2011 iPhone App

From the makers of

180 PAGES OF ESSENTIAL iPHONE ADVICE AND APP REVIEWS

Revealed! The best social, gaming, travel, entertainment, sport and creative apps of the year

All you need to know

about filling your iPhone with the very best apps

ww

w.techradar.com

the 2011

The 2011 app guide app guide

Printed in the UK £12.99ABZ01 2010

iPhone apps reviewed and rated

241

Create Explore Enjoy Work Play

WelcomeMakemore of your iPhone or iPod touchwith our pickof themost essential apps forwork and play

The joy of the iPhone and iPod touch comes from the hundreds of thousandsof apps that can be downloaded from the Apple App Store, either from yourPC or Mac, or while you’re out and about on the iPhone or iPod touch itself.

Apple recently said that over 200 apps are downloaded every second from the AppStore, totalling more than 6,500,000,000 downloads to date!

While having thousands of apps to choose frommakes the App Store a richresource of multimedia content for your iPhone or iPod touch, it inevitably meansthat there's plenty of poor apps out there as well as the really good ones. That's whywe've sampled the very best from the App Store to bring you over 240 outstandingapps, with star ratings and both UK and US pricing for your convenience.We also tellyou which iOS version is required and what's new in the latest versions.

We’ve reviewed dozens of apps from each category on the App Store and ratedthem accordingly. Whether you’re looking for a shopping app or photo editor, ora fun game or music-making tool, we’ve got all you need to know about the verybest apps available right now.

If you’re keen to give app-making a go, then we’ve covered the process ofdeveloping iPhone apps as well. We’ll show you how to get started with our expertadvice; we’ve also got the lowdown from developers who are making cash from theworld’s biggest provider of downloadable content. ■

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TechRadar is the largest UK-based consumer technology news and reviews site. Wewill tell you about the coolest new stuff. We’ll work hard to bring you original quotesand exclusive access. We’ll review it more thoroughly and carefully than anyone else.We’ll explain how it works and why you should care (or not).

The 2011 iPhone app guide 3

YOUR iPHONEDiscover the appeal of the iPhone and iPod touch... page 6

6 Meet the iPhone and iPod touch

16 25 things to do with your iPhone

CREATEEdit photos, make movies and create music............ page 34

36 Edit photos on your iPhone

38 Photography apps

42 Art &Visual apps

48 Music & Sound apps

ENJOYFind an app for every part of your lifestyle ............... page 70

72 Can an iPhone get you fit?

76 Lifestyle & Leisure apps

84 Social networking apps

88 Media & Entertainment apps

94 Research & Relaxation apps

TUTORIALDownload apps, and back them up ............................ page 24

26 Install apps with iTunes

30 Install apps with your iPhone

32 Back up your apps

EXPLOREStreamline your travel plans........................................... page 58

60 Sat-nav on the iPhone

64 Apps for out and about

WORKTurn your iPhone into a mobile office ........................ page 96

98 Access your iDisk on your iPhone

100 Office tools

106 Utility tools

112 Apps for internet assistance

Say hello

6 The 2011 iPhone app guide

YOUR iPHONE The iPhone family

to iPhoneDiscover the appeal of all theiPhone and iPod touchmodelsyou can buy today

Whetheryou’regettingyour first iOSmobileorupgrading,we’vegoteverythingyouneedforaninformedbuyingdecision

There are over a quarter of a million appsyou can use on your iPhone, providingeverything from the simplicity of tip

calculators and fart noise generators to thesophistication of ‘augmented reality’ tools thatpresent live information on your iPhone screenbased on what you’re looking at through itscamera. And, of course, there are tens of thousandsof games, from solitaire and quizzes to 3D virtualworlds and racing games of the kind you normallyexpect to see only on a PC or PlayStation.

But you can’t have apps if you don’t have aniPhone. Over the next 10 pages, we introduce youto the complete iPhone family. We start with anoverview of all available models, explaining thekey distinctions and offering a full run-down ofevery iOS device you can buy. Then we go in depthto look at the iPhone 4 and its pocket-sizedsiblings, the iPhone 3GS and the new iPod touch.

Although iPad apps aren’t covered in this guide,we round out the iOS range by briefly introducingyou to the potential of this magazine-sized device.Whether you’re getting your first iOS mobile orupgrading from an older model, we’ve goteverything you need to make an informed buyingdecision. Let’s get started…


The iPhone family YOUR iPHONE

A LONGWAY…Launched as recently as 2007, the original iPhone (left)has inspired three subsequent models, as well as themulti-touch iPod andinnovative new iPad. iPhone users have over 250,000 apps to choose from

Choose yourideal iOS devicePick between an iPhone, an iPod touch or an iPad

Each iOS device thatApple offers has adistinctive set of

characteristics thatdefine it, but it’s just asimportant to look atwhat unites them.Whatare the key attributes thatall three iOS products –iPhone, iPod touch andiPad – share?

Every iOS device designis dominated by its screen,a sheer glass plane youcan touch to activatecontrols. Inside the case isthe processor that runs thedevice, solid-state storageto hold your data and apps,and a highly efficientbattery. There’s also wirelessnetworking, enabling eachdevice to connect toWi-Fi

networks in your home, inyour office or in hotels, coffeeshops, pubs and transport hubswhile out and about.

Then, of course, there’s theiOS itself: this is the name ofthe operating system (theequivalent ofWindows or MacOS X on a computer) that allthese devices run. Formerlyknown as iPhone OS, iOSprovides the framework thatenables anyone to write apps foryou to use, as well as offering aset of built-in apps you can runfrom the first time you switchon your iOS device. iOS isperiodically updated to offernew features: the latest release isiOS 4. All the iOS devices shownopposite are able to run thisversion, although iOS 4 won’tbe available for iPad untilNovember. iPhone 3GS’ slowerprocessor means that it isn’t ableto support some of iOS 4’sfeatures, such as the Cameraapp’s HDR exposure system.

Building on this foundation, each iOSproduct within the range offers acombination of further features to suitdifferent needs and budgets. TheiPhone 4 is the most complete package,with call and messaging functionalityalongside wireless networking, plus ahigh-resolution display that’s more likereading from paper than a screen.There’s also GPS, the technology that’smore colloquially known as sat-nav,enabling the iPhone 4 to feed your

precise location to relevant apps, likeMaps and Camera, with the latterlogging where you are while takingeach photo, for example.

Alongside the iPhone is the iPodtouch, which looks very similar to itssibling but has a few importantdifferences. There’s no phone or GPSinside, although wireless networking issupported. The display is not quite asgood as the iPhone 4’s, either.

The other pocket-sized device inthe iOS range is the iPhone 3GS, whichpreceded the iPhone 4 and remainsavailable as a more affordable option.Although it’s a very capable phone, itsbuilt-in processor is slower than itssuccessor’s and the display offers alower resolution.

The final iOS device is the iPad: awholly different proposition from theothers. This magazine-sized machine ismore suitable for using around the

home or office than on the street. Itsmuch larger screen means that appslook and behave more like they do ona computer. All iPads offer wirelessnetworking, but you can also choosea model that can use a 3G mobilephone network – although only fordata use like the internet rather thanmaking phone calls. Unlike the iPhoneand iPod touch, the iPad doesn’t havea built-in camera.

iPhonepricingThe iPhone prices wequote are typical if youtake out a Pay & Go tariff.You can get any iPhonemodel for much less – oreven for free – if you geta pay-monthly contract.Visit your local phonecarrier store for details.



The iPad can be used in landscape or portrait mode, with the screen rotating automatically.

4THOUGHT The iPhone 4 offers a new formfactor and some exciting new features, such asa front-facing camera for video chat

Buildingononefoundation,each iOSproductoffersacombinationof further features tosuitdifferentneedsandbudgets

Released June 2010 ReleasedMay 2010

Released September 2010

iPhone

iPod touch

iPad



iPhone 3GS 8GB£419 (Pay & Go)Available in black•3.5-inch widescreen•320x480 pixels•Wi-Fi (802.11b/g)•Quad-band GSM, tri-band 3G•Assisted GPS•Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR•Photo and video geotagging•Battery lasts up to 30 hours•(audio) / 10 hours (video) /12 hours (talktime)62.1x115.5x12.3mm•135g•Requires Windows XP SP3, Vista•or 7 / Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later

iPod touch 8GB£189Up to 1,750 songs•Up to 10,000 photos•Up to 10 hours of video•Available in black•3.5-inch screen•640x960 pixels•Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n)•Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR•Nike + iPod support•Battery lasts up to 40 hours•(audio) / 7 hours (video)58.9x111x7.2mm•101g•Requires Windows XP SP3, Vista•or 7 / Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later

iPhone 4 32GB£599 (Pay & Go)Available in black or white•3.5-inch widescreen•640x960 pixels•Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n)•Quad-band GSM, tri-band 3G•Assisted GPS•Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR•Photo and video geotagging•Battery lasts up to 40 hours•(audio) / 10 hours (video) /14 hours (talktime)58.6x115.5x9.3mm•137g•Requires Windows XP SP3, Vista•or 7 / Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later


iPad 16GB£429 (Wi-Fi)£529 (Wi-Fi + 3G)9.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen•768x1,024 pixels•1GHz Apple A4 processor•Up to 10 hours surfing on Wi-Fi, watching video•or listening to music3.5mm stereo headphone jack•Built-in speaker•Microphone•189.7x242.8x13.4mm•68g (Wi-Fi model) / 73g (Wi-Fi + 3G)•Requires Windows XP SP3, Vista or 7 /•Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later

iPad 64GB£599 (Wi-Fi)£699 (Wi-Fi + 3G)9.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen•1,024x768 pixels•1GHz Apple A4 processor•Up to 10 hours surfing on Wi-Fi, watching video•or listening to music3.5mm stereo headphone jack•Built-in speaker•Microphone•189.7x242.8x13.4mm•68g (Wi-Fi model) / 73g (Wi-Fi + 3G)•Requires Windows XP SP3, Vista or 7 /•Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later

iPad 32GB£499 (Wi-Fi)£599 (Wi-Fi + 3G)9.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen•768x1,024 pixels•1GHz Apple A4 processor•Up to 10 hours surfing on Wi-Fi, watching video•or listening to music3.5mm stereo headphone jack•Built-in speaker•Microphone•189.7x242.8x13.4mm•68g (Wi-Fi model) / 73g (Wi-Fi + 3G)•Requires Windows XP SP3, Vista or 7 /•Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later

iPhone 4 16GB£499 (Pay & Go)Available in black or white•3.5-inch widescreen•640x960 pixels•Wi-Fi (802.11b/g/n)•Quad-band GSM, tri-band 3G•Assisted GPS•Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR•Photo and video geotagging•Battery lasts up to 40 hours•(audio) / 10 hours (video) /14 hours (talktime)58.6x115.5x9.3mm•137g•Requires Windows XP SP3, Vista•or 7 / Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later




1

2

3

iPhone 4Reception issues for some don’tstop the new iPhone being thebestmobile you can get

MOBILE PHONE



Following all the hype and hysteriawe have come to expect with thelaunch of Apple products, the

iPhone 4 has landed in the UK. For thefirst time, it’s been launchedsimultaneously with the US and hasappeared on most UK phone operators’rosters straight away.

As you may know, the arrival didn’tgo as smoothly as Apple might havewished, with a troubling signal lossissue for anyone holding the iPhone 4‘incorrectly’. Who even knew prior toiPhone’s June debut that there was a‘correct’way to hold mobiles? You liveand learn…

There is no denying, though, that theiPhone 4 is a stunning-looking piece oftech. It’s 24 per cent slimmer than the3GS at just 9.3mm thick; beautifullycompact, but with considerable heft;and has a hard-edged industrialsexiness instead of the morecurvaceous, tactile charms of the earlieriPhones. The glass front and back isvery tough: we’ve dropped ours a fewtimes, and it’s come up smiling… so far.

A more contentious design feature isthe steel band that separates front andback – not for aesthetic reasons, butbecause it’s also the aerial, and thecause of the iPhone’s well-documentedreception issues, seemingly somethingto do with contact between it andhuman skin. We’ve found we can livewith it. You may take a different view.

Bizarre reception flaws aside, theiPhone 4 is a great showcase for Apple’stechnological and design prowess, withthe new iOS 4 operating system anda noticeably faster processor than the3GS, making operation a smooth andenjoyable experience. It all chugs alongnicely, from the media player to theapps to the web browser. The latterapp is better than ever, despite thelack of compatibility with Flash for web

Price 16GB, £499; 32GB, £599Screen 3.5-inch, 640x960 pixelsProcessor 1GHz Apple A4Storage 16GB or 32GB solid-stateConnectivity 7.2Mbps HSDPA, Bluetooth 2.1+ EDR,802.11b/g/nWi-Fi, GPS, 3.5mm audioBattery 7 hours 3G talk, 10 hoursWi-Fi browsing,6 hours 3G browsing, 10 hours video, 40 hours audioCamera 5megapixels with tap to focus; LED flashVideo 720p; up to 30fpsSize/weight 59x115x9.3mm/137g

The details1Noise-cancelling mic:

A new noise-cancelling micfor clearer phone calls

2Two cameras: Five-megcamwith LED flash on the

back, and a front-facing camfor video calls using FaceTime

3Volume controls:These are now individual

buttons – bigger and easierto locate with one hand

4Stainless steel band:This band acts as part of

the iPhone 4’s antenna. Youcan blame it for all thosepesky reception issues

5Micro sim: Insert yoursmaller SIM into this

space-saving slot

KEY INFO

115m

m

59mm9.3mm

4

5

The lowdown:iOS 4 revealed



In just 12monthssince the iPhone3GSlaunch,Steve Jobsandhisbandhaveagain redefinedmobilehandsets

video. That’s just not going to happen,according to Apple, so get used to it.And in any case, more websites arestarting to use iPhone-friendlyalternative technologies.

The processor is the same sprightlyApple A4 chip found in the iPad. You’dthink that this much power woulddrain the battery at speed, but we canconfirm the new iPhone’s battery lifeis slightly better than the 3GS.

The 3.5-inch Retina Display is a bigimprovement over the 3GS’s screen –and those of all other mobile devices,for that matter. With an 800:1 contrastratio and 960x640 resolution, it sets anew benchmark for mobile displays,being a joy to use indoors and at mostoutdoor light levels. It becomesreflective and difficult to admire whenin direct, bright sunlight, but it’s still farsuperior in this respect to the displaysfound on most new Android phones,for example.

The only downside is that older appsand their icons can appear dated andgrainy on the Retina Display – appdevelopers will have to improve theirwares for the iPhone 4.

Another area they’ll have to look at ismulti-tasking. As expected, iOS 4 bringsthis to the iPhone table – but at themoment, by no means all apps supportthe feature: they have to be updated.It’ll be interesting to see if iPhonepurchasers start clamouring for all appsto support multi-tasking, or whetherthey’ll conclude that it’s really onlymusic and social networking apps thatrequire it…

Apple’s iOS 4 has other tricks up itssleeve. You can create folders for yourapps – a great addition – and set yourown home screen image, scrappingthe any-colour-as-long-as-it’s-blackapproach of previous models.

iBooks makes the jump from iPad toiPhone with the arrival of iOS 4 andoffers up text of impeccable clarity,thanks to the Retina Display, althoughobviously the type is of insufficient sizefor anything more than half an hour orso of comfortable reading. Crystal-clear,well-defined fonts similarly enhanceweb browsing, email and all other text-based functionality.

The on-screen keyboard is visuallyunchanged and still excellent. Wewould have liked to have seen supportfor numbers and punctuation on thesame keys as the letters, as on the HTCDesire, but auto-correction of yourspelling seems even better than inthe previous iOS.

The camera’s been improved, too.Don’t get your hopes up too high: stillsare not suddenly of compact camera

KEY FEATURES OF THE NEWOPERATING SYSTEM

Multi-taskingLong overdue unless youjailbroke your 3GS – and ofcourse you didn’t do that,because it would be evil –multi-tasking on iOS 4 is a bitof a fudge at present.

To get at it, you double-tapthe Home button. This bringsup a sub menu of apps, so youcan quickly swap betweeneBay, Safari, email and games.

The latest Spotify app isan example of how to do multi-tasking well, while developersof messaging apps such asWindows Live Messenger andIM+ have been quick tosupport iOS 4 fully.

Most apps, though, stillrequire you to log out and thenback in as needed. No doubtthis will change over time.

Email accountsControl multiple emailaccounts for Gmail, Yahoo,Exchange and more fromone unified inbox andorganise messages bythread. It makes reviewingmessages far simpler.

Spell checkerCompatible with Mail,Notes and other apps.

iAdsStarting to filterthrough now, these allowdevelopers to placeinteractive ads with videoand online content in apps.They can make use of thelocation services to offeradvertising tailored towhere you are. Boy, are welooking forward to that…

FoldersInstead of havingnumerous home screens

you flick through endlesslyto find anything, iOS 4 letsyou organise apps intofolders. Simply hold downan app and move it over asecond to create a newfolder. Click a folder to goinside and view the appslurking within.

BackgroundBored of the blackbackdrop? Pick your own.

Gift appsLets you buy apps and giftthem to a fellow Appleuser, just as you alreadycould with music in iTunes.

Game CenterIncluded in the iOS 4.1update, Game Center isa social gaming networkfor iPhone, letting userschallenge each other andcompare scores. It’s veryearly days for this one.

More key features

iBooksThe iBooks app and store have been available since thelaunch of the iPad, which is obviously ideally suited todisplaying books. The iPhone is less ideal, but it makesa decent fist of ebookery. Reading from the 3.5-inchscreen is only bearable for short periods of time, but it’sgreat for short commutes. Apple’s iBookstore offers over60,000 new books along with free out of print titles,which you download to a virtual bookshelf. The choice ispiddling compared to Amazon Kindle, but the userexperience is better, and there’s a Kindle app should youwant more. Attention to detail is fantastic: as you turnpages, you can even see the copy through the page.

These all come as standard on the iPhone 4, andcan also be applied to the iPhone 3GS. Somefeatures alsowork on the 3G and iPod touch



DISCREET DISPLAY TheiPhone 4’s Retina Displayis brighter and lessreflective than other newdisplay technologies

1 iMovieTo make the most of

the iPhone 4’s excellent 720pvideo capability and sound,aspiring video editors needthe iMovie app, available onthe App Store for £2.99.iMovie’s been available aspart of the iLife suite forages, so the user interfacewill be familiar to many Macusers. It’s just as slick andeasy to use on the iPhone 4,with the A4 processorspeeding things along nicely.

Tap video footage to bringup video-trimming tools,and double-tap to addtransitions, the style of which

varies depending on whichof the five themes you select.Bright and Modern are themost unobtrusive, but we’dhave liked a fewmore to playwith. Once you’ve finishedediting, you can export inone of three resolutions, thebest being 720p HD.

Unsurprisingly for an appthat’s cheaper than a pint,there are limitations. Youcan’t control the volume, andmusic can only go at thebeginning of a clip. But bymaking video-editingcapability accessible toanyone on the move, iMovieis an essential iPhone app.

3 CameraOne regular complaint

about earlier iPhones wasthe mediocre camera.Apple’s upped the quality ofthe iPhone 4’s one and alsohiked the resolution to fivemegapixels, letting youproduce 13x10-inch prints,if you’re that way inclined.Composing pictures on thesharp screen is so naturaland enjoyable, and tappingthe screen is a simple way tofocus. There’s still no solidshutter, but response timeis quick, and you can alsoswitch from stills to videosin a trice.

Sharp, with decent contrastand bright colours, resultsare better than the iPhone3GS. The LED flash meansyou can finally use thecamera in poorly lit areas.We would have preferred axenon flash, of course. Youalso get a 5x digital zoom –not a lot of use, in truth –and the ability to geotag.

The iPhone 4’s camera isgreat for taking snaps on thego. There’s no way to adjustsettings, so it’s no challengeto a compact camera – butin terms of general quality,it’s easily in the top rank ofsmartphone cams.

2 FaceTimeRemember when

everyone thought that videochat would be the future –then it arrived and nobodyused it? Apple hopes tochange that with FaceTime,the iPhone 4’s video-callingfunction, which uses a front-facing camera to facilitate30fps video conversations.

You activate FaceTime viayour Contacts; for it to work,the person you’re callingmust have bothWi-Fi andan iPhone 4 (or new iPodtouch) of their own. You can’tyet make video calls to otherdevices – not even iChat

users on Macs. Quality is farbetter than existing 3Gmobile video calls, displayedat a decent resolution. Theoption to switch to the rearcam to show your chatbuddy what you’re lookingat is a nice touch, and there’sno noticeable lag if you’reboth on a decent broadbandinternet connection.

FaceTime’s a nice idea, butit needs to work over 3G andwith other devices if it’s everto take off. Video calling’sbeen tried before and madelittle impact: we’re notconvinced anyone’sclamouring for it now.

Killer features…of the iPhone 4

quality, but they are much better thanon the 3GS (as well as the HTC Desire)and also bigger at five megapixels, withthe welcome addition of an LED flash.

Video has undergone an even morestriking improvement. The 720p HDfootage looks pristine, both on theRetina Display and when uploaded toyour computer, although some detailseems to be lost when compressing fordirect uploading to YouTube. In-cameraediting is also straightforward, and youcan add the iMovie app (£3) if you wantmore sophisticated editing.

In addition to the main camera onthe rear, there’s a second, front-facingone. This is to facilitate Apple’s attemptto popularise mobile video calling withits Skype-style FaceTime app. It’s morefun than essential – it needs to workover 3G rather than justWi-Fi, for astart – but it’s a worthwhile addition.

Finally, iPhones have always beengreat media players, and that’s still true.Should you choose to use Cover Flow,it seems slightly quicker to us, as dosyncing and copying tracks, thoughimprovements are minimal.

The iPhone 4 is another classic sliceof Apple. In just 12 months since the3GS launch, Steve Jobs and his bandhave again redefined mobile handsets.From the simply beautiful RetinaDisplay to the addition of HD video,and from the idiot-proof user interfaceto the attempted reinvention of videocalling, the Apple iPhone 4 is a majesticpiece of kit that will no doubt stealhearts. As long as that signal-loss issuedoesn’t prove to be a killer, anyway. ●

NOWEVEN BETTER THAN EVER

iPhone 3GS 8GBAn affordable option for anyonewho doesn’t need an iPhone 4

MOBILE PHONE

Probably the most technicallyadvanced smartphone availabletoday, iPhone 4 is a highly capable

device: so capable, in fact, that somepeople may feel that it provides morepower than they actually need. Ifyou expect your app use to be tooinfrequent to justify an iPhone 4, Applemaintains its predecessor the iPhone3GS as a more affordable option.

