhone game portals announced lately. Fortunately, online game company Knibble has launched their very own iPhone game portal. This Java based site launched last week to little fanfare, but the games available are fun little distractions for those who need a gaming fix on their iPhone.

At first iPhone Knibble only offered 8 games, but the number has since grown to over 10 and includes favorites like Tic-Tac-Toe, Bejeweled, and Sudoku. New games are being added all the time so there’s bound to be something to entertain any iPhone user. The best part of Knibble’s iPhone game portal? It’s free!

There aren’t too terribly many iPhone game portals that offer fun games without signing up for something or paying for it. The design of the portal itself could use some work, though. For example, the game icons don’t stay in the same place between visits or even between page flipping. Still, Knibble has some fun games and it’s good for

While not too terribly related to the iPhone I thought I should write a little article about the new iPods. Even the New York Timesdid an article about new iPods. The next generation of iPods were introduced Tuesday, but were a bit upstaged by the insane iPhone price drop. All of Apple’s iPods got at least a little makeover with the iPod Nano being totally re-designed and a brand-spanking new iPod category was introduced.

Behold, the iPod Touch. It’s like an iPhone, but without the phone part! That’s right, it looks exactly like the iPhone and has iPhone’s neat-o touch interface; it even has Wi-Fi access and a Safari browser. iPod Touch comes in two sizes, 8GB ($299) and 16GB ($399) and features a Wi-Fi iTunes music store. Awesome.

For hard-core music hoarders the “iPod Classic” is now available in a thinner, all-metal design that holds up to…wait for it…160GB of data. I wish Wordpress had one of those little “O face” emotes, because that would have been a perfect place for one. Anyway, the 80GB model goes for $249 with the 160GB model selling for $349.

Next up, the brand new iPod Nano! Now the new iPod Nano’s design has been pretty heavily criticized. It’s been called everything from “stubby” to “fat” to “fugly” to “Hobbit-like,” but y’know what? I think they’re adorable. And now they come with video, so there! The 4GB model is $149 and the 8GB (which comes in new, slightly questionable colors) is $199.

Last, but not least (although it is the smallest and the cheapest), the iPod Shuffle has a new palette of, slightly muted, colors. Still just 1GB for $79, the iPod Shuffle is the iPod for bargain seekers with 240 songs. 

One of the biggest complaints about the iPhone is the inability for users to add custom ringtones. There have been a lot of ringtone hacks around and even a ringtone maker download or two. Most, if not all, of these have required at least jailbreaking your iPhone to get them to work and then have to be re-hacked after firmware updates are released.

Well, there’s a new option in town. Ambrosia Software has just released iToner, a new iPhone ringtone maker that requires NO HACKING. That’s right, you can add ringtones to your heart’s content without worrying about re-installing them after the next update or bricking the thing and voiding your warranty.

And adding ringtones to your iPhone is as easy as it can be. Just drag and drop any MP3 or AAC files into the interface and then click the Sync button to add the songs to add the file to your iPhone ringtone options. There’s a free thirty day trial of iToner from Ambrosia Software, and the full download is only $15. 

Join the discussion at MobileWhack and Techmeme…

Well, I thought it was about time to do another iPhone game app spotlight. The iPhone is great for games and there have been a lot of great ones developed for the gadget. Some of these have been designed just for iPhone while others have simply been iPhone optimized. Today I’m going to feature some fun little games for iPhone.

First up, the iPhone version of the classic logic game MasterMind. In this game a pattern of four colors is chosen randomly; you then have to figure out the pattern. You’re given six colors to choose from and are told when you have the right color in the right position or the right color in the wrong position. This game can be maddening or challenging depending on how good you are at logic puzzles.

Next up, Othello, the challenging strategy game. Also known as Reversi, Turncoat, or even Iago, Othello is rather similar to chess or checkers in that there are two players; each trying to “capture” the other’s pieces. This game requires a lot of forethought and planning, and I am terrible at it. Luckily the player settings allow you to make the computer stupid and actually win…or you could play for real…whatever.