The 3GS is essentially an enhancedversion of the iPhone 3G, which wasreleased in 2008. Thanks to a fasterprocessor, it feels much snappier thanthe 3G. In a side-by-sidetest overWi-Fi, the BBCNews site loaded inseven seconds,compared to 12.5seconds on the 3G.

The battery life ismuch improved, too: we can lasta whole day without going lowon power. Apple isn’t claiming anyincrease in talk time over the previousmodel, but video, music playback andweb browsing all show improvements.

Better cameraThe iPhone 3G was rightly criticisedfor its poor 2.0 megapixel fixed-focuscamera without a flash. The new iPhone

3GS still lacks a flash, but brings a3MP-resolution camera with a macrolens to the party. Focussing isautomatic, but you can also tap on thearea of the screen to focus on that spot.The white balance and exposure areautomatically adjusted too, which ispretty clever. The extra megapixels helpenormously in picture quality, buttaking pictures in low light levelsremain a problem. The macro lens takesgood close-up shots, without theblurring that afflicted previousgenerations, but it’s still only

comparable to a camera that somefour-year-old mobile phones have.

More importantly, the iPhone 3GSis video-capable. And the really cleverthing is that it has capabilities forediting video on the phone as well –just drag the start and end points ofyour clip and tap the Trim button andyou’re done. It all works surprisinglywell. Once you’ve shot your video,you can upload it straight to your

MobileMe gallery or YouTube, or emailor MMS it to a friend. Bear in mind thatit takes a long time to send video, evenon aWi-Fi connection, so you’re onlygoing to want to send very short clips.Uploading to YouTube was flawless;MobileMe (perhaps slightly predictably)proved less reliable.

The oil-resistant screen is fantastic:just wipe the screen on a piece ofclothing and the smudgy fingerprintsmade during regular use are gone. Alsonew to the 3GS is Voice Control. Pressand hold the Home button until you

hear a beep, then call acontact from youraddress book by saying“Call Graham”, forexample. Voice Controlalso works in the iPodapp, where you can

request music by voice command;however, this can be a bit hit-and-misswith exotic band names.

For first-timersIf you’re a potential first-time iPhoneowner who hasn’t made the jump yet,then the time is now – the iPhone 3GShas got everything you’ll need tobecome a paid-up member of theiPhone revolution. ●

KEY INFOPrice £419Screen 3.5-inch, 320x480 pixelsProcessor 600MHz ARMStorage 8GB solid-stateConnectivity 7.2Mbps HSDPA,Bluetooth 2.1+ EDR, 802.11b/gWi-Fi, GPS, 3.5mm audioBattery 5 hours 3G talk, 9 hoursWi-Fi browsing, 5 hours 3G browsing,10 hours video, 30 hours audioCamera 3megapixelswith tap to focus; no flashVideoVGA (640x480); up to 30fpsSize/weight62.1x115.5x12.3mm /135g

A great introduction to theworld of iPhone, but getiPhone 4 if you want abetter display and a morecapable camera



The iPhone3GS isvideo-capableandcanedit…drag thestartandendpointsofyourclip, tap the trimbuttonandyou’redone

SUBTLE The iPhone 3GS looksidentical to the previous iPhone 3Gmodel – not great for show-offs!

iPod touchA better screen, two cameras and video calling grace this updated device

PORTABLE AUDIO PLAYER

Where the iPhone leads, the iPodtouch follows – and the latestupdate brings the flagship

iPod arguably closer to the iPhone thanever before. You get the Retina Display,A4 processor, FaceTime video calls andHDmovie recording, all at a muchlower price than the iPhone 4. And, ofcourse, there are no extra costs likephone contracts involved.

The Retina Display in the iPod touchisn’t quite the same as the one on theiPhone: the viewing angles aren’t asgood. This wasn’t a problem when wewere using it on ourown, but when a groupcrowded round, therewas a noticeabledifference compared tothe iPhone 4. That said,the display is stillfantastic: text is crystal-sharp, andcolours are bright and vivid.

Not so wirelessThe iPod touch can’t connect to amobile data network, which means nophone calls, or web browsing outside aWi-Fi signal. There are ways around this,of course, such as Novatel’s MiFi device,available in the UK via the 3 network.While the iPod touch supports location

services, they’re invariably less accuratethan on the iPhone, because there’s noGPS. Instead, the device usesWi-Finetworks to work out where you are.

The cameras are a welcome additionto the iPod touch, but they’re not thesame as those on the iPhone 4. Therear-facing one shoots stills at just 0.7megapixels (compared to 5 megapixelson the iPhone). There’s no moving focuseither, so while this can do the job ifyou’re out without your ‘proper’ camera,any cheap compact model from the lastfive years will trounce it.

When it comes to video, however,things are different. The iPod touchrecords 720p HD footage that’s betterin some ways than the iPhone 4.Wepreferred it for everyday point-and-shoot footage, since panning wassmoother. You can then edit andpublish your work by buying iMoviefrom the App Store.

Then there’s FaceTime video chat,which until now was limited to the

iPhone 4. Now, iPod touch users canjoin in the fun, because you no longermake a regular mobile call first. Whenyou’re connected to aWi-Fi network,you call someone using their iPhone 4mobile number or their FaceTime emailaddress. Making calls worked withouta hitch, although we found that wedidn’t get any notification if ourrecipient’s device wasn’t connectedto aWi-Fi network.

General performance is on a parwith the iPhone 4, thanks to the A4processor (which also powers the iPad).

As a portable gamingdevice, the iPod touchis great, and will onlyget better as the newGame Center grows inpopularity. If you’reafter a music player

that can double as an internet device orphone when you’re at home, look nofurther. Even if you do want to use theweb when you’re out and aboutoccasionally, an iPod touch and a MiFi ischeaper than an iPhone.While we’d liketo have seen a lower price, especiallyfor the 8GB model, and the camera is adisappointment, the new iPod touch isan incredible package, at a price farbelow the iPhone. ●

KEY INFOPrice 8GB, £189;32GB, £249; 64GB, £329Screen 3.5-inch, 640x960 pixelsProcessor 1GHz Apple A4Storage 8GB, 32GBor 64GB solid-stateConnectivity Bluetooth 2.1+ EDR,802.11 b/g/nWi-Fi, 3.5mm audioBattery 7 hours video,40 hours audioCamera 0.7megapixelswith tap to focus; no flashVideo 720p; up to 30fpsSize/weight58.9x110x7.2mm/101g

Get yourself iPhone 4performance and somegreat features at a fractionof its price. The iPod touchjust got even better

5The 2011 iPhone app guide 15


Asaportablegamingdevice, the iPodtouch isgreat, andwill onlygetbetterasthenewGamerCentergrows inpopularity

TOUCHTASTICThe new, thinneriPod touch hasa Retina Displayand cameras forFaceTime video calls

things you neverknew you coulduse your iPhone for…

From the moment you turnit on for the first time, youriPhone can make calls, access

the internet, send and receiveemails, and even tell you what theweather is like in Kuala Lumpur.But it can do much more besides,thanks to the App Store…Thislist highlights the ingeniousapplications that can transform youriPhone into a television, a plumbline, an atomic clock and more.

Over the next eight pages, we’llshow you the fun and possiblyunfamiliar uses for your iPhone.Most of them will work with theiPod touch as well – although thelack of camera and always-oninternet may mean they becomeless useful or less convenient – andall are available, either free or for asmall fee, from the App Store. Youcan buy them through iTunes onyour Mac or PC, or download themdirect to your iPhone via its ownApp Store app. Turn to page 24 tofind out how it’s done.

So, let’s discover some great newuses for your iPhone.Who knowswhat it’ll become next? ●


YOUR iPHONE 25 things to do

3

There’s a bunch of ways ofgetting media on to aniPhone. The BBC’s iPhone-

optimised iPlayer website(www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer) is verygood, offering new and recentBBC TV and radio programmesto stream. Its high qualitymeans that it requires aWi-Ficonnection, though, and youmust be in the UK to access it.You could also record TV directto your computer using, say,one of Elgato’s TV tuners, thenexport the content to youriTunes library, ready to besynced to the iPhone.

As far as apps go, try TunerInternet Radio (£2.99/$4.99),a centralised service forthousands of streaming radiostations from all over the world.It works overWi-Fi and 3G.Also, Last.fm (free) is abrilliant service that createspersonalised music stationstailored to your tastes. ●

with Tuner Internet Radio and BBC iPlayer

Radio & TVTURN YOUR iPHONE INTOA…

PLAY TIME The iPhone-optimised iPlayer site fromthe BBC is a textbook example of mobile web apps

Radio & TV1

Apple has launched itsown electronic book appwith iBooks (free), and

Amazon’s Kindle app (free) isalso popular, thanks to its hugeselection. But Classics (£1.79/$2.99) offers something neitherof these apps do: a ready-to-read library of high-qualityliterature without you needingto browse through bookstoresor spend time downloading.

Offering over 20 of thegreatest works ever written,from Homer to Kafka, Classicsis polished throughout, witha bookmark that keeps yourplace when you switchbetween different books. Youcan’t add your own books toit, but the developers arecommitted to adding more.

If you’re looking for a moreextensible reader, Stanza (free).can read many text formats, soyou could fill up your iPhonewith copyright-free classic texts.

with Classics and Stanza

Instant libraryTURN YOUR iPHONE INTOAN…

LOVE LITERATURE Becomewell read (or have it justto look like you’re well read) with a library of Classics

Instant library4

You may have access to aninternet-full of definitionswith an iPhone, but web

dictionary pages can be slow toload and are rarely optimisedfor the iPhone’s screen.

Step forward, the ConciseOxford English Dictionary(£11.99/$19.99). It’s a nativeapp, so once it’s launched, it’smuch snappier than a website.

The interface could be moreelegant, and the quality ofspoken pronunciations couldbe better, but it’s great to havethe OED in your pocket.

If £11.99 seems like a lot ofmoney for an app, bear in mindthat the equivalent print editioncosts at least £16, even throughbargain online booksellers –and you can’t carry the ConciseOED’s 240,000 words andphrases around as easily with a1,700-page hardback. You canget the same dictionary appwith a thesaurus for £17.99. ●

with Concise Oxford English Dictionary

DictionaryTURN YOUR iPHONE INTOA…

STUCK FORWORDS? Get your dictionary definitionsin an instant with the Concise OED (and optionalthesaurus) for iPhone

2

Whether it’s Celsius andFahrenheit or gallonsand litres, there are

far too many different andconflicting ways of measuringthe same thing.With MeasuresUnit and Currency Converter(59p/99¢) on your iPhone,however, you’ve got a greatway of quickly convertingbetween pretty much anymeasurement units thatyou can think of.

Measures has a whopping1,000 units in 38 categories tochoose between.What makesthe app a joy to use, though, isthe great interface, which usesscroll wheels for selectingdifferent options. You can alsowipe to clear the input and starta new conversion.

We also like Convertbot(£1.19/$1.99), which is able torecognise mixed units; it’llconvert 5 feet, 9 inches intometres, for example. ●

withMeasures and Convertbot

Unit converterTURN YOUR iPHONE INTOA…

CONVERT Turn your iPhone into a convenient unitconverter with the lovely Measures application

●


25 things to do YOUR iPHONE

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10

6

7



RulerPhone (£2.39/$3.99) calculateslengths by getting you to take aphoto of what you want to measure

with a credit card placed in the scene forreference. iHandy Carpenter (£1.19/$1.99)goes further, packing a ruler, two spiritlevels, a protractor and plumb line into asingle app. You can measure not onlylengths, but distances and angles. ●

with iHandy Carpenter

Tape measureTURN YOUR iPHONE INTOA…

One of the firstiPhone games tobe seen in public

before the App Storelaunched, Super MonkeyBall (£1.79/$2.99) gotiPhone gaming started.Now the gaming scenehas exploded, with over65,000 titles. Check outour reviews of the bestgames from page 114. ●

with SuperMonkey Ball et al

Games consoleTURN YOUR iPHONE INTOA…

You can think about Band(£2.39/$3.99) in two ways.It’s either a little tinkering

device for songwriters on themove, giving them a pad that theycan jam with to try out ideas; orit’s a pretty meaty multi-trackrecorder that you could, in theory,use to create a whole piece ofmusic from scratch.

There’s a range of musicalinstruments included in theapplication: a keyboard, a bass

guitar, an interactive appreciativeaudience, the drum kit shownbelow and a fun 12-bar bluescreator. You can layer instrumentstogether and overdub them asyou start to put together yourmini musical masterpiece.

It’s not perfect; the timingscan be tricky to get right and theexport options are a little limited,by the nature of the iPhone, butit’s good fun and is a great app tohave to show off your iPhone. ●

with BandRock group

TURN YOUR iPHONE INTOA…

Using CameraBag (£1.19/$1.99), you can applyspecial effects either to

pics – whether they’re takendirectly with your iPhone’scamera or transferred over viaiTunes – to make them look alot more interesting. All of theeffects are based on the resultsgenerated by various cameramodels throughout thegenerations. You can apply asuper-saturated effect calledHelga, go mono, use a fish-eyelens effect, make it look like aLomo shot, apply a Polaroideffect, or make the shot lookas if it were taken in 1962 or1974, if you really wanted to.

The effects are remarkablyconvincing, and we like the factthat, if you set the preference,the app will save the originalshot from the camera as well asthe cropped, edited shot, readyto be emailed or transferred toyour computer. ●

with CameraBag

Retro cameraTURN YOUR iPHONE INTOA…

If you want to track where you’ve beenwhile hiking or riding a mountain bike,Trails (£2.39/$3.99) records your position

at regular intervals, then plots the pathyou took on to a satellite or terrain map,complete with altitude data, for you toreview. You can also export the waypointdata to use in other GPS devices orcomputer software. ●

with Trails GPS Tracker

GPS loggerTURN YOUR iPHONE INTOA…

We’re happy to recommend fluff,and it doesn’t get much fluffierthan Lightsaber Unleashed (free),

which whums and buzzes convincingly asyou move your phone around. You canchoose your light colour and hilt to emulateyour favourite StarWars character, and caneven create a custom character with photosfrom your collection. ●

with Lightsaber Unleashed

LightsaberTURN YOUR iPHONE INTOA…

BYGONE BAG Go retro with your photos by usingCameraBag to emulate classic cameras of the past

MUSIC MAKER If you have the patience, Band is a great little creative app for makingmusic on themove

11



Unique Automation’s Bathomatic (free) enables you to remotelycontrol the company’s bespoke bath management systems. Thisactually lets you turn on the taps and run a bath to your chosen

temperature while commuting home. Sister app Rimote (free) controlsyour Bathovision network-enabled high-definition TV. The catch? You’llneed a fully-automated home control system by the likes of Crestron orAMX, costing in excess of £20,000. Need a cold shower after seeing thatprice? Unique’s iShower app (£2.39/$3.99) has that covered. ●

with Bathomatic and Rimote

Digital housemaidTURN YOUR iPHONE INTOA…

12



Not content with measuring your weight, theWithings Connected Scale also beams theresults for computer analysis. It’ll weigh you,

calculate your body fat percentage – by running alow intensity current through your body whereyour feet make contact with the scales – and figureout your body mass index (BMI), a rough indicatorof whether you weigh what you should.

With the accompanyingWiScale app (free),information about the extent of your portliness issent viaWi-Fi to your iPhone, where you can usethe data to make graphs that track your weight,BMI and body fat percentage changes.

This speak-your-weight machine for the iPhoneera mirrors the stylish look of Apple’s device, withtempered glass over a curved metallic back.Hopefully it’ll help reduce the size of your curved,non-metallic front… ●

withWiScale

Weight scaleTURN YOUR iPHONE INTOA…

17

18

13

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When the conversation lulls, just pullout your iPhone; with the rightapp on display, you’ll be the centre

of attention. OldBooth (£1.19/$1.99) is abrilliant app that enables you to put thefaces of your friends and colleagues ontothe heads of American yearbook-styleshots, so you can all see how you mighthave looked in another era. ●

with OldBooth

Ice-breakerTURN YOUR iPHONE INTOAN…

When only the precise time willdo the job, Atomic Clock GorgyTiming (£1.19/$1.99) syncs with

Apple’s European or US time servers overthe internet to get the most precise timepossible outside the Royal Observatory, theLondon home of Greenwich Mean Time.Yes, it’s pointless, but we think it’s fun, andthe display mimics that of a classic LEDclock created by time-measurementspecialist Gorgy Timing. You can also usethe app to set really precise alarms. ●

with Atomic Clock (Gorgy)

Atomic clockTURN YOUR iPHONE INTOAN…

We have a soft spot forthe slick FileMagnet app(£2.99/$4.99), which lets

you load docs onto your iPhoneand viewmany popular file typeswhen you’re on the go. But it doesmean you need a helper appinstalled on the computer youwant to connect to. Air Sharing(£1.79/$2.99) gets around thisby effectively turning your iPhoneinto a little NAS (network-attachedstorage) device.

Launch Air Sharing, and it tells youwhat IP address your phone is onthe network. You can then useConnect to Server on the Mac tomount it as a network drive. Itworks onWindows XP and Vistaand Linux too, so it should bepossible to connect Air Sharingfrom any computer. Performanceis good, and while it struggles alittle when asked to view complexdocuments on the iPhone, it’smostly very robust. ●

with Air SharingStorage device

TURN YOUR iPHONE INTOA…

There are so many waysto use your iPhone as aremote control that we

can barely fit them in. Applemakes two apps: Remote (free)controls your iTunes libraryover yourWi-Fi network, andKeynote Remote (59p/99¢)enables you to controlpresentations running in theversion of Keynote that comeswith iWork ’09.

Air Mouse Pro (£1.19/$1.99)gives you a virtual keyboardand mouse on your iPhone thatyou can use to control yourcomputer (using eitherWindows or Mac OS X). You cancontrol the cursor trackpad-style or by waving your iPhonearound. LogMeIn Ignition(£17.99/$29.99) lets you assumefull control of your computerover the internet, so in theoryyou can access it fromanywhere in the world. ●

with Remote, Air Mouse and LogMeIn Ignition

Remote controlTURN YOUR iPHONE INTOA…

TAKE CONTROL The Air Mouse Pro app gives youa virtual keyboard to remotely control your Mac

with Air Sharingdevice Storage16

NETWORK DEVICE Load files from your computer to an iPhone and view them on the go with Air Sharing

The keyboard on a laptop is fine, butif you have to punch in loads ofnumbers using the horizontal strip

along the top of the keyboard, it’s a pain.NumberKey (£1.19/$1.99) connects to yourlaptop (or desktop computer if necessary)viaWi-Fi, so you can use the iPhone screenas a numeric keypad. It makes enteringfigures into spreadsheets so much easier. ●

with NumberKey

Number padTURN YOUR iPHONE INTOA…

The iPhone is a life-saver when youneed the right phrase for the occasionon holiday. Coolgorilla’s Talking

Phrasebook series is among the best:French, German, Greek, Italian, Portugueseand Spanish are free through a deal withlastminute.com; Dutch and Japanese arealso available for 59p (99¢) each. ●

with Talking Phrasebook

TranslatorTURN YOUR iPHONE INTOA…



You can buy and directly downloadstuff with Apple’s App Store andiTunes Store apps, but that’s just the

start! Amazon Mobile UK (free) enables youto browse the giant store, check your wishlist and place orders. You can also buydirect with apps from the likes of Next(free), Game (free) and Debenhams (free). ●

with Amazon et al

Shopping mallTURN YOUR iPHONE INTOA…

Of course, Seismometer (59p/99¢)isn’t much use for seismologists:there’s no scale on the display, for a

start. But it’s nevertheless quite fun seeingthe accelerometer record jolts to the iPhoneon the table; and features such as theability to export data might encourage kidsto explore geological science further. ●

with Seismometer

SeismometerTURN YOUR iPHONE INTOA…

mall Shopping19

Seismometer 21

Yes, you already have a phone (unlessyou’re an iPod touch owner), butTruphone (free) could offer a cheaper

alternative. It makes calls over the internetrather than your mobile phone network.Calls to users of Truphone, Skype andGoogle Talk are free, while a £8 monthly feegives you unlimited international calls. ●

with Truphone

Phone!TURN YOUR iPHONE INTOA…

If you need to make a decision but don’thave a coin to flip, try iHandy Coin Flip(59p/99¢). Alternatively, the physics of

MotionX Dice (free) will dazzle you as youroll them to make decisions. (Apparently,some ancient civilisations used dice to electtheir governments.) Of course, you can usethe dice for conventional purposes too. ●

withMotionXDice

ArbitratorTURN YOUR iPHONE INTOAN…

Phone!20

Arbitrator22

The AmpliTube iRig is a hardware andsoftware combination that turns youriPhone into a fully featured guitar amp,

complete with effects pedals. Just plug theiRig device into your iPhone’s 3.5mm stereoheadphone minijack and the other end intoyour guitar, using a standard guitar cable.There’s another 3.5mm port on the iRig foryou to attach headphones.

Then, using the AmpliTube app (the basicversion is free, but you can pay up to£11.99/$19.99 to add more pedals), youcan listen to your guitar with a variety ofdifferent effects, such as Chorus, Delay andWah, or through different types of amp –Lead, Bass and Crunch.

It’s all great fun. The dials on each effectpedal can be adjusted endlessly, andcombined to formmany variations. The appitself looks great and is intuitive to use,although the buttons for switching pedalsare a little small to hit accurately. The effectsthemselves sound fantastic, and produce richtones that sound just like the real thing. ●

with AmpliTube

Guitar ampTURN YOUR iPHONE INTOA…

amp Guitar23



The world’s best takeaway menuwith Domino’s, Ocado, Wagamama and Yell.com

Dial a Domino’s…Yes, Domino’s delivers. And it hasan ordering app (free) you canadd to your iPhone. Deep-panpepperoni pizza (other toppingsavailable!) is a few taps away. Justremember to wipe your handsbefore you touch your iPhone.

Order Ocado…Many supermarkets’onlineordering should work on youriPhone, but none offer optimisedwebsites. Happily, Waitrose,through its Ocado brand, has anapp (free). Use it to order, so longas you live in an eligible area.

WantWagamama?You can order some light, tastyJapanese-style food from theWagamama app (free). Sadly, thecompany doesn’t deliver; onceyou’ve made your selection, you’llneed to leave the house to pick itup at your preferred time.

Or just Yell.comOf course, there’s always the YellowPages. The Yell.com app (free) candetermine your location so thatwhen you look for local takeaways,it tells you which are nearest. Tapan icon in the app to call it directly,and save favourites to Contacts. ●

Aimed largely at serious runners and othersportspeople, ithlete (£34.99/$59.99)measures heart rate variability, a research-

proven way of getting all-important feedbackabout your body’s reaction to daily training andstress. It involves you spending one minute everymorning following simple on-screen instructions,breathing in and out while a plug-in receiver(which you can get for free from ithlete’s publisher)picks up a signal from a chest-strap monitor (whichyou need to buy yourself ).

You can track daily changes in the health ofyour nervous system, indicating stress levels fromtraining and daily life. As well as on-screen graphs,ithlete gives you a daily indicator that indicateswhether you should train hard, train easy or rest upcompletely. Some expensive heart-rate watchesperform a similar function, but we like ithlete’ssimplicity of use and value for money, making ita great way to train effectively. ●

with ithlete

CardiographTURN YOUR iPHONE INTOA…

Cardiograph24

The world’s best takeaway menuwith Domino’s, Ocado, Wagamama and Yell.com

25

TURN YOUR iPHONE INTO…


TUTORIALS

26 Install apps with iTunes

30 Install apps with your iPhone

32 Back up your apps

Before you can use an app, you have to get it onto your iPhone.There are two ways to do this: by downloading the app directto your iPhone via its App Store tool, or by downloading the

app to your computer using iTunes, then transferring it to youriPhone when you next synchronise your computer and iPhone. Here,we walk you through both approaches, so you can choose thetechnique that suits your way of life better.

Backing up your apps and their associated data is vital in case youriPhone is damaged or stolen.We explain how it’s done.


DESKTOP INSTALLS

Install appswith iTunes

One of the main selling points ofApple’s touchscreen devices arethe mobile applications, or apps,

which can be downloaded and used onthe iPhone or iPod touch. An app canbe a game, a set of recipes, or theservices provided by a website suchas Google, repackaged in a standalone

program. Someare incrediblyuseful, suchas RadioBOX,which enablesyou to accessthousands of

internet radio stations, while others areentertaining time-wasters, such as thegloriously addictive Draw Race.

Apps vary in price, and while there’san extensive free catalogue, many costfrom 59p upwards, few go over £2.99,but some can be a fair bit more. You canuse nearly all iPhone apps on an iPodtouch, with the exception of a few thatrequire the iPhone’s network access.Some apps written for the iPad alsowork on an iPhone; look for a + signin the price label in the App Store. ●

Top TipTo re-arrange your appson an iPhone, press anyicon until they all shake,then drag icons around.Press the home buttonto revert to normal.

Find out how to download and organiseiPhone apps using your computer

WHAT YOU’LL NEED● Any iPhone or iPod touch● iTunes forWindows orMac

OS X (free fromwww.apple.com/itunes)


TUTORIALS Master iTunes

Anappcanbeagame,asetof recipes, or theservicesprovidedbyawebsite

1 Download iTunesBefore you can do anything with your iPhone or iPod touch, you first

need to download iTunes. This can be downloaded quickly and easily fromwww.apple.com/itunes, and needs to be installed on your computer. It thenfinds your music, and registers your iPhone so it can be used.

2 Visit the iTunes StoreYou can download and install apps from iTunes and put them on to

your iPhone. All downloads are from the iTunes Store, so you need to clickon the link in the left-hand pane of iTunes. Then you are transported into themagical world of downloadable content…

HOW TO… Install your first app

4

3

1

Jargon buster● DownloadSave a file from theinternet onto yourcomputer to use later.

● Home screenThe screen that’sdisplayed when you firstturn on your iPhone.

● SyncShort for synchronise –updating files on twodevices, such as an iPhoneand a computer, so thesame files are on each.

● TouchscreenTechnology that sensesthe movement andlocation of your fingers ona screen, which is used tocontrol your iPhone.


Master iTunes TUTORIALS

3 App StoreThe first screen that opens is the iTunes Store main page. Assuming

that you can keep your credit card holstered, you need to click on the AppStore link in the top bar, to be taken to a specialised store where a wealth ofexciting apps is on offer to download.

4 Find free appsThere are loads of free apps available in the Apps store, but many

cost up to £3, and some cost even more. You can find popular free appsby clicking Free Apps in the right-hand Top Charts pane, or browse thestore for a selection of excellent paid-for ones.

2

From iTunes to iPhone1App Store You have to visit the iTunes Store to download

the apps. At the top of the home page is a link to the AppStore, where you can find all of the available app downloads,free or otherwise.

2Virtual screen This is a representation of how your iPodtouch or iPhone looks. You can drag the app icons around

so they’re best placed for your needs.

3Device screen When your iPod touch or iPhone isconnected, it shows up here. Click this option to start

setting up your device, not only for apps, but for music, video,photos, podcasts and much more.

4App list All the apps you’ve bought or downloaded fromthe store are displayed in this list, and you can choose

which are kept on your iPod touch or iPhone by simply tickingor unticking them.

5Sync Once you’re happy with your settings, click the Syncbutton to sync your iPod touch or iPhone with your iTunes

library. If you don’t want other media to be synchronised, youcan deselect them individually.

5


TUTORIALS Master iTunes

5 Download an appTo download your app, click Get This. You are asked to confirm your

iTunes user name and password (click Create New Account if you don’t yethave a user name), then the app is downloaded to your iTunes library. See allyour available apps by clicking the Apps tab in the Library pane.

6 Plug in your iPhoneIf you haven’t already, you need to plug your iPhone into your

computer using the supplied cable. Your device is then recognised by iTunes(unless it’s the first time, in which case the device needs to be registered),and you are ready to copy the app to your iPhone.

7 Sync your iPhoneYou need to make sure that your apps are synchronised with

your iPhone. Do this by selecting your device from the list, choosing theApplications tab, and then ticking Sync Applications. Once it’s ticked, clickApply and your apps are copied across to your device.

8 Organise your appsIn the Applications menu on your device page in iTunes, you can

organise your apps, even if they’re already installed on your iPhone. You cantick or untick any of the apps from the list: only ticked devices will appear onyour iPhone. Use the Sort By and Find option above the list to pinpoint apps.

9 Arrange your appsNext to the list is a mockup of your iPhone’s home screen. Here, you

can drag around app icons, positioning them so that the ones you use mostare on the home page, and apps you downloaded for fun are on the finalpage. Click Apply to make the changes on your connected iPhone.

10 Play!Once you’ve synced your applications, disconnect your iPhone.

Congratulations: you can now use your apps wherever you are. Then you canhave fun experimenting with applications, and see which ones make thebiggest difference to your life. ●

WANT MOREGREAT APPREVIEWS &GUIDES?There’samagfor that!

Formore informationand to subscribe, go towww.myfavouritemagazines.co.uk/tap/prelaunch/

Thereareover aquarter of amillionappson theStore;wefindand review thebest!

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GamesNomatter howexperiencedyouare,we’ll help youget togripswith your iPhoneor iPad!

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GET APPS ON THE GO

Install apps with your iPhone

Third-party apps are a good way ofgetting more out of your iPhoneor iPod touch. Every iPhone

comes with some great apps, such asMaps,Weather and Safari, but withthird-party apps (those that aren’twritten by Apple itself ) it can do somuch more. There are over 250,000 ofthem available on the App Store, andmore are being added all the time.

The applications do just abouteverything; there are games, books,business, health and fitness, and musicapps, to name but a few of the differenttypes available. The games you can getare particularly good, and classics suchas Super Monkey Ball from Sega makefull use of the iPhone’s accelerometeras a novel control mechanism, so youguide the action by tilting the screen.

As we’ve just seen, you can easilydownload, organise and install apps onyour iPhone using your computer andiTunes. But you can also search for anddownload apps using the App Storeapp your iPhone. Any app you buy thisway is ready to use as soon as it’sdownloaded. If the app isn’t free, you

pay using the credit card details storedin your iTunes account, so there’s nofiddling about entering all your details:just click and buy.

When you next sync your iPhonewith your computer, any downloadedapps are backed up in your iTuneslibrary, and any you’ve downloaded onyour computer are transferred to yourdevice. Of course, there could besituations where you don’t want aparticular app to be transferred to youriPhone. You’ll find settings in iTunes fordisabling certain apps from syncing.Just go to the Applications tab whenyou connect your iPhone, and you canchoose not to sync particular apps.

Apple has allowed third parties tocharge whatever they like for theirapplications, so exercise caution anddon’t go on too much of a spendingspree. There are manygreat little programsthat are free, so if you’relooking for something inparticular, it makes senseto check them out beforeparting with your cash. ●

Top TipQuite often there’ll be twoversions of an app on theApp Store – the full paid-for app and a Lite version,which is usually free andenables you to try theprogram before you buy it.

Learn how to install third-party apps from the App Storewith these tips

WHAT YOU’LL NEED● Any iPhone or iPod touch


TUTORIALS Install apps

Therearemore than250,000appsontheAppStore, andmorearebeingadded

1 Browse the App StoreOn the iPhone, you can access the App Store

using its built-in app. In the Featured sectionyou’ll find New andWhat’s Hot selections. TheTop 25 section is also a great place to browsefor the most popular apps.

2 Get more informationTo find out more about an app, just tap on

its name when you’re browsing. You’ll get a textdescription of the app, written by its author. Scrolldown for a screenshot and customer reviews,which are great for feedback.

3 Purchase the appTo buy an app, just tap the price label of

the app (or Free if it’s free), then tap Buy Now. Theapp’s icon appears on your Home screen saying‘Loading…’and a blue progress bar indicates thedownload’s progress.

HOW TO… Download apps direct to your iPhone

Top TipThere are many greatapplications that canhelp you navigate theunderground transitsystems of the world’smajor cities, so you canplan your journeywherever you go. Have alook in the Travel categoryon the App Store for youroptions, then tap to buy.


Install apps TUTORIALS

Write an app reviewYou can write your own review of an app to tellpeople what you think about the program, andApple will add it to the App Store for the world toread, provided it’s of good enough quality. Everyoneappreciates constructive criticism rather thanthoughtless whinges, after all. App reviews can bewritten either in iTunes on a Mac or PC, or directfrom an iPhone or iPod touch.

On your iPhone, load up the App Store and locatethe app you want to review. (It needs to be oneyou’ve bought or downloaded for free.) From theInfo screen of the app, tap Reviews, followed by theCompose icon (which looks like a pad and pen) inthe top-right corner. TapWrite a Review and fill outthe form using the on-screen keyboard. You canenter a nickname, description and title for yourreview. Run your finger across the star ratings toaward the app a mark out of five. Once you’re happywith your review, tap the Send button.

You can also write reviews in iTunes whenbrowsing the App Store on your Mac or PC. Just clickonWrite a Review and type away.

1 Check for updatesUpdates for your installed apps improve

stability or speed, and occasionally add newfeatures. The App Store checks for updates everyweek, but it also checks every time you launchthe Store. When an update is available, a numberappears on the App Store icon.

4 Remove appsYou can delete apps from your iPhone.

Normally you’ll restore them from your iTuneslibrary when you sync with your Mac or PC, butif you delete a paid-for app before backing it up,then you can still retrieve it…

2 Install updatesTo install any or all of the updates, tap the

App Store icon, followed by Updates at thebottom of the screen. Your updates are listedhere. Tap an app to find out more. Updates areusually free: tap the Free button or the price labelto install the update.

5 Free restoreMake sure you’re signed in with the account

used for the original purchase and launch theApp Store on your iPhone, or use the iTunes Storeon your Mac or PC. Locate the app and click BuyApp to download it for free.

3 Update AllYou can tap Update All at the top of the

Updates list to have all your apps updated in onego. It’ll be quicker to update them if you’reconnected over aWi-Fi connection, but theprocess will still work over the cellular network.Your mobile phone network may charge for this.

HOW TO… Update your apps from your iPhone

SAFEGUARD YOURDATA

Back up your apps

Not so long ago, it was a full-blown calamity if you lost yourmobile phone. All your carefully

gathered phone numbers, all your textmessages from your partner, all thosephotos you took – gone! And evenwhen you’d been through the rigmaroleof getting a replacement phone, you’dhave to enter all that information again.But, as will come as no surprise by now,it’s all much easier with the iPhone.

Every time you connect it to yourcomputer,everything onyour iPhoneis backedup, safelyduplicated

to your computer’s hard disk. It doesn’tcopy media such as songs and videos inyour iTunes library, since they’re alreadythere, of course.

If you restore from a backup, first allyour data (applications, their settings,SMSs, network settings and so on) issent to your new iPhone, and then yourmedia will be synchronised. It doesremember which data to sync, though.This means that if you lose or damageyour iPhone, once you’ve sorted out areplacement you can simply plug it intoyour computer and it’ll be exactly like itwas the last time you used it. For thisreason, if no other, it’s worth pluggingyour iPhone into your computer asfrequently as you can – daily, if possible.

Backing up isn’t just useful for lostor damaged iPhones. If you upgrade,say, from an iPhone 3GS to an iPhone 4,then when you plug your new iPhoneinto your computer, you’ll be given theoption of setting it up as a new deviceor restoring it from an existing backup,making it child’s play to upgrade. Itworks with the iPod touch, too, so if youhave an iPod touch and then decide tobuy an iPhone, you can simply copyover all the data via iTunes usinga streamlined procedure.

For more information on iPhonebackups – and what exactly is backedup – see the Apple Support article onthe web at http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1766. ●

WHAT YOU’LL NEED● Any iPhone or iPod touch● iTunes forWindows orMac OS X

Keep all your iPhone’s data safe on your computer – and recover fromdisaster!


TUTORIALS Backup

Every timeyouconnect it toyourMacorPC,everythingonyour iPhone isbackedup

SAFETY FIRST If you loseyour iPhone, fear not –if you’ve got it safelybacked up at home

Top TipYou’d do well to manageyour backups throughiTunes, but if you reallywant to, there’s nothingto stop you from pokingabout in the backupsmanually. On a Mac, they’restored in Library ➜Application Support ➜MobileSync ➜ Backup.Windows XP puts them inDocuments and Settings➜ [user name] ➜Application Data ➜ AppleComputer ➜ MobileSync➜ Backup; and if you’re onWindows Vista, look inUsers ➜ [user name] ➜AppData ➜ Roaming\Apple Computer ➜MobileSync ➜ Backup.


Backup TUTORIALS

1 Automatic backupThe good news is that every time you plug

your iPhone into your Mac or PC using thesupplied USB cable – or even passed through viaa connection on another piece of hardware, suchas a speaker dock – your iPhone is backed upquickly and automatically.

4 Delete backupsFrom this same preferences window you

can also delete old iPhone backups. You mightonly see your most recent backup if you have theone device, but if you’re a bit of a power user thenyou might see backups for old devices too, takingup hard disk space.

6 Restore from a backupIf you connect a new, blank iPhone OS

device to your computer, iTunes will offer torestore to it from an existing backup. (See step 8.)You can also force this restore manually, perhapsbecause you’ve added an app that’s causingproblems and you want to roll back.

2 Manual backupIf you’re feeling a bit paranoid – or, say, need

to force a backup since you know you’re about tomigrate your data to a new device – then right-click on your connected iPhone in iTunes’ left-hand Source pane, and choose Back Up from thecontextual menu that appears.

5 Wipe your iPhoneYou’ll rarely want to wipe your iPhone –

unless you’re selling it or giving it away – but it’seasy to do. Select your iPhone under Devices iniTunes’ Source pane and click the Restore buttonin the Version section of the screen. You’ll begiven the option to back up first.

7 Pick a backupYou may have multiple iPhone OS devices

backed up to the same iTunes library, so afteryou’ve right-clicked on the device you want torestore and picked Restore From Backup, iTuneswill ask you which backup to use. Ensure yourdevices have unique names!

3 Manage your backupsYou can have multiple iPhones and iPod

touch devices synced to a single iTunes library,and can check their backups from the Devices tabin iTunes’preferences. Hover over an entry andcheck the phone number, serial number andhardware IMEI reference to identify it.

8 Migrate to a new deviceIf you’ve bought a new iPhone or iPod

touch, it’s easy to migrate your apps, settings andmore from your old one. Plug the old one in,perform a manual backup (see step 2) thenconnect the new device. iTunes will ask if youwant to restore from an existing backup.

HOW TO… Back up, restore, wipe andmigrate your iPhone data


CREATE

36 Edit photos on your iPhone

38 Photography apps

42 Art &Visual apps

48 Music & Sound apps

Your iPhone unlocks a whole new world of creativity, eggingyou on to achieve things you might not have believed youwere capable of. Now you can’t just take photos with your

iPhone: you can edit them on the move, making them look betteror having some fun with special effects before instantly sharing theresults with your friends. You can also sketch, make movies or evensculpt. And there’s a huge selection of musical apps, too, withoptions for accomplished musicians who have an idea on the moveor complete beginners looking for imaginative ways to make sounds.


Edit photos onyour iPhoneBring iPhoto-like functionality to your handheld Apple device

Although the iPhone is primarilyintended for consuming media,innovative developers and their

apps ensure that an iPhone, iPodtouch or iPad can also be used formany creative tasks. Currently, one ofthe most exciting creative sections ofthe App Store is the Photographyarea, where there are dozens offantastic and affordable apps forediting and modifying photos on thefly – often in a fraction of the time itwould take to do something similarusing a desktop app.

In this tutorial, we’re usingPhotogene, a user-friendly, low-costapp, which costs £1.19 at the time ofgoing to press. Photogene brings toyour iPhone the kind of editingfeatures you’re more likely to expecton your Mac in iPhoto – cropping,straightening, sharpening, colour

balance, levels and rotation. Seewww.mobile-pond.com for moreon the app’s capabilities.

Photogene’s intended as anaccessible editing environment foriPhone photographers while they’reon the move; you can take a photofrom within the app or you can grabone you took earlier via your CameraRoll in your Camera app.

While you can also import imagesfrom albums in your Photos app(thereby ensuring iPod touch users,who may not have a built-in camera,aren’t excluded from usingPhotogene), be mindful that iTunesreduces the size of photos sent toyour device, which means they’reperfectly adequate for sending inemails and viewing on a small screen,but not so great for printing out andsticking up as a poster! ●

WHAT YOU’LL NEED● An iPhone or iPod touch● iPhone OS 2.2 or later (OS 3.0+

required for email and copyingto the clipboard)

● Photogene 2.5+

BETTER IMAGES


CREATE Enhancephotos

1 Get startedIn Photogene, you start with a simple menu

of options. Tap Take photo to snap a picture towork on, Continue last session to work on anexisting in-progress edit, or Edit new photo touse a photo from the Photos app.

2 Import a photoLet’s work on a photo you’ve already taken.

Tap Edit new photo, navigate to your chosenimage and select it. The photo will load intoPhotogene. Here, we’ve selected a photo of afetching red postbox, but it’s wonky and dull.

3 Straighten your imageTap the toolbar’s Rotate icon. Use the

buttons in the horizontal row to rotate or flip yourimage. Alternatively, drag the Straighten sliderunderneath to straighten your photo, assistedby the grid that appears.

HOW TO… Improve an image in Photogene

THE FULL EDIT Photogene is a complete image-editing app youcan carry in your pocket. Crop, rotate and straighten your photos,then adjust the colours or apply special visual effects


Enhancephotos CREATE

7 Undo and reset optionsChanged your mind? To undo or redo

multiple actions, use the icons towards thebottom of the main toolbar. Effects are non-destructive and can be removed by tappingReset. Crop and straighten are reset as one.

4 Enhance levelsTap the fourth icon down. Select Levels

from the bottom toolbar and tap the Autobutton. Photogene will automatically adjust thelevels, adding punch to colours. Drag the slidersto fine-tune its settings to your preferences.

8 Save your imageOnce you’re happy with your changes, tap

the Tick icon at the bottom of the main toolbarto enter the Done screen. Tap Save to save theimage to the Camera Roll. Tap Resolution if youwish to amend the output size.

5 Boost and amend coloursTap Colors in the bottom toolbar and use

the sliders that appear to amend saturation andcolour. Boosting the former and dropping thelatter produces a nice effect on most images.Tap RGB for channel-specific controls.

9 Share your photoPhotogene enables you to share images

with your friends. Re-enter the Done screen. TapCopy to clipboard to place the photo on theclipboard; otherwise, tap Share to sharethe image via Twitter, Facebook or email. ●

6 Crop your imageTap the Scissors icon at the top of the main

toolbar to access crop tools. Drag the crop area’scorners for a live update of its dimensions. TapCrop to confirm, or crop to a specific ratio viathe depicted menu.

With Qik VideoCamera, anybodycan add video recording to the3G iPhone. It shoots up to

15fps .mov videos and is packed withfeatures such as digital zoom, volumeand brightness boost and fun videoeffects, which includes turning people’sskin blue, so they look like Avatar’sNa’vi. Video resolution is limited to400x304 or 200x152 and it can be usedin portrait and landscape mode. Qikcontains its own gallery of clips, or youcan export them to your Camera Roll oremail them right from the app. Ourfavourite feature though is the IPaddress it generates, which you simplytype into your Mac’s browser todownload the videos wirelessly withouthaving to sync them to your iPhone.

Because of the inferior camera andslower processor on older iPhones, thevideos Qik produces will never compareto the iPhone 3GS’s quality. In factthey’re pretty poor, but it’s a lot betterthan having no video at all. ●

The iPhone’s Camera appis limited to firing theshutter when you press

a button on screen. 1Shoot,however, has three modes. Inits most basic it lets you tapthe whole screen to trigger theshutter, and another mode letsyou set a five- or 10-secondtimer. The most exciting feature,uses the iPhone’s accelerometerto gauge when you’re holdingthe phone still enough to takea good shot, then grabs it.Pictures need to be reviewedand added to the camera roll.

It could use some in-apphelp, though, and you can’t usethe 3GS’s tap-to-focus featureto define a focus and exposurepriority point. ●

FREEMay replace your built-in Camera app…

Long before the iPhone’soriginal camera was beingcriticised, enthusiasts

exploited the low-fi effects fromHolga and Lomo’s cameras. Allproduced images with crazilysaturated colours andprominent vignetting.

Now, that ability and morehas come to the iPhone, andit feels right at home.WithQuadCamera, you set a delaybetween the shots, aim andpress the trigger. The shots aretaken and stitched together –you can choose between a 2x2,4x1, 4x2 or 8x1 grid – then thevignette is applied to each one.You can use a range of othereffects, and the sequential firingadds an element of time. ●

£1.19Embracing the iPhone’s snapper!

CREATE Photography

Qik VideoCamera£1.79Get video recording on your pre-3GS iPhone!

VIDEO FOROLD iPHONES

FEELING BLUE Indulge your secretSmurf fetish during a tea break

Probably the best app foradding video recording toold iPhones – and goodvalue at £1.79!