NES Roms for the iPhone have been getting some press lately, so guess what? I have some NES game apps here. First up, a really addicting version of Knock Out, the Nintendo boxing game. This version is a little tricky because you have to punch the guy and bob and weave and I think you need an extra hand.

Next in the NES game round-up is the all time classic Duck Hunt, complete with laughing retriever. The ducks can be a little hard to hit sometimes because they are so small and you may have to suppress the urge to destroy your iPhone if you see that laughing dog one more time!!! While it’s not the same as pointing a big hunk of orange plastic at your TV screen, it is a good time waster.

Last up in this spotlight is a new game made just for the iPhone. Now this game sounds deceptively simple, everything you need to know is right in the title, Stack The Log! Stack one log on top of the other as evenly as you can to gain the title of “STACKMASTER.” Thing is, depending on how off you are, you can end up with a tall stack of tiny, tiny logs.

If you’ve ever had trouble finding a clear station when using an FM transmitter in your car? If you hardly travel or live in a small town it probably isn’t that big of a deal, but if you love to go on road trips and use your iPhone, iPod, or other MP3 player you know how frustrating finding a good channel can be.

Luckily, the folks at Digital Lifestyle Outfitters(DLO) has developed a free app to help FM transmitter users to find open FM frequencies in their area. Designed to be used with DLO’s TransDock FM transmitter line, the app can be used with any transmitter. Simply enter a city and state or zip code into OpenFM to find the nearest and best open FM frequencies in the area.

This app is incredibly useful for people who love to listen to their MP3 players in the car during a road trip or long commute to work or school. Folks in big cities who have trouble finding signals from one area to another will find this service really helpful. Even if you’ve just bought an FM transmitter you can use OpenFM to find a channel quickly without fumbling around the dial.

Facebook, the social networking giant, has launched a version designed specifically for the iPhone. All the normal features like news feed, messaging, and status updates are there, but the layout has been specially reformatted to gel with iPhone’s screen; links and icons are bigger to accommodate iPhone’s touchscreen.

When viewing photos or profiles simply rotate the iPhone and the data neatly fits the landscape orientation. You can call friends directly from their profiles (ones with phone numbers listed, of course) and utilize Google Maps to get event directions on the go.

Facebook engineer Joe Hewitt wrote on Facebook’s Official Blog:

The iPhone has not even been out for two months but has already changed the way people think about the mobile web…Today we are taking our first step into that new mobile world with a new Facebook website designed just for iPhone.

It seems that every day there’s a new iPhone app portal or an iPhone formatted version of a popular website. The iPhone really is, slowly but surely, changing the way we all think of the mobile web. Some complain that part of the appeal of the iPhone was that it featured the “real web” and that specially designed iPhone sites are somehow “cheating.”

Well, that’s a discussion for another day…back to Facebook’s iPhone page…

TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington calls the new Facebook page the current “gold standard” in iPhone designed sites. Wired blogger Scott Gilbertson calls it “better than the main Facebook site.” (warning: quote taken slightly out of context.) Even if you’re not addicted to Facebook, go on and take a peek at their top o’ the line iPhone page.

Book publisher HarperCollins is making digital book content available to iPhone users. Through a specially designed mobile portal iPhone users can gain access to HarperCollins’ Browse Inside service. Browse Inside allows users to read the first 10 pages of chapters one and two of selected books before they are presented with an option to buy the book.

On HarperCollins website over 10,000 books have been digitized and are available for browsing. This and their other mobile site utilize Flash necessitating a special portal for iPhone users. Right now there are 14 titles available for browsing including Now and Forever by Ray Bradbury and Soul Catcher by Michael C. White.

After previewing titles you’re given the option of buying or pre-ordering the books. Most of the featured titles are debuting in August or September, but some are available now. With 10,000 titles to choose from, HarperCollins should be enlarging the list of iPhone brows-able books soon.