5KEY INFOUK price £1.79US price $2.99Web qik.com

Download size 3.9MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 4.0 or later

1ShootSTEADY CAMERA

HOLD STEADY1Shootdecides whenyour hand issteadyenough totake the shot

KEY INFOUK price FreeUS price FreeWeb 1shoot.wuonm.comDownload size 5.8MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.1 or later

Useful features, but the interfaceis cryptic and you can’t tap to focus

QuadCameraDELAY CAMERA

TAKE YOURTIMEQuadCameracreates aLomographyeffect

KEY INFOUK price £1.19US price $1.99Web artandmobile.comDownload size 1.0MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 4.0 or later

The interface is a little odd, but theapp exploits the camera well


CREATE Photography

Photo fx is no Photoshop-wannabe – you’re limitedto applying edits and

effects globally, and you can’tadd more than one effect at atime without saving the firstround of changes to a newimage and then loading andmanipulating the secondversion – but it’s spectacularstuff nonetheless.

Effects are split into fivesections, and you control howmuch each edit affects theimage with an intuitive set ofsliders and presets. They lookgood too, and while there’s notmuch that can be done to fixthe disappointing results fromthe iPhone’s camera, we happilyrecommend it. ●

£1.79A capable image editorwith great results

Rather than being a full-blownapplication in its own right,Photoshop Express is a

customised iPhone front-end forAdobe’s online photo sharing andediting website. The service offersrudimentary photo fiddling (crop,straighten, rotate, flip), plus abeginner’s array of filters, effects,borders and colour balancing.

The app takes the website dataand filters it through an interfacecustomised for Apple devices. Itboasts more options than the MillColour app – and more than makesup for the lack of photo-editingfunctionality from Apple. Shareimages at Photoshop.com. ●

FREEQuickly and easily edit your photos

Photo fxPHOTO ENHANCER IMAGE EDITING

EFFECTIVEPhoto fxoffers animpressivechoice ofeffects

KEY INFOUK price £1.79US price $2.99Webwww.tiffen.comDownload size 19.1MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 4.1 or later

Perfect for portraits, and somefun stuff too; useful and cheap

AutoStitchPanorama£1.79 Create stunning high-resolution panoramas

PHOTO STITCHER

MULTISTITCH The app can stitch in vertical, horizontal or mixed arrangements

KEY INFOUK price £1.79US price $2.99Webwww.cloudburstresearch.com


This is terrific fun anda great way to combatthe iPhone camera’s lackof wide-angle shooting

4You can measure how

disruptive the iPhoneand the App Store can

be when an app that takesindividual shots and stitches

them together to createseamless panoramas costs lessthan the price of a takeawaylatte. To put it in perspective, aMac app such as Stitcher costsmore than a 32GB iPhone 3GSon a cheap tariff!

And the results are good,especially as it really is allcompletely automatic. Sure,the differently exposed shotssometimes create a slightlypatchy appearance, but we’recompletely sold. The app keepsthe originals so you can alwaysedit them in another programand restitch. It can take a while(particularly since you can createhigh-res panoramas) but it’seasy, fun and cheap. ●

SEAMFREE You can create hi-res panoramicimages of up to 20mega pixels

Adobe PhotoshopExpress

EASY EDITAdjustmentscan bemadeat the touchof a fingertip.Obviously!

KEY INFOUK price FreeUS price FreeWebmobile.photoshop.comDownload size 6.6MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

Image edits on the hoof; anotherboost to the iPhone’s abilities


Photography CREATE

Take the hassle (andscissors) out of cuttingyour ex from your old

photos with Liquid Scale.Normally, when you scale an

image, everything scales in thesame proportions. Liquid Scalelets you define areas – faces, say– that should be protected, andsome that are expendable.When you drag the handlesof the image to resize it, theexpendable areas are collapsed,while retaining the subject.Photoshop itself only got thisfeature in version CS4, so it’simpressive to find it in an app.However, some details can go‘wonky’, and, short of revertingto the original saved pic, there’sno easy undo. ●

There’s more to 3DVIAMobile than droppingvirtual sofas into a picture

of your living room anduploading it to mydeco.com.The 3DVIA website encouragesits community to create andupload their 3D models online.At the time of writing, there areover 20,000 models in the3DVIA database and over200,000 registered users.

Need a render of an aircraftor a dog? You can then dropthe models into your photosand share them. As anextension of the 3DVIA website,it’s a must-have for communitymembers. You don’t need tobe an expert, though – foreveryone else, it’s a bit of fun. ●

£1.19 Smart-resize your pictures £1.19 Combine photoswith 3Dmodels

Pub nights out will neverbe the same again…Comic Touch lets you add

four different types of speechbubble (speech, thought,whisper or exclaim) to photosfrom your library or taken freshwith your iPhone.

You can add a caption,control the size of the text, addas many bubbles as you want,and save or email the resultingimage from your phone.You can also apply effects suchas bulges, dents, pinches andlight tunnel effects, and there’snow a smudging tool, too; dragyour finger around the screento move the focus of the effect.It’s easy to email the results toany of your contacts, too. ●

£1.79Add comedy captions to photos

Billed as delivering visual effectsfor the iPhone, this lightweight,novelty compositing tool

comes with 214 objects that youcan insert into your photos. Allcompositing is done with copiesof your pictures, so your originalphotos remain untouched.

It serves no serious purpose otherthan to fulfil the ‘fun for five minutes’cliché. Despite boasting no less than33 different royalty-free UFOs,miscellaneous cloud, smoke and fireeffects, various aircraft, the spaceshuttle and several kinds of missile,even birds and animals… you’reunlikely to sit back and think that it’sthe best 59p you’ve ever spent. ●

£0.59Add visual effects to your photos

CREATE Photography

Liquid Scale 3DVIA MobileCONTEXTAWARE IMAGE SCALING 3DMODELLING

EDIT THE EXCut outelements ofyour pic andmerge theremainderwithoutdistortion

3D HELP Newto all this? Goonline tocheck out thetutorial…

KEY INFOUK price £1.19US price $1.99Webwww.savoysoftware.comDownload size 1.3MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

KEY INFOUK price £1.19US price $1.99Webwww.3dvia.comDownload size 1.5MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

Astonishing tech, decent results;another reason to love the iPhone

Incredible detail, affordable priceand strong community element

Comic TouchCARTOON CAPTIONS

TOONTASTICAdd a littlecomedy toyour shots…

KEY INFOUK price £1.79US price $2.99Web plasq.comDownload size 1.9MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 2.2.1 or later

A great, fun app – tap wittycaptions on your photos for hours

CameraMagicEffects

NOVELTY EFFECTS

ADDONANTICSDigitalstickers foryour pics

KEY INFOUK price £0.59US price $0.99Webwww.addfone.comDownload size 65.8MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

It’s fun and inexpensive – but thefun can only last so long…


CREATE Photography

Remember AgingBooth?The app that takes a shotof family, friends and foes

and makes them disturbinglywrinkly and old.

Now comes FatBooth; it’s thesame basic idea, but this time itappears to add a few stone ofweight to people you shoot. It’seasy too: snap a portrait shot,drag markers into place foreyes, mouth and chin, andit does everything elseautomatically. The results aregenuinely rather good – andthe app copes well with glassesand beards – though they’rebest when working onespecially thin people.

Pictures can be shared byemail, Facebook or Twitter. . ●

This app does oneessentially frivolous thing,but does it well. Its job is

to age your photo so you cansee how you’re going to lookafter the ravages of time havetaken their toll.

You either take a photo withthe app (perfect for a night outwith friends) or choose apicture from your iPhone’sphoto gallery. Once the app hasdetected the face in the photoyou manually adjust on-screenguides to fine-tune the positionof the eyes and mouth, then letAgingBooth do its work…Thefinished image is a terrifyingglimpse into the future. Theresults are convincing but mostfaces get similar treatment. ●

Go on! Take a picture ofsomeone’s face and shakeit about a bit. Mess it up

and stretch it out of shapeusing your finger to do thedistorting on the face of youriPhone. It’s wicked and naughtybut it’s just so much fun.

Make the boss look bug-eyed or give your loved-onebee-stung lips. Just do sillythings. When you’ve finished,save the result or undo yourmischief with a quick shake ofyour iPhone. Your ‘adjusted’images can be animated to 25frames per second, and the appoffers morphing movies, too! Auniversally appealing app, justbe wary about laughing tooloud on the train home… ●

£0.59A bit of fun or a dire geekwarning?

£0.59 Seewhat you’ll look likewhen you’re old

£1.19Remember Power Goo?

OldBooth’s concept is anold one. It’s a 21st-centuryre-imagining of the

seaside cut-out that you stickyour head through to have yourphotograph taken. The stylehere though is more ‘vintage USyearbook’. Pick a gender andchoose a style for the photo.You can then select a shot fromyour library, or snap one withthe iPhone’s camera.

From here you can pinch tochange the size of the shot, usethe rotate dial to get the angleright, and adjust the brightnessof both the shot and thetemplate. Your efforts are savedto the camera roll, and can thenbe emailed or saved to yourMac or PC. ●

£1.19The best iPhone app ever. Maybe

FatBooth

AgingBooth

Face MelterPHOTOWEIGHT GAIN

ADDON YEARS

FACEMANIPULATOR

SUPERSIZEME Thinkingof gaining afew extrapounds? GetFatBooth tosee how you’lllook first

HELP THEAGED Snapa friend andput 20 yearson him!

MELTDOWNImprove anexpression,or disfigurea visage

KEY INFOUK price £0.59US price $0.99Webwww.piviandco.comDownload size 6.6MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.1.2 or later

KEY INFOUK price £0.59US price $0.99Webwww.piviandco.comDownload size 8.7MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.1.2 or later

KEY INFOUK price £1.19US price $1.99Webwww.facemelter.deDownload size 6.4MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

Good results from the right photos.Guaranteed to get you to the gym

Good fun on a night out, butyou might not like the results!

Buy it! You know you want to. Getsome fun out of the iPhone camera

OldBooth PremiumRETRO LOOK

BACK TO THEFUTURETravel backin time andsee how youmight look inanother era

KEY INFOUK price £1.19US price $1.99Webwww.getapp.netDownload size 10.7MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.1 or later

Superb! Make fun of your friendsfor endless entertainment


Photography CREATE

This is ideal if you like thelook of the Art LebedevMaximus keyboard (www.

artlebedev.com) but don’t fancyspending $1,700 (£1,183). It’sdesigned as a companion toPhotoshop and gives youaccess to many of the tools andcommands from the mainscreen and the Edit screen,which controls selections,stroke and the like.

It works well, although theconcept is a little flawed; youhave to look carefully beforeyou can stab at the correctbutton, and you can’t edit thelayouts. Professionals shouldstick to learning the keyboardshortcuts, but it might helpPhotoshop newbies. ●

£1.79A tool panel companion for Photoshop

This painting and drawingapplication can provehighly effective in the

right hands. For starters,Sketchbook Mobile provides afull-screen workspace, a 1,024x682 canvas and a 2,500% zoomfor fine-detail work. If you’re notimpressed by its 25 brushes,colour swatches and colourwheel, the ability to work acrossup to six layers is bound tomake you look twice.

Touchscreen control willnever be as fine as a graphicstablet, but that hardly matters;you can export your artworkas a PSD file and touch it uplater. Test-drive the app bydownloading the free version,Sketchbook Mobile Express. ●

£1.79Amobile version of SketchBook Pro

Layers£2.99Unleash your creativity

PAINTING TOOL

FINE LINE It’s easy to adjust how fine you want the brush stroke to be

KEY INFOUK price £2.99US price $4.99Webwww.gotow.net


Limited by theiPhone itself, butaccomplished and funfor artists and kids alike

4

There are countless paintingapps on the Store, but thisone’s special. It’s not just

that its surprisingly decentnatural media brushes (you get10 to choose from) producesome genuinely good results,aided by a slider to controlopacity and an eyedropperto suck up colour. As the namesuggests, it’s the fact that youcan add up to five layers, andeven export your creations aslayered PSDs, which makes thisapp stand out. You can evenchoose a photo as a layer; justuse the eyedropper or eraserand you can cheat at creatingdecent stabs at art.

Download the Layers ReplayViewer and you can sync yourdrawings with your Mac, thenreplay your work, export as JPGand PSD, and create QuickTimemovies for sharing online withyour friends.

The square canvas and fixedpixel dimensions can feel a bitrestrictive, and the limitationsof the iPhone platform – a lackof pressure sensitivity, plus asmall screen that necessitatescontrols having to be called upseparately with a shake of theiPhone – can be irksome, but it’sstill a good app to satisfy thosecreative urges. ●

DIFFERENT STROKES Choose from 10 differentbrushes then start erasing and smudging…

PhotoKeysPHOTOSHOP CONTROLLER

SHOPSHORTSKeepPhotoshopcommandsat yourfingertips

KEY INFOUK price £1.79US price $2.99Webmobilemouse.comDownload size 0.6MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 2.1 or later

A nice idea, but you’re betteroff learning keyboard shortcuts

Sketchbook MobilePAINTING TOOL

PAINT POWERYou get thesame paintengine asyou do inSketchbookPro…

KEY INFOUK price £1.79US price $2.99Web usa.autodesk.comDownload size 8.1MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.1.3 or later

Very capable features; again onlylimited by the iPhone itself


CREATE Art&Visual

Ever looked at a page andwondered what font hasbeen used?WhatTheFont

turns your iPhone into a fontdetective powered by MyFont’sservice of the same name.

The theory is sound, but acouple of things let it down.First, the back-end service isn’tinfallible, and because it can’tknow all the fonts in the world,you’ll sometimes slip one inthat it can’t identify (it doesoffer close matches though).

The main problem is theiPhone’s camera. It works finewith the iPhone 3GS, but if youhave the older 3G or 2G thenthe lens can’t focus enough totake usable images of anythingunder 40pt. ●

FREE Find out if it’s Serif or Sans

London’s VFX outfit The Millhas produced a photo-editing app. Mill Colour is

part calling card, part image-grading mini-tool.

In the Mill’s own words, it“emulates primary gradingtechniques used in a high-enddigital suite”…What this meansin practice is that you can selectan image from your iPhone’sphoto library or take a new one,then apply predefined styles toit – for example a warm goldentone, or a washed-out 1970spalette look. If none of thesupplied filters suit your needs,you can always fiddle aroundwith Lift, Gamma, Gain orSaturation to spit-and-polishyour favourite snaps. ●

FREE Refine imageswith this photo-edit app

Color Expert£5.99 Find the perfect colourmix in seconds

COLOUR COORDINATOR

BEAUTIFUL Complement your anchor colour then send the results via email

KEY INFOUK price £5.99US price $9.99Webwww.code-line.com


Feature-rich and polishedcolour-picking app; provedremarkably accurate as aPantone library, too

5

Designers across the world,rejoice! This app does twothings. First, it’s a reference

library of colour swatches. Youcan choose between HTML orweb-safe colours, or accesscoated and uncoated Pantoneand Pantone Goe swatches. Likeus, you’re probably suspicious ofanything claiming to offercolour-accurate Pantoneswatches on a display that hasn’tbeen calibrated, but be preparedto be impressed. Viewed evenunder fluorescent lighting, thecolours on-screen were veryclose to the chips in thereference swatches we placednext to them. Sure, you shouldcheck with a proper swatchbook before pressing Print, but itproved plenty accurate enoughon our test iPhone 3G.

The meat of the app, however,is the colour mixing stuff. You’represented with a colour wheel

and invited to spin around one‘anchor’ colour, while otherschange in relation to that colour.You can pick the relationship –monochromatic, analogous,complementary, splitcomplementary or triadic – andyou can choose whether thecolour wheel use the artistic red/yellow/blue or the scientific red/green/blue system. The result:four other colours that matchand complement your anchorcolour in different ways…Youcan then examine these colours– optionally matching them toPantone equivalents – namethem and save them. You canalso send a rich email throughthe iPhone’s Mail apps.

You can punch in RGB,Pantone or hex anchor values, oreven use the iPhone camera topick a colour. This last isn’t a veryaccurate capture method, butit’s good to have the option. ●

WhatTheFontFONT IDENTIFIER

FONT FAQThemobileserviceconnectsdirectly toMyFonts’ fontidentificationservice

KEY INFOUK price FreeUS price FreeWebwww.myfonts.comDownload size 0.2MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 2.0 or later

Good attempt and decent service,but the iPhone camera lets it down

Mill ColourPHOTOGRADING

THROUGHTHE MILLGive yourphoto a basicstyle, thenfiddle furtherwith thecolours

KEY INFOUK price FreeUS price FreeWebwww.the-mill.comDownload size 2.1MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 2.2.1 or later

A very specific app but it doeswhat it says on the tin very well!


Art&Visual CREATE

Flipbook sells itselfprimarily as a mobileanimation tool and the

results (in the right hands) canbe impressive. Head to flipbook.tv to find The Flea CannonCatastrophe, a shining exampleof just how professional theapp’s animated content can be.

For computer animators,Flipbook has some merit as apocket pre-viz tool; you cansketch a sequence from scratchor import photos from youriPhone’s photo library and traceover them. The toolset alsoincludes an onion-skinningfeature, which shows a ghostimage of the next or previousframe. There’s a free Lite versionto try out, too. ●

There are dozens ofsketching apps on theiPhone, but this one is

a bit different – it’s the digitalequivalent of a flipbook. Drawa picture using your finger, tapthe lifted flap (bottom right) toturn to a new page then drawthe next picture, using the nowgreyed-out image from theprevious page as a guide. Youcan flip through all your pagesusing the slider along thebottom, and tap the play iconto animate the series. Drawingfine detail with your podgyfinger is tricky, though theshake-to-undo feature is quitenice. While you can saveanimations, unfortunatelyyou can’t export them. ●

Animation Creator offersyou a suite of sketchingtools that enable you

to draw and generate a shortanimated clip, frame by frame.The software supports framepositioning and rotation,zooming and panning, plus theuseful ‘onion-skinning’ feature(which gives you the ability tosee the previous or next frameas a ghost image). However,there are no starting templatesand it’s quite a fiddly operationjust to get to the tools menu.

At a push, it’s an app thatmight prove useful forprototyping or pre-vizexperimentation. Althoughthe ability to add sound wouldbe a welcome feature. ●

3Dmodelling andrendering on an iPhone?Yes. Download iTracer and

you can build simple 3Dmodelsor scenes and render themfrom any viewpoint. It lacks theextended feature set of a fatterdesktop package, but iTracerboasts a material editor, opacityand refraction effects, whilemultiple light sources can beset up for complex shadowing.It’s astounding to have evenhalf of these features on amobile device. The addition of a2D curve editor and support forgeneric triangle meshes withper-vertex normals makes theprice point an absolute steal.You can also save the imagesas PNG or compressed JPG. ●

£2.99Make your doodles come to life

£1.79 Flip your finger-drawnmasterpiece £1.19 Create your ownmoving sketches

£1.79 3Dmodelling and rendering application

FlipBook

Kineo Animation Creator

iTracer HDANIMATION TOOL

ANIMATION TOOL ANIMATION TOOL

3D CREATOR

TOP LEVELDOODLE Agreat mix ofcontrol andcreativity

FLIP ITJust slideto animate…

SIMPLESKETCH Avariety ofoptions butsome basicelementscould bebetter

MODEL APPGreatfunctionalityand suitablefor a rangeof abilities

KEY INFOUK price £2.99US price $4.99Webwww.flipbook.tvDownload size 0.9MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 2.2.1 or later

KEY INFOUK price £1.79US price $1.99Webwww.kineoapp.comDownload size 1.4MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

KEY INFOUK price £1.19US price $1.99Webwww.red-software.comDownload size 2.4MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

KEY INFOUK price £1.79US price $2.99Web fabio.policarpo.nom.brDownload size 3.3MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.2 or later

A great starter for animating;we look forward to upgrades…

A fun way to animate your doodles;lack of export options though

A number of great features butno templates to get you started

The options are impressive yet theapp is surprisingly simple to use


CREATE Art&Visual

Afull-blown video-editingapp on a mobile device?Yes – with one catch: it’s

only available for the iPhone3GS and iPhone 4, not the 3G.It enables you to stitch togethervideo clips with an intuitivedrag-and-drop timeline. Youcan add audio by importingyour own music files or byrecording a voiceover. You canalso add text overlays using avariety of fonts and styles. Onesatisfied customer comments:“I’m a director of photographyand last week I took somevideos and stills on my 3GSwhilst on a recce for a filmlocation. In the half-hour Tubejourney back to the office, I hada rough edit of the scene…”●

£2.39Real video editing for professionals

£11.99Mobile storyboarding and pre-viz tool

Storyboard Composer is one of thepriciest apps here. But this mobilestoryboarding and pre-viz tool is

aimed squarely at professionals. Theapp enables you to build a storyboardsequence using photos, directions andpre-defined graphics. If you’ve takenlocation shots with your iPhone, youcan import these images into the app,then drag them into a rough runningorder, then add traditional elements.You can export the storyboard and save

it as a PDF. It’s all veryimpressive, but Cinemek hasmissed a trick by not lettingusers export the rough-cut. ●

iMovie£2.99A demo of the power of the iPhone, but limited

MOVIE EDITING

MOBILE MOVIE MOGUL Incredible ability yet we’d still like to seemore…

KEY INFOUK price £2.99US price $4.99Webwww.apple.com

Download size 35.1MBiPod touch YesRequires iOS 4.1 or later

It’s good enough, andcheap enough, that it’sworth buying, but wehope for better later…

3

You can now shoot HDvideo, edit the clips intoa movie with titles,

transitions and a soundtrack,and publish it to the internet…on a phone. Amazing.

It’s a shame then, that thisapp, technically only availablefor the iPhone 4 (though somehave hacked it to run onprevious models) is so basic.It reminds us of iLife 08; therevamped iMovie app was fastand easy to use, but it wasn’tuntil the enriched iLife 09version appeared that it becamesufficiently capable for all butthe simplest movie projects.

And we suspect that this willbe the case with this app; it’sa great basic movie-editingengine, but it will only becomecompelling with future updates.

You can import video clipsand still photos from yourcamera, or shoot directly into

the app, and then arrange themon a timeline. Tap a clip to bringup trimming handles; double-tap to add a title and removeaudio. Clips can be rearrangedon the timeline, and you canadd a soundtrack from your iPod(copyright nightmare!). You canapply one of the themes withsome cool transitions. Finishedprojects can be exported to yourcamera from where you canupload to YouTube, for example.Frustratingly, even though thevideos are in 720p, they getdownsampled to 568x320 pixelswhen published.

There’s no option to split aclip – though you could importit twice and trim – and whilesoundtrack audio ducks, there’sno control over levels, fading orlooping. Also, it has a bafflinginterface; many reviews on theApp Store criticise it for lackingfeatures that are present… ●

ReelDirector3GSMOVIEMANIPULATOR

AND CUT! TheReelDirectorinterface isvery easyto use

KEY INFOUK price £2.39US price $3.99Webwww.nexvio.comDownload size 9.2MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.1 or later

A little limited on features butdoes enhance 3GS capability

Quite simplistic considering itscore audience but very usefulfor the ideas stage of a movie

StoryboardComposer

MOBILE STORYBOARD

SCENE SETTINGStoryboard Composer canhelp to flesh out yourinitial movie concepts

KEY INFOUK price £11.99US price $19.99Webwww.cinemek.comDownload size 2.1MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later


Art&Visual CREATE

Artisan’s imagery is basedon interacting withfractal webs that dance

and swirl according to touch(similar to EoD’s particle-basedapp, Spawn Illuminati). You cancontrol the number of ‘breeders’to make the image more or lesscomplex. However, if you slowthe web movement down youcan generate curvaceous, solid-looking 3D images, which canthen be saved to your iPhone’sgallery (as long as you’re quick;the images are constantlyevolving) or uploaded tothe dedicated Flickr group.Admittedly, it’s more of anovelty than a tool, but itproves an aesthetically pleasingway to while away the time. ●

£0.59Doodlingwith realtime fractal webs

Autodesk is the biggestname in 3D animationsoftware, making

complex (and expensive) toolsfor the movie industry. Poweredby some of the technologyseen in programs like Maya,Fluid FX is simpler and fluffier inintent, offering a light-heartedway to play with photos. Youjust load a photo, choose youreffect and run your fingeracross the image. One effectsset warps the photo in variousamusing ways, and works greaton portraits. A second set addsassorted particle effects overyour image, and can enhance,say, a landscape photo. Youcan save a still at any point orrecord a video (iOS 4.1 only). ●

£1.19Warpphotosat the tapof a screen

This exercise in offbeat,monochromaticanimation has been

produced to such a professionalstandard that it’s well worth alook. Ported from the desktopversion, For All Seasons appliesvarious seasonal effects to asingle page of black and whitetext and enables you to pan,zoom or rotate the view.

For example, the Springsetting transforms the wordson the page into blossomingvector flowers. The letters thatform the words act as petals foreach electronic flower and canbe sent spinning into the airwith a deft finger-flick. The appshows off the power of theiPhone – for free. ●

Now you can explore theclassic Mandelbrot andJulia sets on your iPhone,

zooming in and in and in to theengaging equations, admiringthe repeating fractal structuresand the extraordinary levels ofvisual detail and response.

Of course, this isn’t just aboutthe mathematical artwork – noris it about the various features,which include over 100 colourpalettes, an animated zoom,screenshot capture (andexport), plus a 3D view. It’s alsoan amazing technology demothat shows just what Apple’shardware is capable of. Theability to share and explore thefractals created by the users ofthe app is a boon. ●

FREE Create interactive pieces of text art FREEMandelbrot and Julia sets

ZEN CREATIVITY

Artisan

SWIRL OFART A visusalfeast that canprove quiteaddictive

KEY INFOUK price £0.59US price $0.99Webwww.eodsoft.comDownload size 1.6MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 2.1 or later

An inexpensive stress buster/time waster; improved menu

Fluid FXPHOTO EFFECTS

PIC PLAYThere areeffects andthere’s FluidFX…

KEY INFOUK price £1.19US price $1.99Web usa.autodesk.comDownload size 8MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.2 or later

Great fun, and capable of someamazing effects

For All Seasons iFractalPRETTY POETRY MAGICALMATHEMATICS

TEXT TESTYou either‘get this’ appor you don’t!

HIGH VISCheck out thedemo videoson theAlpheccarwebsite

KEY INFOUK price FreeUS price FreeWebwww.nanikawa.comDownload size 0.3MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 2.0 or later

KEY INFOUK price FreeUS price FreeWeb iphone.alpheccar.orgDownload size 2.8MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

Incredible effects but might onlyappeal if the poetry strikes a chord

Another addictive app that putsthe power of the iPhone on display


CREATE Art&Visual

The idea behind SpawnIlluminati is that itdisplays particles on the

screen that move around andmake pretty patterns, but youalso have some control overtheir behaviour. By pinchingvarious parts of the screen youcan affect the particles’ size,colour, speed and tail length,and if you tap and hold, theyswarm towards and aroundyour fingertip. A double-tapcauses each one to burst intoa head of new trails. TheiPhone’s accelerometer is usedto determine which way is‘down’and so the particles areaffected by a kind of weakgravity, consistently droppingtowards the ground. ●

£0.59 Create, control… kiss time goodbye!

Described as a portable visualsynthesiser, Pulsar is a particle physicsapp that responds to the way youtouch, swirl or flick the screen. It’sobviously pointless: an idleexperiment with light, movementand colour that spits 57 varietiesof sprite (from symbols to stars tofighter jets) across your mobiledisplay. In terms of interactivity,you can adjust the on-screen effectsusing a selection of sliders. Gravity,explosiveness, sprite size, particlecount and edge behaviour can allbe modified. The website is veryhelpful for starting out and you cansave some of your creations, but thisapp’s appeal quickly wanes. ●

£0.59Generate vibrant graphics

Bloom£2.39 Part instrument, part composition, part artwork

MELODYMAKER

MESMERISING MOOD See if you’re you in tune with your creative side…

KEY INFOUK price £2.39US price $3.99Webwww.generativemusic.com


A truly pleasant iPhoneexperience… step intoyour own world of visual/audio harmony

4

Bloom is an endless musicmachine – a music box forthe 21st Century. You can

play it, and you can watch itplay itself” – according to it’sco-creator Brian Eno. This isa neat summary for what isessentially an interactivegenerative music applicationfrom Eno and Peter Chilvers. Themusical landscape is represented

by a full-screen subtly-colouredbackdrop. Pressing the screentriggers the playing of lightly‘clangourous’ tones – the nearerthe bottom of the screen youpress, the lower the pitch – andan expanding circular ‘ripple’effect graphic.

The application is effectivelyon a short recordable loop thatallows you to add more notes tothe piece, while a continuousdrone plays in the background.Pitches are restricted to noteswithin a pre-defined scale, verymuch in the style of Eno’sambient works as you wouldexpect. A little more moodvariety would be appreciated…

This app may not be veryuseful in the studio, but it is abeautiful piece of sound and artwork nonetheless. However, itwould only really be worth themoney for fans of Eno andgenerative music. ●

NO ABILITY REQUIRED You don’t need to beamusical genius to create digital melodies

Spawn IlluminatiINTERACTIVE SCREENSAVER

QUEUE UP!You’ll belooking fora queue tostand aroundin just for anexcuse to play!

KEY INFOUK price £0.59US price $0.99Webwww.eodsoft.comDownload size 4.6MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

Pretty pattern maker that’ssimple but effective

Pulsar: InteractiveParticle System

INTERACTIVE VISUAL

SLIDE SHOWUse yourfingertipsand the sliderto play withyour particles

KEY INFOUK price £0.59US price $0.99Webwww.RGB.nu/pulsarDownload size 1.1MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 2.2.1 or later

Entertaining but not necessarily inthe ‘can’t stop playing’ bracket…

“


Art&Visual CREATE

Do you love Brian Eno’sambient music? And doyou wish you had access

to an infinite Eno soundtrack inyour pocket?Welcome to Trope.

As you tap on the screen ordrag whirls of colour around,you can create a soundcapethat builds, loops and repeats inan Eno-esque way. And it’s notsurprising really, as this app wasdeveloped in collaboration withthe man himself. It can takesome getting used to and itdoesn’t help that the differentmoods and drawing shapes areso fancifully named that youstruggle to work out how tocreate specific sounds or evenparticular moods – but it’s apleasant way to zone out. ●

This cheap app from one ofour favourite developersis so simple and effective

that we can’t believe no oneelse has done it before. Spokeuses a circular format with aplay head that rotates 360degrees per bar. Each coloureddiscs represents a differentdrum sound.With noquantisation or grid markers,there are absolutely norestrictions on the rhythmsyou can create – so as you canimagine, things can get prettyrowdy! Tap tempo and fourloop-storage slots make Spokea great performance tool. It’sjust a shame you can’t loadcustom samples. Maybe that’llappear in the next update… ●

£2.39 Infinite Eno in your pocket…

£1.19Getwith the beat

£1.79The Sims invade your iPhone

Categorising Gliss is so difficult thatwe’re probably best off leaving itto developers TeaTracks, who

describe the app as “a hybrid ofsequencer, game, instrument andgenerative music system”.

Five colours represent notes,sequences and sounds, each of whichcan be triggered and sequencedby drawing lines on the screen (fullinstructions at the website). The tempoand direction of play is controlled bytilting your phone, which is excellentfun and surprisingly powerful forcreating interesting loops. ●

£0.59 Create your own layered tunes

The main screen is divided intothree sections: an arpeggiator,a chord selector, and a keyboard.

These are used to control four musicalelements: a pad, a bass, an arpeggiatedsynth sound and a sampled piano. Thechord selector sets the tonality of thepad and arpeggiator, and defines thebass note. The polyphonic piano-playing keyboard only displays a singleoctave, but the instrument has a threeoctave range. Euphonics is prettysimple and has a couple of interfaceproblems, but it’s a pleasing diversionand cheap as chips – cheaper, in fact. ●

Trope

Spoke

MUSIC GENERATOR

TURNTABLE DRUMMACHINE

MUSICMEDITATIONEno describesTrope as“moreintrospective,moreatmospheric”

PATTER ONTHE PLATTERThere’s norestrictivegrid to adhereto, just free-flowing beats

KEY INFOUK price £2.39US price $3.99Webwww.generativemusic.comDownload size 25MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 2.2 or later

KEY INFOUK price £1.19US price $1.99Web thestrangeagency.comDownload size 1.1MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 2.2.1 or later

No way to record, but that fits inwith Trope’s ephemeral charm

Easy to use, fun to play, addictive –in other words a good app!

GlissSOUND& COMPOSITION

DOODLE DITTYGliss looks goodand sounds great!

Freeform music creation. It’sreally easy to create someexcellent sounds with this app

KEY INFOUK price £1.79US price $2.99Webwww.teatracks.comDownload size 2.4MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

EuphonicsGENERATIVEMUSIC

PLAY ALONG Tap outyour own tune to theharmony provided

Even those with limited talentscan create music with thisaffordable app

KEY INFOUK price £0.59US price $0.99Webwww.frozenape.comDownload size 8.5MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 2.2.1 or later


CREATE Music&Sound

Bebot£1.19 Part robot, part polyphonic synthesizer

POLYPHONIC SYNTHESIZER

Sometimes the simplestapplications are the best, andBebot is no exception. Opening

this app, you are presented with a retro-graphic robot in a tux. Touch the screenand he emits a ‘talking robot’ tone, withpitch changes as you move from left toright, and a variable formant filter asyou move upwards. Tap the screen forone short note or keep it down to makethe sound last longer. Double-clickingon the bottom right of the screenaccesses three other synth modes(including Sawtooth, Pulse, Sine andPWM) each with a small set of editingparameters. For more accurate pitchingBebot can show a graphical note grid(with zoom). Autotune mode snaps

pitches to the nearest note and canrestrict playback to a certain scale andmulti-touch lets you build chords.

Basic effects include a variablefeedback delay and overdrive sectionand what’s more the synth ispolyphonic. The app is highlycustomisable; you can makeadjustments to effects (echo, chorus,and a warm, buzzy overdrive) or thescale itself. The ability to customisethe scale makes it easier to use otherinstruments, and you can save presets.

Bebot really scores in its immediacyand yet it’s sophisticated enough tobe used on commercial projects.Working musicians rate the app highly.You may see it as an inventive musical

instrument or simply an amusing audiotoy – either way you’ll find it addictive.The quality of animation, by graphicdesigner Lily McDonnell, is excellent(T-shirts are available), and certainlybroadens the app’s appeal.

It’s unlikely, but just in case you arestruggling to get started with Bebot,check out the user manual (www.normalware.com/bebotmanual) –although it does advise to put themanual aside and just play around!Alternatively, Jordan Rudess,keyboardist for the progressive rockband DreamTheater, has put togethera video, that may well provide theinspiration you need (check it outat www.youtube.com). ●

May seem like a gimmickbut this is music creationwith plenty of possibilityand personality!

4

01 Sweep your finger across thescreen and see what happens

to the sound and Bebot’s expression

02 You get a number of loadedpresets to chose from

03 Move the Pitch slider upor down to access higher

or lower notes

04 How can you not fall forBebot’s charms? This is

one supercute robot

01 02

03

04

KEY INFOUK price £1.19US price $1.99Webwww.normalware.comDownload size 4.5MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later


Music&Sound CREATE

This app turns your iPhoneinto a trombone. Albeit, ofthe forest variety…You

blow into the microphone atthe bottom of the phone toproduce a note, and move theslider on the on-screen leaf (abit like a party blower) tochange the pitch.

The community is working tocreate more music for your leaftrombone; it’s similar to GuitarHero in that little leaves streaminto view telling you where toposition the slider and when toblow. The result is dependenton the skill of the player. Thebest bit is that you can performon a world stage where otherusers can log on, listen to you,and rate your performance. ●

Smule Ocarina’s magicalappeal comes from itsclever use of the iPhone’s

microphone as a breath sensor.Blow into the mic to play theapp, just like you would if youwere blowing into a real ocarina(in case you’re not familiar, anocarina is an ancient instrumentthat’s a bit like a flute). Vibratocan then be applied by tiltingthe phone. The result is a simpleapp with a physical appeal.

Once you’ve mastered yourocarina technique, you canrecord your melodies and mailthem to your friends, play yoursongs to other users on theonline community, or listen tothe performance of others justby hitting the globe icon. ●

You may not have heardof the electronic musicalinstrument called Tenori-

on, but you can get a not-quite-as-good software version foryour iPhone. (Which is just aswell, as a real one costs around£750.) It presents you with agrid of squares; tap them tolight them up. It ‘plays’ in a loop,from left to right, sounding anote when the playhead hitsone of the activated squares.It’s no good for seriouscomposition, of course, andthough you can save creationswithin Melodica, there’s no wayto export them. But it’s almostimpossible to create a tune thatdoesn’t sound great in a quirkyJapanese way. ●

£1.79Music just got challenging…

£0.59Wind instrument for the iPhone

£0.59ATenori-onwith 99.92%off the price!

£1.79 Sci-fi sound generator

As Léon Theremin’s eponymousinstrument approaches its 100thbirthday, it seems fitting that it

should be brought into the 21stcentury with an iPhone tribute. You candrag your finger across the screen toplay the instrument – horizontally tochange the pitch, vertically to changethe volume – but the real fun comesfrom switching on accelerometercontrol; waving the iPhone aroundto play a song seems to make perfectsense. Built-in reverb and tremoloeffects make Thereminator our pickof the virtual Theremins. ●

Leaf Trombone

Ocarina

MelodicaMUSIC GAME

WIND INSTRUMENT

ELECTRONIC INSTRUMENT

TROMBONECHALLENGEYoumay startin a casualstyle, butthings willsoon turncompetitive

EVERYBREATHYOU TAKEUse yourbreath orcover theholes tomakemusic

LIGHTS,ACTION! Gorandom ordraw a shapethen listen tothemusicalinterpretation

KEY INFOUK price £1.79US price $2.99Webwww.smule.comDownload size 5.3MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

KEY INFOUK price £0.59US price $0.99Web ocarina.smule.comDownload size 5.1MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.1.3 or later

KEY INFOUK price £0.59US price $0.99Webwww.candycaneapps.comDownload size 29.7MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 2.2 or later

Who cares if soaking your dockconnector in spittle voids yourwarranty? It’s fun!

Simple yet effective – and witha real nod to social networking

Fun for kids of all ages; would begreat to get tunes out of the app

ThereminatorPOCKET THEREMIN

TAKE IT TO 11 You can passThereminator throughyour amp…

Select a wave and start playing– or select a wave and startwaving the iPhone around!

KEY INFOUK price £1.79US price $2.99Webwww.yonac.comDownload size 1.6MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later


CREATE Music&Sound

From 59p, iPhone userscan get a mobile taste ofiZotope’s excellent iDrum,

a simple and customisabledrum-sequencing program forMac andWindows. The app isavailable in several versions tosuit a variety of genres, fromclub to 8-bit. There’s even abeatbox edition! The editionsby big-name producers areparticularly worth checkingout; theWu Tang Clan’s RZAcontributes a NewYork hip hopversion, while Major Lazer offerup their blend of electroreggae. The option to exportdrum patterns as ringtones isalso a cool touch, and you canexchange projects with thedesktop version of iDrum. ●

From£0.59A choice of styles for this drumkit

More fun than playingalong to a metronomebut not quite as flexible

as a full drummachine,InstantDrummer allows songsto be pieced together from aselection of patterns. Eachsection can be adjusted usingcontrols for ambience, variation,intensity and gain. Like iDrum,this app is offered in a choice ofeditions. Heartbreaker includesdrum patterns recorded byDeath Cab For Cutie’s JasonMcGerr, while AirWrench andCombustion feature Nashvillesession drummer Tony Morra.You could use InstantDrummerfor backing tracks, but we thinkit’s best for keeping you in timeduring practice sessions. ●

£1.79Six variations onadrumming theme

£0.59Tinkle your iPhone ivories

With seven octaves of sampledgrand piano ready and waitingat your fingertips, Virtuoso

Piano is one of the most authenticpiano apps on the market. A built-inmetronome, basic reverb and recorder(with overdub capability) add somereasonable extra functions. There’snothing particularly groundbreakingabout Virtuoso Piano, but it’s a solidpiano app at a great price. It’s alsoworth checking out the Virtuoso PianoCelesta for iPhone, which offers similarfeatures but with four octaves of celestasamples instead of piano. ●

Great for those infuriatingmoments when you havea killer riff in your head

but no guitar to hand, iShred:Guitar & Effects is an all-in-oneguitar simulator app that allowsyou to play an on-screen axethrough virtual stomp boxesand an amp simulator.

A huge built-in libraryof chords, scales and songsprovide the inspiration, whileeffects including distortions,delay, dual chorus and a wahare all on hand. Once you’vefinished punishing thefretboard, hit Record, play yoursong and then share it online orsave and export as an audio file.Also offers support for left-handguitarists, too. ●

£2.99Music notepad for guitarists

iDrumELECTRONIC DRUMKIT

CHOOSE YOURSTYLE iDrumeditionsincludecontributionsfrom somebig-namemusicians

KEY INFOUK price From £0.59US price From $0.99Webwww.izotope.comDownload size VariesiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.1 or later

Great quality, especially if you’relooking for dance and club beats

InstantDrummerELECTRONIC DRUMKIT

VARIETY ACTThe sixeditions onoffer rangefrom rock tocountry

KEY INFOUK price £1.79 eachUS price $2.99 eachWeb sonomawireworks.comDownload size VariesiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

Simpler than iDrum, but a nicervariety of styles across editions

Virtuoso PianoKEYBOARD

A GRAND IN YOUR POCKETJust slide your fingers toroll along the keys

A really good piano sound,some useful features, anda truly affordable price

KEY INFOUK price £0.59US price $0.99Webwww.peterbmusic.comDownload size 32.8MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 2.2.1 or later

iShredGUITAR SIMULATOR

TO GREATEFFECT Youwon’t findyourself shortof effectswith iShred

KEY INFOUK price £2.99US price $4.99Web frontierdesign.comDownload size 20.4MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

A challenge to some more costlydesktop applications…


Music&Sound CREATE

Band£2.39Not themost useful app, but guaranteed to bring a smile to your face

VIRTUAL INSTRUMENT COLLECTION

Anyone who watched the iPhone-centric keynote atWWDC(Worldwide Developers

Conference) back in 2008 – it’s at www.apple.com/quicktime/qtv/wwdc08 ifyou’re interested – will know about thisstunning little app. It’s not, we’ll grantyou, the most useful of tools, but it’shuge amounts of fun and is a greatway to show off the iPhone’s tech.

Essentially, it puts a bunch ofdifferent instruments on the screenthat you can play, record, overdub andmore. Some – the piano, bass guitarand drum kit – are facsimiles of realinstruments, but our favourite is the12-bar blues instrument with which youcan build your own 12-bar blues track

in minutes. The multitrack recordingmeans you can layer on more detail –the ‘audience’ instrument is perhaps ourfavourite here, overdubbing the soundsof cheering and applauding fans onyour mini-masterpiece – and keepre-recording until you get it right. Theinstrument recording and managementsystem is a little clunky, and we’d like tosee a little more care taken over thepolish of those screens that aren’tinstruments, but these are quibbles.

The one criticism that really mattershere is that it can be difficult to get yourtimings right. Work with the system foran hour or two, and you’ll anticipate thebeat correctly, but we did get frustratedwhen we first picked it up. Judging by

comments found online, it’s a problemexperienced by other users. Professionaldrummers and musicians, beware: thisis not a tool that you can use to keepyour hand in when you’re on the road,but the ability to knock out and savea tune is handy for when inspirationstrikes. You might want to check outMooCow’s other app options, such asPianist or Guitarist, if you’re looking formore accurate instruments.

It’s easy and fun, though, and whileit’s unlikely ever to be more than adiverting novelty, we reckon it’s acouple of quid well spent. If you’re notsure about splashing your cash though,you can always check out the video atmoocowmusic.com. ●

KEY INFOUK price £2.39US price $3.99Webmoocowmusic.comDownload size 8.9MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 2.2.1 or later

Do not buy this app tomake great music. Do buyit to keep you and yourfriends entertained!

4

01 The pianomight only be twooctave but it sounds great,

and the Multi-Touch display meansyou can play complex chords

02 As well as the cheaters’ FunkyDrummermodule, there’s a

pretty complete drum kit as well

03 Use Band’s recording featuresto layer up a rich recording, or

just bash down a few notes foron-the-hoof inspiration

04 Band lets you create yourown tracks easily with the

instruments it puts on your iPhone’sscreen, including piano, bass guitarand drum kit

02

01 02

03


CREATE Music&Sound

The interface offers navigation ofsound generation, motion control,global parameters, live playback

and sequencer. Parameter editing iscleverly arranged to make the most oftwo-handed input; a virtual scroll wheelfits under your thumb, while a triggerpad can be used to play sound.