In a statement Brian Murray, president of HarperCollins Publishers Worldwide said:

Reaching consumers on mobile devices and the Internet is increasingly important for publishers…Our digital warehouse gives us the unique opportunity to quickly offer access to our titles on the newest technology, and we encourage people to provide feedback about their experiences.

Join the discussion on TechMeme…

About a month ago the folks at ColorWare added iPhones to the ranks of Apple products that they will colorize. Using a process similar to that of painting cars, ColorWare will give your iPhone a customized paint job with lots of colors and chrome and metallic goodness. You can send in your iPhone or buy one already pimped out from the company.

The process is a bit pricey, though. Painting an iPhone costs around $150 and takes about three weeks to finish. If you want to buy a pre-painted iPhone direct from ColorWare just add $150 to the purchase price raising a 4GB iPhone to $649 and the 8GB model to $749. If you can afford it (and can bear to be without your iPhone for three weeks) the process makes your iPhone look totally cool.

There are 30 color choices to customize the back, bottom panel, home button, earbuds, logo, and docking station which makes…a lot of possible combinations. So many color combinations that my meager math abilities cannot calculate them all. But trust me…it’s a lot.

Dr. Macenstein recently got his very own colorized phone back from the company so take a trip over to his blog to see a bunch of pictures of a finished phone. He seems pretty happy with it and I think it looks super cool. Even if you don’t want to have your iPhone colorized it’s worth it to check out ColorWare’s site to play with the design studio. Check out my iPhone App Blog colorized phone!

Well, it looks like iPhone hackers are finally doing something useful with their time. “Have they unlocked the iPhone?” you ask. Goodness no; they’ve created an iPhone NES emulator. Now you can play your favorite NES classics right on your (hacked) iPhone.

The first stage of this app was floating around a few days ago. Created by stepwhite, the first gen iPhone NES emulator was way too slow to be played properly and there were some control issues. As stepwhite noted on Google Code, “using an image of an actual controller, while cute, sucks.”

Fortunately, hackers extraordinaire NerveGas and Nightwatch have created an optimized version of the original NES emulator. According to The Unofficial Apple Weblog the new version is “blazing fast” and has multi-touch support. So now the controller is cute and functional? Awesome.

Some of the games included in the emulator are Super Mario Bros 1 and 3, Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy, Punch Out, Mega Man 2, and lots more. The good thing about NES emulators is that you get to play some of the best console games without paying for the actual cartridges (some which cost quite a lot) or dealing with the often-finicky 20 year old NES console.

Of course you can only get this super fun and time wasting app if you’ve hacked your iPhone. The current version has no sound, but at least it’s fast enough to actually play. I don’t know if there’s any save feature, but then again most original NES games didn’t either. If it doesn’t, longer games like Final Fantasy will be a little long to play all in one go.

So if you’ve already hacked your iPhone or aren’t afraid of voiding your warranty for the sake of classic gaming this hack is for you.

Travel site lastminute.com and mobile software company Cool Gorilla have teamed up to bring a new translator app to the iPhone. With the success of Cool Gorilla’s six foreign phrasebooks released for Nokia and Sony Ericsson last May it was inevitable that an iPhone version would be developed.

The translator offers five languages: French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish with a Greek version in development. iPhone’s translator is organized like a phrase book with sections like essentials, food & drink, socializing, and emergencies. Some of the categories (like socializing and food & drink) have subcategories so you can find just what you need to say.

Not only does the translator offer text versions of the English and translations, but voice overs from native speakers. This ensures that you’re pronouncing everything correctly. Or you could just point the iPhone at a native and let the translator speak for you. Whatever, its your phone.

The translator itself is very intuitive and it’s pretty easy to find what phrase you’re looking for. Its a bit easier to use than an actual phrasebook because you’re not flipping through pages trying to find a translation. So if you’re traveling abroad or just need a quick translation so you can hit on that cute foreign exchange student just point your iPhone’s browser to www.coolgorilla.com/iphone.