The three-voice synth is great; itsability to work polyphonically suitsgated strings and evolving pads, and itincludes excellent routing possibilities.Switch between editing the parametersfor the two oscillators, three two-stageenvelopes, single filter or modulationoptions. Each set of parameters appearas a list of sliders, and while they’re easyto modify, the program doesn’t seem torecognise more than two touches at atime. The highlight of this app is theuser-defined matrix in Play mode. Notesare triggered from a grid of buttons,and when combined with one of the 21different scales on offer, the output cansound unusual and fantastic. ●

Argon is a three-oscillatorsubtractive monosynth.Oscillator waveforms include

sawtooth, square wave, sine and whitenoise, plus a formant oscillator forvocal-style effects. Frequencymodulation, three LFOs and a resonantmulti-mode filter with low-pass slopesallow thousands of timbres. There are64 presets, with a further 512 userpreset slots available.

Argon’s step sequencer allowscomplex patterns to be set up andplayed like a customisable arpeggiator.It’s a great way of creating riffs withease. The clipboard feature allowsArgon audio data to be copied andpasted into compatible apps. The copyand paste function is finally starting toemerge as an inter-app standard,allowing you to create loops andpatterns and then send them toBeatmaker for use in your sequences.Once you start doing it, you won’tbelieve you ever managed without it. ●

bleep!Synth£2.99Top technology that’s surprisingly ease to use

ANALOG STYLE SYNTHESIZER

SWING FOR IT The 16-step sequencerincludes trigger probability andswing and we like the user-definedmatrix of the Play mode

Offers the kind of featuresyou’d expect to see onexpensive softwaresynthesizers

4KEY INFOUK price £2.99US price $4.99Webwww.bleepsynthapp.com


Argon£1.19 Create new soundswith fantastic editing control

MONOPHONIC SYNTHESIZER

MODULATE TO ACCUMULATEThe range of sounds you cancreate is staggering

With so many features tochoose from, Argon is oneof the best monophonicsynths for iPhone

5KEY INFOUK price £1.19US price $1.99Web iphone.icegear.net/argon



Music&Sound CREATE

If you’re looking for a synth app withinstant results, you’re going to bedisappointed. However, once you get

the hang of the basic structure, you’llfind that Jasuto is capable of creatingincredible sounds. The mixture ofsubtractive, additive and granularsynthesis plus sample playback, effectsand sequencing make Jasuto one of ourfavourite iPhone apps.

Jasuto’s huge range of modules(known as nodes) includes samplers,oscillators, filters, envelope generators,effects and sequencers, so you’ll needto know the basics of synthesis to getthe best results. It’s easiest to start bymodifying some of the demo patches,but you’ll soon figure out how toconstruct from scratch, linking nodesand moving them around. The rangeof sounds is mind-blowing and thesequencer allows you to triggerpatterns from within the app.Westrongly recommend the Pro version,which pushes to the next level. ●

£2.99Authentic emulation in your pocket

TechnoBox, a 303 and 808/909sequencing app comes with top-notch credentials coming from

AudioRealism, the makers of ABL2 andADM, a 606,808 and 909 drummachineemulator. In terms of its ABL-derived303 programming, technoBox is awinner, with much of the possiblesquelch and depth that you require. Thedrum section is fine-sounding, with achoice of 808 or 909 soundsets, butthere is nothing in the way of soundparameter editing here. This applicationis simple, effective and looks great, butit does lack some desirable features. ●

£1.79 Part piano, part synthesizer

Pianofly’s very simple interfacehides a surprisingly powerfulFM synth with plenty of editing

options. You can either pick a preset toplay with or create your own soundsfrom scratch. One of the app’s cleverestfeatures is the way that it overcomesthe limitations of the iPhone’s smallscreen. Dragging your finger along thescreen slides the keyboard along,meaning that you can move up ordown the piano as you play rather thanbeing limited to a single octave orhaving to stab a tiny button. It’s a neatsolution, if occasionally a little fiddly. ●

PianoflySCROLLING KEYBOARD

INSTRUMENTAL Not justa piano face…ThePianofly app offers ahuge bank of instruments

We like the ability to play anentire keyboard – althoughit’s easy to slide accidentally

KEY INFOUK price £1.79US price $2.99Webminimusic.comDownload size 0.5MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 2.0 or later

Jasuto£3.99 (Pro); £1.79 (Classic) Fully functioningmodular synthesizer

MODULAR SYNTHESIZER

PITCH PERFECT Put the time in tolearning what to do (download thePDFmanual from the website) andyou will be rewarded for your efforts

Truly remarkable to findsuch high-end technologyworking so well on thehumble mobile phone

4KEY INFOUK price £3.99/£1.79US price $6.99/$2.99Webwww.jasuto.com

Download size 9.1/8.2MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

technoBoxVIRTUAL STUDIO

SESSION MANAGERtechnoBox comes with asessionmanager whichallows you to load or savework in realtime withoutstopping the sequencer

303 bass, 808 smooth and 909punchy – a great combo foreasy to use sequencing

KEY INFOUK price £2.99US price $4.99Webwww.audiorealism.seDownload size 2.8MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later


CREATE Music&Sound

This is a fully fledged sequencerwith a slick interface. TheKeyboard page enables you to

play two instruments simultaneouslyby splitting the screen; the iPhonetouchscreen excels here and you canplay some surprisingly complex parts.Music Studio uses sampled instrumentsrather than synthesized sounds, with aselection of 21 presets to choose from(including pianos, drum kits, organs,brass, guitar, etc). The drum sounds aregood, although it’s a shame they use akeyboard interface – pad-style inputwould’ve been preferable. The Trackspage offers mixing and editing of upto 128 tracks, and Music Studio hasexcellent sequencing capabilities withgreat attention to detail.

Finally, the Effects page offers a basicbut useable reverb, tempo-synceddelay, three-band EQ and ampsimulator with adjustable overdrive.Each of the effects can be applied tothe master out or used for FX sends. ●

There are two ways to viewPropellerhead’s port of theseminal ReBirth. The first is as

a newmusic production benchmarkfor the App Store. The second is as arather ill-fitting fingermare that userswill frequently find frustrating.

Both are right…The interface scalessmoothly but not ‘pleasantly’ – it’sbitmapped rather than vector-based,resulting in blurry text and fuzzy knobsat high zoom. And no concessions havebeen made in terms of making it ‘fit’ theiPhone – it’s literally the Mac/PC versionshrunk down.

But ultimately, and considering theprice, none of that really spoils theparty. This is ReBirth – two 303s, an808, a 909, the Pattern Controlled Filter,the compressor, the delay, the stepsequencing, the song mode…Thereare even five user mods included withthe software (the mighty PBE amongthem), while you also have the abilityto share your projects online. ●

Music Studio£8.99 Completemusic production sequencer

MUSIC PRODUCTION

PLAY IT AGAINWhen inspirationstrikes capture the sounds onMusic Studio’s intuitive yetcomprehensive sequencer

Search the internet andyou won’t find a bad userreview – for good reason,there’s a lot to this app

4KEY INFOUK price £8.99US price $14.99Webwww.xewton.com

Download size 228MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

ReBirth£3.99 Relive the early days of computermusic

TECHNOMICRO COMPOSER

DANCE TRANCE Step back into1997 with Propellerhead’s ReBirthIndulge yourself in Techno,

Electro, House, Hip Hop,Electronica…

3KEY INFOUK price £3.99US price $6.99Webwww.propellerheads.se



Music&Sound CREATE

£2.99DJ appwith iPod library access

The little brother to the iPad’sBaby Decks app, Flare Scratch isdefinitely worth considering in its

own right. It’s aimed squarely at scratchDJs, with just one deck on screen. Loadfiles from your iTunes library (or uploadyour own MP3/AAC/WAV files viaWi-Fi)and cut, tear and transform to yourheart’s content. The responsive deck isexcellent, but a slightly larger volumefader would be nice.

Flare is a simple but highly effectiveturntable simulator that can be used toadd realistic scratch sounds to tracks.Put the needle on the record… ●

Dutch trance legend FerryCorsten knows a thing ortwo about DJing, so his

involvement with this DJ appinstantly grabbed our attention.The result, Cue Play DJ, is a realwinner, with the use ofWi-Fifor track uploading and mixstreaming a particular highlight.The app features virtual knobsand sliders, crossfading,simultaneous playback of twotracks and auto BPM detection.The latency issues thatWi-Ficonnections suffer frommeansthat regular headphonemonitoring isn’t possible, but anumber of different headphonemix options make it easy to getthe hang of this slightlydifferent approach. ●

Touch DJ solves the iPhonecueing conundrum usingreal-time waveforms on

screen – ‘visual mixing’, if youlike. We’re not convinced thatmixing without listeningis the right approach foreveryone, but it’s a novel way todo things. Auto BPM and beatdetection make things a littleeasier, while three-band EQ, lowpass filters and a handful ofvery basic effects increase yoursonic options. Unfortunately,the slightly high price putsTouch DJ 2 at a disadvantageagainst its direct competition.You’ll need the AudioSyncfacility in place to (http://amidio.com/dj/) to uploadyour own tunes. ●

This is not yourconventional DJ app!Reality Jockey’s game-

changing RjDj is an augmentedreality music app unlikeanything else. Load a ‘scene’and discover how the musicreacts to inputs such as fingergestures, phone movement andambient sounds. No musicalknowledge is required. Eachscene has its own set of sounds,allowing you to create yourown unique arrangements ofeverything from hip hop todub. Downloadable packs allowyou to add new scenes. You’llfind that music becomessoftware and software becomesmusic in an inspirationalmultisensory experience. ●

£5.99An industry standard DJ interface

£11.99Multi-deck visual DJ tool FREE Reactivemusic at your fingertips

Flare ScratchTURNTABLE

SCRATCH THAT Stuck ina queue?Why not perfectyour turntable techniquewhile you wait…

The iTunes access has reallyupped the ante on this fun app;Facebook upload next please…

KEY INFOUK price £2.99US price $4.99Webwww.async-games.comDownload size 6.4MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

Cue Play DJ

Touch DJ 2 RjDj

MOBILE DJ SOFTWARE

VISUALMP3MIXER AUDIO/MOTIONMUSIC

MIXINGMADEEASYCue trackson youriPhone

SPACEINVADERSOr Touch DJ 2?The interfaceis futuristicand a little‘busy’

SET THESCENE Youcan downloadmore freeand paid forscenes fromthe RjDj store

KEY INFOUK price £5.99US price $9.99Webwww.capsulatedsoftware.comDownload size 76.9MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.1.2 or later

KEY INFOUK price £11.99US price $19.99Web amidio.comDownload size 186MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.1 or later

KEY INFOUK price FreeUS price FreeWebwww.rjdj.meDownload size 53.4MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.1.2 or later

Whether you DJ professionally oras a hobby, this is a good value app

Suitable for amateurs andprofessionals, at quite a pro price

Easy, addictive, and extendablethrough new scenes: we like


CREATE Music&Sound

It’s time to say goodbye toyour dog-eared chord book.Select a Major, Minor,

Dominant or Diminished rootnote, dial in your chosenintervals and Chordmasterwill display the fingering.Choose from left- and right-handed diagrams for over7,500 chords – quickly switchbetween different positions onthe neck and play the strings tohear how each chord sounds indigital audio. Chordmaster isan excellent tool. Sadly thereare no augmented chordsincluded in the database, butotherwise this well priced appcan’t be faulted. Great forbeginners but suitable for anylevel of guitar enthusiast. ●

Anyone who owns botha guitar and an iPhoneshould buy this app. Its

main function is as a chromatictuner but it also features ametronome (with 13 soundeffects and 12 time signatures),a list of scales for each note anda chord look-up function – witha library of over 500,000 chords!The tuning feature works well;by default, it does standardEADGBE tuning, though there’sa bewildering array ofalternative tuning modes tochoose from if you’re feelingexperimental. Guitar Toolkitprovides support for six- and12-string guitar, four-, five- andsix-string bass, banjo, ukuleleand mandolin. ●

£1.19 Strike a chord… £5.99An essential tool for any guitarist

The internet is awash with free tabfiles showing you how to playyour favourite songs on a guitar,

and TabToolkit does a good job ofbringing them to life on your iPhone.

You transfer tab files to your iPhoneviaWi-Fi. TabToolkit does a decent jobof displaying plain text tab files, but thefun starts with the Guitar Pro and PowerTab files, which it can play. They containboth tab and standard musicalnotations and a guitar fretboard orkeyboard shows you which frets tofinger as the song plays. At anymoment you can pause to moveforward and backward, should youneed extra help with the difficult bits,or select a different instrument.

The concept works beautifully oniPhone – just plonk yourself down onthe sofa with your guitar and prop theiPhone on a cushion. Being able to loopa section of tab would be a welcomefeature, but we’re impressed withwhat’s offered here already. ●

Chordmaster Guitar ToolkitCHORD LIBRARY GUITAR TUNER

DON’T FRETChordmasterwill show youthe correctfingerposition

THE RIGHTNOTE TheGuitar Toolkitinterfacelooks reallyprofessional

KEY INFOUK price £1.19US price $1.99Webwww.planetwaves.comDownload size 8.2MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.1 or later

KEY INFOUK price £5.99US price $9.99Web agilepartners.comDownload size 9.1MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

A genuinely useful learningtool for budding guitarists

Encompasses all the elementsany guitarist might need

TabToolkit£5.99 A vital tool for the aspiring guitarist

TAB READER

SWITCH ITWith the Tab Toolkit, youcan switch between instruments –you can also hear as many as 112instrument voices simultaneously!

If you’re a guitar playerand iPhone owner thenthe TabToolkit app is avital purchase

5KEY INFOUK price £5.99US price $9.99Web agilepartners.com



Music&Sound CREATE


EXPLORE

60 Sat-nav on the iPhone

64 Apps for out and about

Whether it’s the daily commute or a trip around the world,travelling has been changed profoundly by the iPhone. Nowyou can check train times or plan your route through the

London Underground as you travel, not before you leave. You canalso get up-to-the-minute weather forecasts, plan a day out or carrya phrasebook in your pocket. But the biggest impact the iPhone hashad on travel is its ability to use satellite-based navigation. Here, wetest several of the major sat-nav apps you can buy, as well as findingout what they’re really like to use…


Sat-nav onthe iPhone

When it was announced that theiPhone 3G had a proper GPSchip inside it (the original

could only work out its location veryroughly by looking at which cell phonemasts were nearby), we got veryexcited at the prospect of using theiPhone as a turn-by-turn satellitenavigation system. The idea that youcould jump in your car, slot the iPhoneinto a cradle and have it direct you toyour destination, guided by billions ofdollars of satellite infrastructure, wasbeguiling. Especially since even thecheapest standalone sat-nav devicecosts more than £100…

The dream took a little while tobecome reality, but there’s now a

healthy choice of location-awarenavigation aides for iPhone, fromsimple free tools like OffMaps to thefull-blown counterparts to sat-navdevices that we’re looking at here.iPhone’s built-in Google-powered Mapsapp shouldn’t be overlooked, either;updated for iOS 4, it offers directions forroutes by car, by public transport or onfoot, with the GPS chip monitoring yourprogress along the route.

All the same, most serious travellers –and motorists in particular – will lookto specialist apps that fulfil therole of a sat-nav device. Themap graphics are designedfor clear legibility whiledriving; there are


EXPLORE Sat-nav challenge

There’s a healthy choice of apps that promise to turn youriPhone into a sat-nav.We test five options to find out howthey, and the iPhone itself, performwhile on themove


Sat-nav challenge EXPLORE

often services such as speed cameradatabases and live traffic alerts; andthe maps are typically stored on youriPhone, so you don’t need the constantinternet connection that Maps requires.

Many of this class of app are adaptedfrom proprietary products where thesoftware is built into the device youbuy: TomTom is the best-knownexample. That means the hardware isspecifically geared towards sat-nav,whereas the iPhone is designed to bea phone first and foremost. So if you’reconsidering a navigation app, it’s worthbeing aware of how the iPhoneperforms as a sat-nav device.

There are, you see, some significantissues before you make the sat-nav

leap. Although the iPhone’s screenseems a generous size when it’s in yourhand, it can seem a little on the dinkyside in the interior of a car, and we’d behappier if the screen was just a littlebit brighter…

The biggest issue, however, is thatyou need to position your iPhone inyour car in a safe position where youcan see it comfortably. The problem isthat there are relatively few iPhone carmounts available, and some of thosethat we’ve tried are ungainly andinelegant for sat-nav. General-purposein-car solutions such as the otherwiseexcellent Belkin TuneBase FM withHands-Free are fine, but because thecradles plug direct into the lightersocket, it’s unlikely that you’ll be ableget the screen into a position that’s safeto use when driving.

Voice prompts could be the answer –but sadly, the built-in speaker on alliPhone models to date is too weedy tobe used. It’s fine for hands-free callingat your desk, but at the volumesnecessary for spoken instructions to beheard above the noise of the engineand the tyres on the road, the audiocan get unpleasantly distorted.

Power is also an issue. Any iPhonefulfilling the role of a sat-nav needs aconstant supply of power for all butthe shortest of journeys. The big, backlitscreen itself is pretty power-hungry:you don’t normally keep it oncontinuously, but you’ll noticesignificant battery drain when it’sdisplaying a map constantly. And,of course, it takes a lot of power to drivethe GPS circuitry that’s keeping a lockon the satellites. Standalone sat-nav

S IGNAL STRENGTHMounting the iPhone above the dash is best for reception


EXPLORE Sat-nav challenge

As well as testing the five apps here, we setourselves a challenge.We defined five differentwaypoints around the city of Bath, beginning atRoyal High School. Then we asked the system tofind a local petrol station as a point of interest(POI), which they all did. Next, we wanted to testpostcode look-up, so we entered the postcode ofPrior Park, a local landmark; here, some stumbledthrough, not supporting full postcode look-up.

Then it was off to the train station: the TomTomand Mobile Maps apps tried to take us down aroad that was closed except for access. From thestation, we tried an address in our contacts; somefailed to parse it, and some tried to route us viaa road that’s always closed to traffic between10am and 6pm.

Of course, it would be wrong to extrapolateperformance for other locations based on thissample, but it does indicate some of the problemsyou may encounter with some apps.

CoPilot LiveUK & Ireland£19.99/$32.99Frankly, we’re impressed. At half the price ofbigger names, you’d be forgiven for thinking thatit had fewer features. In fact, this was one of ourfavourites. The basic route-finding functionalityworked great, though it did try to take us up aroad that was closed to cars at the time.We likedhow, at the end of a journey, it asked us if wewanted to add another destination, and that itducked background audio during spokeninstructions. The user interface is gaudy, but wellengineered to save on-screen clutter.

Navigation for WesternEurope – iGO My Way 2009£39.99/$69.99This app was a real disappointment, even thoughits provision of mapsWestern Europe makes itseem like good value. It’s not just that theinterface is clumsy; it also fails in some prettybasic tasks. You can’t enter postcodes, forexample, making entering of destinationsunwieldy. Although it was tested in the samecircumstances as the others, it sometimes lost itssatellite lock. Instructions were often confusing,and we had to take the iPhone out of our car kitto relaunch the app.

HOW WE TESTED...On the road, in the car

It’sworthbeingawareofhowtheiPhoneperformsasasat-navdevice.Therearesomesignificant issues

SUCK IT AND SEE The EasyPortwindow sucker, part of the TomTomCar Kit for iPhone

devices use a lot of power as well, ofcourse – but you don’t expect your sat-nav to be ready to make calls and sendemails when you get to your destination.

Kitted upHappily, these problems can be easilysolved, albeit at a price. The reception-boosting TomTom Car Kit may cost aneye-watering £99.95, but for our moneyit’s an essential purchase. The lockingwindow-sucker, which is the sameEasyPort device used in the currentcrop of TomTom sat-navs, is smart andreliable, and enables you to place theiPhone exactly where you want it. It letsthe whole thing pivot through 360degrees, so you can flip your iPhoneeasily into portrait or landscapeorientation. (This has the bonus ofallowing the power cable to trail thecorrect way; usually, right-hand drivecars have to double back the cable.)

The Car Kit also has a built-inspeaker: spoken sat-nav promptshave plenty of volume, although musicsounds no more than workmanlike. Youcan use it for hands-free calling too – itincludes a microphone, and does adecent job.

The only real drawback with theTomTom Car Kit is its price. Given thatyou’re going to have to add a sat-navapp as well, it’s a costly proposition ontop of the iPhone itself, given that youcan get an all-in TomTom device for£120 or less.

Worth the effortIf all of this sounds overly negative, it’sjust because we want you to be awareof the drawbacks. The experience ofusing your iPhone as a sat-nav isgenerally excellent, especially if youinvest in a proper car kit; and anythingthat means we have fewer individual

devices cluttering up our lives getsour vote. It’s great to arrive at yourdestination with a fully charged battery,and unexpected perks such as theability to navigate to contacts alreadysynched to your device rather thanlaboriously entering them by handis most welcome.

What’s more, this is just thebeginning. Although some apps usethe iPhone’s wireless 3G internetconnection to supply live trafficupdates (a service you normally have topay extra for), none of them really takeadvantage of the facility as much asthey could.We’re looking forward to

competition driving innovation, withprice comparisons for nearby petrolstations and even local advertisingpromotions, giving you a discount fora local restaurant, for example. iOS 4’sin-app purchasing is already leading touseful add-on services and features,and the pace of iPhone developmentmeans we shouldn’t have to wait toolong for much better sat-nav. ●

U-TURN Nomatter how efficientyour GPS system is, there’s boundto be the occasional error


Sat-nav challenge EXPLORE

Navigon MobileNavigatorBritish Isles£34.99/$59.99The first GPS app to launch remains one of thebest. The spoken and visual instructions are clearand helpful, and it gently ducks backgroundmusic so voice prompts are clearly heard. A text-to-speech engine effectively reads out roadnames. Annoyingly, though, postcode search isan extra £1.19 via in-app purchase, so you can’trely on inputting postcodes to get you to yourdestinations. Despite this, however, it made thebest decisions about how to route us throughBath during our challenge.

Mobile MapsUK & Ireland£29.99/$49.99The strong, graphic interface of this app fromSygic is more than just cosmetic: it’s easy to followthe clear on-screen map. It’s just a shame that thetext in the menu systems – and indeed even inthe information bar at the bottom of the screen –is on the small side, making its legibility poor.Happily, it does full postcode searching andcontacts look-up, though it can struggle to parsenon-standard addresses. It made one baddecision in our routing challenge, but it alsopicked a good route that no other app found.

TomTomUK & Ireland£42.99/$74.99By far the most polished of the apps here, butalso the most expensive, TomTom’s system feelslike the app Apple itself would make. Menus areclear and data is easy to enter with copy andpaste, while the crisp, reserved on-screen graphicsare a joy. But although it’s capable of somebrilliant insights about which route to take –thanks to its IQ Routes technology, we assume,which knows at what time of the day certainroads are busy – it did make a couple of badmistakes in our route challenge.

Theexperienceofusingyour iPhoneasasat-nav isgenerallyexcellent,especially, if you invest inacar kit

TomTom Western Europe£79.99Quality GPS navigation on your iPhone

SATELLITE NAVIGATION

While it took some time towelcome turn-by-turn sat navdevices to the list of gadgets

the iPhone can transform into, thanksto term changes to the iPhone SDKthere are now plenty of navigationalapps to choose from… the TomTombrand probably has the biggest cachetright now though.

The app itself is superb. It’s polished,very easy to use and features TomTom’ssmart IQ Routes system, which changesits route recommendation at differenttimes of the day, since it knows whenparticular roads get busy. Otherfacilities include being able to emaila route to a contact, an emergencymenu, Google powered search for local

businesses, and fuel efficient routes.Sure, there are things we’d like to seeadded – exploitation of the iPhone’salways-on data connection for fuelprices, for starters – but it’s the slickest,most complete solution we’ve used.It’s better than the cheaper Navigonoffering, which is hampered by notenabling full postcode look-ups.

There’s no doubt that it’s expensive,though, especially compared to, say,CoPilot Live. The dedicated car kit costsa further £99.95 and, while the handsetitself is well made and offers a decentspeaker, GPS chipset and hands-freefacility, when you’re talking about £180,you’re talking about a lot of money tospend on an app and an ‘accessory’. ●

01 As well as this portrait view,you can use TomTom in

landscape orientation

02 IQ Routes knows whereand when congestion hits

– and it routes accordingly

03 Although there’s no trafficinformation, you canmanually

avoid roadblocks

04 To stop the iPhone’s screendazzling you at night, the

screen’s brightness adjusts

KEY INFOUK price £79.99US price $74.99Webwww.tomtom.comDownload size 1.85GBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

Doubtless the slickest satnav app for the iPhone, butexpensive; and the iPhonecar kit costs £99.99…

4

01 02

03

04


EXPLORE Out&about

Sygic’s Mobile Maps UK & Irelandsatellite navigation app for theiPhone has a very distinctive look

– almost cartoon-like, almost like you’relooking at someone’s mock-up of whata sat nav system could look like. Youmay or may not like the style of screen,but it does mean that some of theinterface elements are rather small, andthey can be tricky to read when driving.

There are plenty of features – it cando a full postcode search, and the viewzooms in and out as your speedchanges as you need to see less ormore detail. You can quickly search foraddresses for contacts in your iPhone,get advice on which lane you should bein, and you can even get updates onhow the weather might affect yourjourney. The app doesn’t, however,duck playing music to let spokeninstructions be clearly heard, so that’sdown to manual control, and you’redependent on finding a good, poweredcradle for your car. ●

Sygic Mobile Maps UK & Ireland£29.99 It’s cheaper than TomTom’s, but is it good?


CAR CARTOON The visuals are quiteappealing but details are quite smallGood, and good value, but

lacking polish; auto-volumecontrol would be useful

4KEY INFOUK price £29.99US price $49.99Webwww.sygic.co.uk


Navigon MobileNavigator Europe£69.99Navigatorwith some nice features


BIRD’S EYE VIEW The default aerial ‘3D’view helps you to get your bearings

KEY INFOUK price £69.99US price $119.99Webwww.navigon.com

Download size 1.83GBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

Some nice features, easyto follow maps and user-friendly interface; again,you’ll need a decent cradle

3Navigon might not be as

recognisable a brand asGarmin or TomTom but it

has a good pedigree. It containsmaps for the whole of Europe– a UK-only version is availablefor £53 – so is a hefty 1.83GB.

Before we pick away at theedges, it’s worth saying now thatit works. The overall feel is, whilethere’s room for improvement,Navigon has put a lot of effortinto getting things right; theiPhone display toggles happilyfrom portrait to landscape, youcan easily find addresses foranyone on your contacts list,and there’s the handy Pointsof Interest facility.

So, the problems. Some arenot the fault of the app itself;

you’ll need a cradle like Griffin’sWindowSeat, and the iPhone’sspeaker is a little distortion-prone at sufficient volumes forthe spoken directions. GPS plusthe always-on screen eatsbattery life so you’ll need apower adaptor. Then there arethe app niggles; you can startmusic playing before launchingthe app, but it won’t duck to letthe spoken instructions standout, and street names aren’tdisplayed in the 3D view.

More seriously, you can’t dofull UK postcode look-ups, andthere’s no support for trafficupdates, something that couldeasily be added (presumablyfor a cost) through the iPhone’sdata connection. ●


Out&about EXPLORE

skobblerUK/Ireland LiteFREE Turn your iPhone into a sat nav – for free!


NICE STYLING This app was designed by a splinter group of Navigon developers

KEY INFOUK price FreeUS price FreeWebwww.skobbler.co.uk


It’s free, so it might do ifyou’re stuck, but we’d thinktwice about trusting it forcrucial journeys

2One of the compelling

reasons to choose a phonerunning Google’s Android

OS over an iPhone is that somerecent models include free satnav. There are many sat nav appsfor the iPhone 3G or later butthey can be expensive. Now, wehave a free alternative.

The idea’s solid: the expensivething in sat navs is the map data,but skobbler uses data fromOpenStreetMap, a community-created map to which you areinvited to contribute bugreports. While this keeps costsdown, it does mean that mapdata can be sketchy – or flat-outwrong – especially in rural areas.The app itself isn’t a multi-gigabyte download because it

downloads and caches maps asneeded; great for low-capacityiPhones, but it does mean thatyou need a data connection toget going.

The app itself is good; it wascreated by a splinter group ofdevelopers from Navigon, and itshows both in the styling andfeature-set. You get good voiceprompts (including text-to-speech renderings of roadnames) and, as well as theoption of controlling iPod audio,automatic ducking of thebackground audio when voiceprompts are given. It’s not yetiOS 4-aware for backgroundnavigation, however. Addresslook-up is poor too, and thereare no points of interest. ●

VicinityLOCATION SERVICES

WHERE AM I?Somewherenew and needa sandwich?Vicinity canhelp you…

KEY INFOUK price £1.79US price $2.99Webwww.activeguru.co.ukDownload size 0.4MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 2.2 or later

TrailsGPS TRACKER

TRACKINGDEVICE Youcan switchbetweenroad ortopographicviews

KEY INFOUK price £2.39US price $3.99Web trails.lamouroux.deDownload size 3.4MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

Got yourself lost? Need toknow where the nearestcashpoint is?Want a quick

coffee? Just want to find outmore about where you are?Vicinity is for you. Once it has alock on your current location itwill provide you with a list ofnearby amenities – cafes,pubs, restaurants, taxi firms,takeaways, petrol stations, etc –and optionally give you Maps-based directions to what youneed. It’s surprisingly detailed –we’re used to these kinds ofapps being very US-centric– though it isn’t infallible. Someexcellent extra features reallyadd to its appeal, like viewinggeotagged pictures throughFlickr or Panoramio. ●

£1.79 Youwon’t get lostwith this app!

Trails’ main feature is torecord your position asyou travel and plot it on

to a map so you can see whereyou’ve been. It records speedand distance covered, and canshow the results itself or emaila standard GPX file that you canimport into any app designedto work with these trails, suchas Google Earth. Unfortunately,once you factor in the GPS, it’sa real battery hog.Worse, it’sunstable, but the developerspromise improvements.

You can also use it withanother app on your Mac togeotag photos you took on aseparate camera as you walkedyour route; it just matches upthe timestamps for you. ●

£2.39A great geologging and geotagging tool

Find your way around a new townor get street directions instantly

Record maps while you’re out on ahike and share them with others


EXPLORE Out&about

Out&about EXPLORE

This is a great idea: whipout your iPhone whenyou park in one of those

vast shopping centre car parks,let Sally Park use your 3GS’s GPSto pinpoint its location, andthen easily find your way back.

Despite a lush design andthe addition of handy parking-specific features – a note fieldto record your zone, say, andthe ability to take a photo –Sally Park isn’t an especiallygood tool. That arrow doesn’treally seem point you in thedirection of your car; instead itmerely points north. You tap anicon to bring up a map showingyou and your car’s location, butit’s no different to dropping apin in Maps. ●

You could, in theory,download the PDF ofthe Tube map and save

it to your iPhone using, say,ReaddleDocs. And then youcould bookmark mindtheapp.com/tubes in Safari to get thelatest information about anycurrent delays on the LondonUnderground.

But at this price, you’ve littleto lose. London Tube gives youa scrollable map, informationabout what lines run througheach station, and details onyour nearest station. It can alsocalculate optimum routes, butit can’t take into account livestatus information. It’s worth itfor the scrollable map, but itcould offer a little more. ●

£0.59Where did you park your car? £0.59Visiting London? You’ll need a Tubemap

UK Train Times£4.99Route planning and live departure boards

RAIL INFORMATION

TIMETABLE Plan for a long trip or just check the time of the next train home

KEY INFOUK price £4.99US price $7.99Webwww.agant.com

Download size 2..8MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

Fairly pricey, but if youcommute by train or oftengo on long distancejourneys, it’s very useful

4

When using Britain’s railsystem, you need to beable to plan journeys

efficiently and anticipate delaysas far in advance as possible.Well, information from theNational Rail Enquiries website isnow available straight from thehorse’s mouth with this, theofficial iPhone application. (Itwill work on an iPod touch, butits dependence onWi-Fi

hotspots limits its usefulness.)When you first launch it, the

app will prompt you to set your‘home’ station based on yourcurrent location. (You also havethe option to add other stations,as well as journeys.)

Planning a journey is simpleand the live departures board isuseful, showing a summary ofthe departing trains and anydelays, but also enabling you totap on any service and see itsprogress. Frustratingly, there’s noaccess to this information whenyou plan a journey, or indeedany way to access it when you’realready on a train and want tocheck progress or upcomingstations, but the other featuresare truly useful.

Our favourite feature is ‘Nexttrain home’ that looks up yournearest station and checks thetime of the next train you cancatch to your home station. ●

STATION MASTER Built-in Google Mapshelp you locate the stations you need

Sally Park London TubeCAR FINDER TUBE PLANNER

PARK ITThe app looksgreat but isn’treally whatyou’d call apinpointer…

MIND THEAPP Thetrip plannerhelps youdetermineyour route

KEY INFOUK price £0.59US price $0.99Webwww.doseido.comDownload size 1.7MBiPod touch compatible NoRequires iOS 3.1 or later

KEY INFOUK price £0.59US price $0.99Webwww.presselite.comDownload size 2.8MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.1 or later

A good idea, and lovely design, butthe built-in Maps app is as useful

59p isn’t much for a perfectlydecent Tube map, but the appcould be better


We feel odd featuring anapp that pushes youtowards one company,

especially when that companyis, for some, controversial. Butthe Starbucks app is so good,we’re making an exception.

It lets you find nearby stores,showing opening times andfacilities. Best of all, though,it lets you explore the drinksmenu, customising to yourheart’s content, and, happily,then telling you what mocha-venti-frappa-demi-cappu-tasticincantation you need.Nutritional info is shown,too, though not for highlycustomised ones. We’d like tosee prices and Starbucks Cardintegration added. ●

FREE Fancy a coffee?

With 200 houses andalmost 1,000 squaremiles of land, many

people can find a National Trustproperty nearby. This appenables you to browse a map –that will show you propertieson a Google map – or listproperties in order of proximity.It can ping you out to the Mapsapp proper to get directions,and you can browse allproperties as well.

It’s handy and well puttogether, but there’s nothingin the app for National Trustmembers; we’d like to havebeen able to store ourmembership details in the appso we didn’t have to rememberto take our cards. ●

FREE Looking for a day outwith the family?

SAS Survival Guide£3.99The legendary survival handbook comes to your iPhone

SURVIVALMANUAL

KEY TO SURVIVAL Take Lofty’s app on your next expedition and it could help out

KEY INFOUK price £3.99US price $6.99Webwww.sassurvivalguide.com


There’s lots of good infohere; it’s just not presentedespecially well

3

LoftyWiseman’s wellrespected guide tosurviving in difficult

situations, covering topics suchas making camp, navigating, andeven trapping and preparingfood, has now arrived on theiPhone.While a book isdecidedly more reliable inemergency situations (it doesn’tneed to be charged, for a start)the idea of an app still appeals(and is a lot lighter to carryround). Not only ought you tobe reading and familiarisingyourself with the techniquesdescribed before you’re put in asurvival situation, it means youalso get video tutorials and acouple of handy utilities.

The sun compass is a gooduse of the iPhone’s tech, and thewild food advice is handy forforagers. Admittedly, the Morsecode converter is probably morecool to play with than it is useful.

The content is, of course,good and comprehensive,though the first aid section hasdrawn some criticism for beingslightly out of date.

The app, though, could use alittle more work. The icons lookgreat but the information lacksa clear visual hierarchy, and it’ssometimes presented in anorder that makes it difficult totrack down information youneed in a hurry.

The command to alter textsize takes ages to kick in,meaning you often tap multipletimes only to see the textballoon in size.

It is, however, a useful app.It would be folly to rely onan electronic device in anemergency, but on the basisthat you’re more likely to haveyour iPhone with you than aspecifically packed book, wecan see the appeal. ●

MyStarbucksSTARBUCKS COMPANION

COFFEE TO GONot sure whatto ask for instore? Createyour idealdrink on youriPhone first

KEY INFOUK price FreeUS price FreeWebwww.starbucks.co.ukDownload size 7.5MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.1 or later

A beautiful, well engineered freeapp – a gold standard for others

National TrustATTRACTION FINDER

IN YOURAREA The appwill pinpointyou, thenprovide infoon what’saround

KEY INFOUK price FreeUS price FreeWebwww.nationaltrust.org.ukDownload size 6.2MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

Doesn’t cover Scotland, andnothing for members, but useful


EXPLORE Out&about

Out&about EXPLORE

Available in many languages,including French, German,Italian and Spanish, these

phrasebooks give you essential lingoto get by abroad. They’re not aspolished as some offerings – theLonely Planet ones are consideredcomprehensive – but they’re prettygood. There are key areas, such asTravel, Food and Accommodation toShopping, Beaches, even Romance,and you’re not just limited to trying toread text and guess pronunciation;each phrase has a native speaker soyou can repeat the phrase or just holdyour phone up and have it speak foryou. Many of the phrasebooks arefree via Lastminute.com. ●

FREE/£0.59 Simple phrases for your holidays Google Earth was anapplication born for theiPhone – and it’s free! It

presents you with a globe,letting you search for places,businesses and more. All theimages are satellite and aerialshots, and you automaticallyget the most recent pictures.

You can spin the viewaround with two fingers and tiltthe phone to change the angle.Geotagged photo links areshown, along with links toWikipedia articles about whatyou’re looking at; it’s a greatway to explore an unfamiliarcity. You sometimes feel a bitlost, and it’s a little sluggishand occasionally crashy, butwe love it nonetheless. ●

FREE Thewholeworld in your hands

3

Met Office WeatherFREEOfficial weather advice for theUK

WEATHER FORECASTER

MET DATA The forecast may not be good but at least you can trust it!

KEY INFOUK price FreeUS price FreeWebwww.metoffice.gov.uk

Download size 2.7MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 2.2.1 or later

It’s not the most visuallyappealing app but thedata’s good, and it is free

The built-inWeather appon the iPhone is perfectlygood enough for getting

a quick overview of what theweather’s going to get up toover the next five days. But,saying that, Met OfficeWeather

is an app that’s really worthinstalling, and not just becauseit’s free.

Because it’s the official app ofthe UK Meteorological Office,the data’s as good as you’regoing to get. (Yes, it’s often abit off; but, as you’ll know, theBritish weather’s a particularlytricky thing to predict.) You getforecasts and animated satellitemaps of weather patterns.

However, the interface feelsugly and distinctly un-iPhone-like, and, while our experiencewas fine, some have reportedinstability. The app will offer toset your location automatically,but tends to dump you over inLondon regardless. However, fretnot, as you can set your locationmanually. For a five-day forecastin your area to decide on thebest day for a barbecue or ifyou’re planning a hike, thiscould be the app for you. ●

POOR OUTLOOK The interface could be a littlebetter styled for iPhone use

TalkingPhrasebook

TRANSLATION TOOL

PARLEZVOUS? Thesephrasebooksare amust ifyou have aniPhone andyou travel

KEY INFOUK price Free/£0.59US price Free/$0.99Webwww.coolgorilla.comDownload size 9.1MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

Ideal travel companions, andthe native voice is a great touch

Google EarthINTERACTIVE GLOBE

SMALLWORLDTravel theglobe,whereveryou are!

KEY INFOUK price FreeUS price FreeWebwww.google.comDownload size 13.4MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

Fantastic technology, althoughit could use some optimisation



ENJOY

72 Can an iPhone get you fit?

76 Lifestyle & Leisure apps

84 Social networking apps

88 Media & Entertainment apps

94 Research & Relaxation apps

Mobile phones have already transformed the way millions of uslive, thanks to innovations such text messaging and pocket-sized cameras. Now the iPhone is changing our habits and

behaviour to an even greater extent, with an app for almost everyoccasion you can think of. You can’t just send texts and emails: youcan tweet to Twitter and chat via Instant Messaging.

There’s also a wide selection of apps to enhance your lifestyle –including, as you’ll discover over the page, apps that promise tomake you fitter…


Technology’s great – but it’s partof the reason waistlines areexpanding. These days, many

people do little physical work, and relyon cars rather than their legs for gettingaround. As a writer, I’m immersed intechnology daily, but my morningcommute only involves going upstairsto my office. Unless I specifically makean effort to exercise, pounds graduallycreep on, even if I’m not shoving achocolate bar in my face every night.

Lately, exercise has taken a back seat,and I’ve noticed myself becoming unfit.

So I decided to do something aboutit – and to get technology to helprather than cause. I’m going to findout if the iPhone can help me getfitter rather than fatter.

Instead of spending time playingiPhone games, I’ll spend a few weekstrying out exercise apps. Since theiPhone’s expensive, the decision wasmade to restrict my app budget to acrisp (well, digital) tenner on the AppStore – the sort of ‘impulse purchase’summost people would be happy tospend to get in shape.

Getting startedAfter researching options on the AppStore, I decide on five apps: fourexercise aids and one weight tracker.The most expensive, at £5.99, isRunKeeper Pro, a GPS tracker forwalking, jogging and running. Using


ENJOY Fitness

Exercisehas takenabackseat, andI’venoticedmyselfbecomingunfit…I’mgoing to findout if the iPhonecangetmefitter rather than fatter

Can aniPhone getyou fit?We challenge a slightly lardy iPhone user to get fit with the helpof apps on his device. The catch: he only has a tenner to spend

iFIT The iPhone isn’t just aboutgaming and streaming video: itcan also help you plan your exerciseregime and gauge your fitness levels


the magic of technology, it logs whereyou go and integrates readings andprogress with an online account.

At 59p each, GymFu apps CrunchFu,PushupFu and SquatFu are designed totrain you over a couple of months tocomplete a number of ‘reps’ – 200crunches, 100 push-ups and 200 squats,respectively – in a single session. Thatmight sound easy to fitness gurus, butmy arms tried to make a break for it onhearing the number ‘100’ followed bythe word ‘push-ups’. My chosen weighttracker, Weightbot, is a £1.19 app witha fun, noisy interface: even if poundsaren’t shed, at least you’ll enjoyinputting your weight.

AlthoughWeightbot initially provesthe most fun to tinker with, RunKeeperand the GymFu apps are engagingenough to get me excited about theprospect of using them for seriousexercise. The GymFu apps in particularseem designed for newbies, providinginformation about how to do good-quality crunches, push-ups and squats.Along with mentioning warm-ups andstretches, they note you should take48-hour breaks between trainingsessions to give your body time torecover. My plan therefore evolves

to working with the GymFu apps andusing RunKeeper on alternate days.

Exercise regimeMy first attempt with RunKeeperinvolves several ‘wow’moments. Theapp gets a GPS fix in seconds, and Iscoot off towards the local park. Alongthe way, the app periodically barks mytime and pace, and I can see how I’mdoing at any point via the well-designed display. On returning home,the run is sent to the RunKeeperwebsite; on logging in, it’s possible

to see my route within a Google Mapsbox, how elevation affected my speed,and howmany calories I’d used. I canalso add my wife – a long-timeRunKeeper user – to my ‘street team’.

For the first timein a year, thingsare looking upfor my saggingpaunch.

The followingday with GymFuisn’t so smooth,however. I’ve

tested CrunchFu before, but not theother apps, and it takes a while beforeI figure out how to best hold the iPhoneso the apps don’t keep barking “Half!”at me for incomplete reps. In the end,having the iPhone in my pocket forSquatFu works well, and holding myiPhone at a slight angle on my thumbsduring crunches works better thanhaving it at my chest.

Over the following week, my routinecontinues – with the occasional slip. It’sduring this time that RunKeeper’s onefailing becomes apparent; although it


ENJOY Fitness

Exercise and your iPhone1 Take your timePace yourself and don’t rushexercises. If you’re using aGymFu app and it tells you torest for a couple of minutes, doso until you know you can skipbreaks without strainingyourself. Similarly, walk orslowly jog at first withRunKeeper: you can graduallyimprove your pace andlengthen your covered distanceover the days to come.

2 Exercise properlyBefore you start exercises,learn how best to performthem. For crunches and squats,the correct posture is importantfor good results and to avoidstrain. Also, remember to warmup and down and stretch beforeand after runs and otherexercise. Don’t do stretcheswithout warming up first: youcan do your muscles moreharm than good.

3 Get into a routineDoing a load of exercise oneday and then nothing for twoweeks is a bad idea. 20 minutesper day beats three hours of

hell per fortnight. If you needencouragement to keepyourself motivated, GymFuapps send regular challenges,and RunKeeper has onlineintegration that enables youto create a ‘street team’, whichcan include RunKeeper-usingfriends worldwide.

4 Learn app quirksFigure out how each app bestworks, and adapt your usage.RunKeeper is more accuratewhen your iPhone has Wi-Fidisabled, so use Generalsection in the Settings app toturn Wi-Fi off before you run.As for the GymFu apps, youmay find they work betterwhen your device is held in acertain way, so practise beforetraining properly.

5 Don’t splash out…By all means buy a sportsarmband if you get heavily intoexercising with your iPhone.But to begin, hold your deviceor put it in a pocket; or useelastic bands to strap thedevice to your arm if you’reusing PushupFu.

STRETCHWarm up and down before andafter exercise to reduce the risk of injury

TAKE TIME Don’t rush your reps: your formwill suffer and the speed won’t make you any fitter

DIY HOLDER Use elastic bands to fix theiPhone to your arm during push-ups

ILLUSTRATIONSBYANDY

MCLAUGHLIN

TICK LIST The four GymFu apps track your exercise andencourage your progress towards the ultimate target

HARD GRAPHWeightbot enables you to view how your weight has fluctuated over the year, and whether you’re on target

Myfirst attemptwithRunKeeperinvolvesseveral ‘wow’moments.TheappgetsaGPSfix in seconds,and I scootoff to the local park

provides weekly and monthly totals(activities, distance, time, calories), it’snot obvious how you’re progressingif you stick to the same route anddistance every day.

By comparison, after a few daysGymFu’s apps graph your reps fromtraining and ‘battles’, which come viaTwitter from the GymFu ‘Fubot’ and,very sporadically, real humans acrossthe globe. (You can challenge othersby score or max reps, but I find inpractice that few battle requests areanswered.) Having a graph detailingprogress is really encouraging anddefinitely spurs me on.

RunKeeper falls further by thewayside as the weather dramatically

deteriorates, but this simplydemonstrates to me the importanceof having a set of apps that enableindoors and outdoors exercise. Andmy effort in GymFu increases, evenif my overall exercise level drops.

Work in progressA few weeks have passed since I beganthis experiment. Weightbot stubbornlyrefuses to say I’m at my target weight;in fact, it doesn’t think I’ve lost morethan a rounding error. But before thisexperiment is chalked up as a failureand I start eating too many Jaffa Cakesagain, it should be noted that I’m

exercising regularly for the first timein nearly a year – and that’s mostlydown to the iPhone apps.

Admittedly, I’m a sucker for graphsand games, and seeing a downwardtrend in GymFu or an upward trend inWeightbot gets me doubly motivatedto reverse them. Surprisingly, GymFu’sTwitter challenges also help, since mybrain doesn’t seem to realise thatthey’re (mostly) automated.

I’ve noticed changes in my basicfitness, too. GymFu’s founders reckonthat 40 per cent of people double theirreps after starting to use one of theirapps, and I can already comfortably dotwice as many push-ups and squats aswhen I first started. Granted, hitting

the final GymFutargets is a longway off, but nowI’m confident thatI’ll eventually getthere. AlthoughRunKeeper isn’t inthe mix as much asI’d like (due to my

ongoing ‘wuss out of running becauseof the rain’ syndrome), I now use it totrack dog walks rather than just runs,and challenge myself to beat mywalking times – much to my dog’sannoyance, it seems.

So while I’m not going to be runningthe London Marathon any time soon orjoining an athletics team, I have gotstarted on the path to better fitness,for the kind of money that’s less thana week’s membership at my local gym.And what’s more, I still have theprincely sum of £1.05 left over tospend on a Mars bar. Er, protein bar.To spend on a protein bar… ●


Fitness ENJOY

RUN CLUB RunKeeper’s online service keeps your info safe andmakes it shareable with members of your group

GymFu’s founders reckonthat40per centofpeopledouble theirreps, and I canalreadycomfortablydo twiceasmanypush-ups

Your £10 exercise kitRunKeeper Prowww.runkeeper.com£5.99An iPhone-only app dueto its use of GPS locationtracking, RunKeeper Prois a great buy. Its activitytracking is excellent,and the clean, simpleinterface ensures strongusability. Websiteintegration and activitysharing enable you toeasily share progresswith friends. A freead-supported versionis also available.

Weightbotwww.tapbots.com£1.19There are various waysto track your weight – apad and Biro pen, Excel,the Notes app – but onlyWeightbot makes it fun.The metallic interface isengaging and emits cutenoises. Rotate yourdevice one way to viewyour weight goal; rotateit the other to see yourprogress over time.Imperial and metricoptions are available.

CrunchFu,PullupFu,PushupFuand SquatFuwww.gymfu.com£0.59 per appThe GymFu rangecomprises four apps: oneeach for crunches, push-ups, squats and pull-ups.Each app provides tipson how to exercise,training routines, a graphshowing progress and away to challenge people.Voice packs are availableif you fancy switchingFubot for a grizzled‘sarge’ or strict ‘missy’.

Add items to yourGroceries shopping list –jot things down as you

think about them throughoutthe week – and it automaticallysorts them into aisles for you.As you walk round the store,tap items to mark them as ‘got’.

The list of products isn’tespecially UK-friendly, but youcan easily add your own, andwe love that you can assignquantities (number, weight andso on) and also add notes toitems. You can reorder the aislesto match your favouritesupermarket’s layout and createmultiple lists. Shopping lists canbe emailed and items markedas favourites. A calculatorwould be handy though… ●

This is really just a storefrontto Amazon, but the apphas one more function

than just to help you buy online:Amazon Remembers.

It’s a genius service. Usingyour iPhone’s camera, take aphoto of a product, which isthen uploaded to Amazonservers. If it can identify itautomatically (it works best withCDs, games and books) it pingsthe result back instantly, readyto be bought or added to awishlist. If not, it’s anonymouslyturned over to Mechanical Turkworkers who try to identify andlink it to a product on Amazon.Results can be freakily accurate,but some are off, and there’s noway of alerting Amazon. ●

£1.19 Let your iPhone helpwith the shopping

FREEBuy, buy, buy! Plus some freaky tech

Hurrah for Delivery Status touch,Mike Piontek’s iPhone versionof the Dashboard widget that

we’ve been using for years. It plugsinto the delivery systems for Amazon,Apple, FedEx, Parcelforce, Royal Mail,UPS, USPS and more, and consolidatesall your deliveries onto one screen.

The level and precision of detailvaries depending on the carrier, butyou can simply tap the left-hand partof each line to flip up the page, Maps-style, to reveal the full tracking site;some even offer map tracking. It doessync with the Delivery Status Desktopwidget, but we’d like a Safaribookmarklet to make adding itemsa whole lot easier. ●

£2.99Track your parcels from your iPhone

Groceries

Amazon Mobile UK

SHOPPING LIST

AMAZON STOREFRONT

RETAILTHERAPYOrganise yourproducts intoaisles and youcan easilyreorder them

NEVERFORGETAmazonRemembersidentifiesproductswhen you’reout and about

KEY INFOUK price £1.19US price $1.99Webwww.sophiestication.comDownload size 8.2MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

KEY INFOUK price FreeUS price FreeWebwww.amazon.co.ukDownload size 2.5MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 2.2.1 or later

Is it necessary? No. Does it makethe weekly shop less stressful? Yes

An average shopping portal, butAmazon Remembers is astonishing

Limits is essentially asystem that can trackanything quantifiable. The

idea is simple: create a newtracking task, give it a limit –or target, depending on howyou’re thinking about the task –then enter the units you’ll bemeasuring in.

Now all you need to dois enter your values – hoursworked, weight gain (or loss;negative values are allowed),whatever. Limits shows a simplebar to illustrate how close toyour target you are. It’s a decentsystem, though you’re forced tothink laterally about how toframe your limits, and you can’tedit or remove items from thehistory or export the results. ●

£1.19Weight? Expenses? Track anything

LimitsDATA TRACKER

NEAR THELIMIT Stayon track bymonitoringyour targets

KEY INFOUK price £1.19US price $1.99Webwww.juicycocktail.comDownload size 0.1MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

Flexible, but inelegant; even atthis low price it’s a little expensive

DeliveryStatus touch

PACKAGE TRACKER

FINALCOUNTDOWNThemainview countsdown untilyourestimateddelivery date

KEY INFOUK price £2.99US price $4.99Webwww.junecloud.comDownload size 1.9MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

Attractive and functional, recentupdates make this app even better


ENJOY Lifestyle&Leisure

We don’t obsess somuch about tipcalculators in the UK

as our American friends, butthis one is so pretty and welldesigned that we’re happy tofeature it. There are free onesthat do the same thing, butwe love the attention that hasbeen lavished here.

There are options for addingpercentage tips that arerounded up, down or left exact,and you can split the billhowever you like. It picksup your localised currencyautomatically, based on youriPhone’s regional settings.There’s also a checksum/palindrome function, to helpyou avoid fraudulent bills. ●

You could use a web appto find out what’s on atthe flicks, but this app has

both flair and responsiveness.Pick a cinema from a list, or

tap to display those close toyou, and you’ll see the films andtheir times. Tap through andyou can see a short description,a poster and even watch atrailer in some cases.

The data isn’t that detailed– you can’t see whichperformances are subtitled,for example. But you can tapon the phone number of thecinema to call it. Also, you can’ttell the app what film you wantto see and have it suggest localtimes. Updated graphics for theiPhone 4 are due soon. ●

£0.59Make sure you always leave a tip £0.59 Comprehensive listings, just a tap away

Tipulator UK Cinema TimesCINEMA LISTINGSTIP CALCULATOR

A QUICK TIPThe app nowsupportsmultitaskingon neweriPhonemodels

EN ROUTEGet yourlocal cinemadetails anddirections viaGoogle Maps

KEY INFOUK price £0.59US price $0.99Webwww.sophiestication.comDownload size 1.2MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

KEY INFOUK price £0.59US price $0.99Webwww.raptorapps.comDownload size 1.1MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

Good looking and functional;ensures the waiter stays friendly

A fast app, but it should be able towork from the film of your choice

4

Bistromath£1.79Don’t panic! This bill splitter is out of thisworld

BILL SPLITTER

WORK TOGETHER Over Bluetooth up to four people can collaborate on a bill

KEY INFOUK price £1.79US price $2.99Webwww.blackpixel.com/bistromath


It goes beyond anallyretentive, but does a trickyjob with elegance. A littleUS-centric, however

The App Store is groaningunder the weight of tipcalculators, but they’re

of limited usefulness. Even inbeautifully finished apps such asTipulator you just enter the totalof a bill from a bar or restaurant,telling it howmany people arein the group, then they add a tipand split it. But what if you hadsoup and your friend plumpedfor a steak? Or three of you hada soft drink each, but a coupleshared a bottle of wine? Andwhat if Sandra has the correctmoney, but Peter only has a fiftypound note? And what’s the tip?Bistromath solves it all.

It only takes a few taps toenter the cost of the mealseveryone’s having – if you havethe time, you can tap to pickfrom a handful of configurableoptions to keep track of whetheryou’re entering a drink, a main, aside or whatever – and the real

genius is that you can defineanything as being shared amongmore than one person. A bowlof chips that three of you stolefrom? The cost is split three waysand allocated to each person.

You can type people’s namesin manually, or hook into yourContacts app to pull them in,which also shows people’sphotos if you’ve tied them intothe address book database. Oryou can add them in Bistromath.

Once you’re done, and havedecided on a tip percentage,Bistromath shows howmucheach person owes. Better still,you can tell it howmuch eachperson has put in the pot, and itwill calculate howmuch changethey need. You can even emailreceipts to folks who were atthe meal. And as if that wasn’tenough, up to four other peoplecan easily collaborate on a billoverWi-Fi. ●


Lifestyle&Leisure ENJOY

UnitsUNIT CONVERTER

GET JIGGYSimply shaketo clear thescreen andperform anew sum

KEY INFOUK price £0.59US price $0.99Web crossroad-solutions.comDownload size 3.3MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.1.3 or later

ConvertbotUNIT CONVERTER

ON A ROLLThe interfaceis appealing –simply rotatethemain dial

KEY INFOUK price £1.19US price $1.99Webwww.tapbots.comDownload size 4.4MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

This is a useful little unitconverter with supportfor area, currency, energy,

temperature, time, length,weight, speed, volume andmore. You can store three ofyour common calculations asshortcuts on dedicated buttonsat the right, but there arebuttons to help switch differentunits on the fly without havingto flip the calculator round.

We can’t help but think thevery pretty calculator skin isn’tthe most efficient UI paradigm,but it’s cheap. You can calculatea wide range of useful sums,such as the carbon dioxideemissions of your car. Andcurrencies are automaticallydownloaded every day. ●

£0.59 5.4BTUs/minute=0.127hp; of course!

While we love Units (seereview on left), thisfairly new tool is

nothing if not charming. Theinterface is stunning, althoughit’s not the most efficient wayof picking unit types and unitsthemselves. Regardless, it’spleasant to use; rotate the dialto pick currency, weight, area orwhatever, then tap to pick thefrom and to units; then enterthe value you want to convert.

We found somemoreunusual units aren’t supported– you can’t convert hectares, forinstance, and the currency listis small. Still, these could beadded later, and in mostcircumstances you’ll be satisfiedwith the supported units. ●

£1.19The conversion app glowingwith style

Nicer than using Google’s calculatorfeatures, and this is cheap

Handy, but check the supportedunits if you need unusual ones

WeightBot£1.19 Keep to your new year’s resolutions!

FILE SERVER

KEEPING TRACK You can enter your weight in either kilos or stones and pounds

KEY INFOUK price £1.19US price $1.99Webwww.tapbots.com


A beautiful, well roundedand well featured app, withpasscode lock and remotesecure backup

5

So, as 2010 draws to a close,will you keep your newyear’s resolutions? Luckily,

the iPhone is here to help.This little app is designed to

do one very simple thing: trackyour weight. It’s not using youriPhone to weigh you – werecommend you don’t standon small pieces of expensiveconsumer electronics – so you’llstill need a set of scales.

You can put your weight in upto once a day and then see yourstats plotted on a graph, so youcan gauge whether the generaltrend is up or down. You can getyear-long and day-long graphstoo, so you can see yourperformance over particulardate ranges. You can set a targetweight too, so that you havesomething to aim for.

Once you input your height,the app will calculate your BMI –Body Mass Index. This is a handy

way to categorise yourself aseither ‘ideal’, ‘overweight’,‘underweight,’ or ‘obese’.

It forecasts too, based on howmuch weight you’re gaining orlosing on average. So you’ll beable to see when, if you keepgoing the way you are, you willachieve your target weight. Ituses the calculated average, soblips are ironed out. If you’retrying to lose or gain weight bya particular date then it’s ideal.

What really makes it stand outfor us is the polish. It’s a verypretty application, and feels verywell thought-out. Entering anew weight is as simple asscrolling left or right to pickthe day (‘today’ is selected bydefault) tapping the screen,dialling in your weight, thentapping again to save. You canedit weights or pick a day andshake to remove it entirely ifyou’re feeling too guilty. ●



Pennies£1.79 Keep track ofwhat you’re spending… in style!

PERSONAL FINANCE RECORDER

The App Store is stuffed full ofapps designed to help you trackbusiness expenses, but this one is

a bit different. Pennies is designed tohelp you keep track of howmuchmoney you’ve spent from your personalbank accounts in a given month –particularly important in thesechallenging financial times.

You set yourself a budget – and thisis one of our only gripes as it can behard to set the amount using the sliderinput method provided; we’d haverather seen a plain keypad. Then everytime you spend any money, you simplyfire up Pennies, tap once to add anexpense, enter the amount with akeypad, and pick the appropriate

expense category. You have the optionof General, Food, Amusement, Travel,Household, Auto, Hobby, Personal,Electronics and Groceries, and whileyou may prefer the ability to definecustom categories, we’re happy thatthe presets cover all the day-to-dayoutgoings you’ll need.

Howmuch money is left in yourbudget for that month is then shownon a simply fuel gauge-style display. Inaddition, the home page display showsyou howmuch you’ve spent per day,and also identifies the top three thingsyou’ve spent your money on so far. Eachindividual expense can have a notelinked to it if you need to add extradetails, and those expenses that have

a note attached in the expenses listare shown with a paperclip icon.

There are only two minor criticisms;firstly, that you can’t backdate anyentries that you forget to enter on thecorrect day. Frustratingly, you also can’tedit any of your existing expenses ifyou’ve made a mistake, so any incorrectentries have to be completely deletedand re-entered.

It’s a really slick application, andthe ease with which you can entertransactions is commendable; handily,if you’re travelling it also supports £, $and €. Most convenient for when you’reout and about, Pennies is a crackinglittle app, and we have no hesitationin recommending it. ●

01 View your monthly expensemileage and see what’s left

in the tank

02 You can just as easily discoverwhat you’ve been spending

themost on

03 View a day-by-daybreakdown of your ongoing

financial outlay

04 You can add little remindernotes to specific expense

entries on the fly

KEY INFOUK price £1.79US price $2.99Webwww.designbyaknife.comDownload size 0.7MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 2.2 or later

A great way to keep track ofyour spending, and analyseyour habits. The interfacelooks gorgeous, too

4

0301

02

04



Awards£1.19Track performance and issue rewards

PERFORMANCEMONITOR

ON TRACK You can view Award details for each person in the system

KEY INFOUK price £1.19US price $1.99Webwww.awardsapp.com


A handy, pretty system, butthere’s optimisation andenriching work to be done

4

An app that’s handy forusing both at home andat work, using Awards

you can track achievements foryour children, workforce andmore.With a range of taskspeople around you have tocomplete – from washingup and walking the dog, tocompleting a presentation andtraining a new employee – you’llfind this invaluable for businessand leisure.

You begin by adding peoplefrom your Contacts list, which ishandy since it means it’s easy toissue any awards they’ve earntto the email addresses saved onthese entries. You then go onto award gold stars for anyachievements. You can eitheradd themmanually or tap a taskfrom the built-in list of Eventsand Awards – ‘tidied room’or‘handed work in ahead ofdeadline’, for example.

You can also create your owntasks and assign them a starvalue, then add them to thatperson’s history. Then you setappropriate rewards for thestars they earn – an hour ofhomework might be worth fivegold stars, for example – whichyou can issue to the recipientvia email as a pretty graphicalAward certificates; they’reredeemed in the same way.

Configuration can be a littletedious, however, and we’d liketo see some tie-in with a webservice so that the people you’remonitoring can see whatrewards they’re eligible for.

You can manage an unlimitednumber of people, and checkthrough their Award and Eventhistory to monitor theirprogress. There’s also a colour-coded star count next to eachperson’s name so you can seetheir status at a glance. ●

First, the bad news: youcan’t use this app to createlistings – something we’d

like to have seen given theiPhone’s built-in camera – buta recent update means you cannow use it to pay for won items.

The listing limitation is stillirksome to say the least.Otherwise, it’s a great way tobrowse and search eBay’sauctions. Results can be filteredin the usual way, but mainly it’sa way to keep track of auctionsyou’re involved in, either as abuyer or seller. The homescreen summarises what you’rewatching, buying and selling –just tap a button for a moredetailed rundown of theauctions you’re involved in. ●

FREE Keep track of your buying and selling

eBay MobileAUCTION TRACKER

KEEP BIDDINGMonitor allyour watcheditems as theauctions neartheir end

KEY INFOUK price FreeUS price FreeWebwww.ebay.co.ukDownload size 3.1MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.1 or later

A handy way to keep tabs onactivity but you can’t list from here

The joy of eBay is reallyhow fast and efficient itis at listing items for sale.

This has just got even fasterwith eBay’s latest iPhone appwhich uses the in-built barcodescanner to make listing an itema one-click process. As youmight expect it doesn’t includethe full selling options from thewebsite, but you can use theiPhone camera to snap yourproduct, then upload it straightto the eBay website. Also, withiOS 4.0 you can also use thebarcode scanner to identifyitems while out and about tosee if there’s any of those itemsfor sale on eBay. A worthyaddition for any keen iPhone-owning eBayer. ●

FREEUse your iPhone’s camera as a barcode

eBay SellingQUICK ITEM SELLER

SCAN IT!Make use ofyour iPhone’scamera to selland look upitems on eBay

KEY INFOUK price FreeUS price FreeWebwww.ebay.co.ukDownload size 4.3MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.1 or later

A real timesaver, but doesn’talways recognise products



Here’s a sweet take on acalendar, with a ‘less ismore’ slant. You may be

unlikely to abandon the built-inCalendar with its reams ofscheduling and multi-calendarsupport, but yearn for the dayswhen you marked birthdays,work and holidays by breakingout your highlighters. Years isone little app that will bringback those functions.

Flip back and forth to showan entire year’s worth of dateson a mini calendar, then tap ona month to add highlights. Youcan choose from four differenthighlights, and once you’vepicked one, just tap on dates tomark them. That’s it! And at thisprice, it can’t be knocked. ●

You may have troubleremembering thebirthdays of family and

friends, and Occasions promisesto help. It integrates withContacts, and automaticallypulls in dates from thebirthdays field. Even better, youcan sign into your Facebookaccount and pull in theinformation from it too, as wellas adding optional secular andreligious dates. Best of all, if abirthday has the year of birthassociated with it, Occasionswill tell you their age, too.

It does push notificationstoo, though we’d like a betterway of telling Occasions to giveus, say, a week’s warning so wehad time to buy a present. ●

£1.19Miss your pocket diary’s year-to-view? £0.59Never forget a birthday again… in theory

Years OccasionsSIMPLE CALENDAR BIRTHDAY REMINDER

DAYS GONE BYRelive thedays ofattaching ayear-to-viewcalendar inyour littleblack book

PLAN AHEADVia yourContact info,Occasions canremind you ofyour mum’sbirthday

KEY INFOUK price £1.19US price $1.99Webwww.zicronsoftware.comDownload size 0.3MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 30 or later

KEY INFOUK price £0.59US price $0.99Webwww.occasionsapp.comDownload size 4.7MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

No tie-in with Calendar and youcan’t add notes, but it’s charming

It’s a bit complicated and needspolish, but it’s good, and cheap



eScrap App£1.19Get your craft onwith this digital scrapbooking app!

IPHONEDIGITAL SCRAPBOOKER

CREATE AND SHARE You can share your creations via Twitter or Facebook

KEY INFOUK price £1.19US price $1.99Webwww.300dpi.com


A fun interactive app, andsome of the issues can beaddressed with updates

3

Scrapbooking hasn’t yettaken off in the UK like ithas in the US, but there’s

still a strong market for it. Aswith scrapbooking in the realworld, in this app you use arange of preset shapes, lettersand papers, to build up a pageof memories in the form of adigital scrapbook.

eScrap App enables you towork on scrapbooking projectson your iPhone, importingpictures from Photos. You caneither use the preset ‘QuickPages’or you choose from atheme, which includes paperand assets, to build your pageup from scratch.

The assets, as befits the well-respected brand behind the app,are of a generally very highquality, though the range iscurrently a little small. There are50 backgrounds, elements, atext tool and photo filters.

Layering up elements canbe fiddly on the iPhone’s smallscreen; it’s often tricky to selectthe thing you’re aiming for asthere’s no zoom control. Thefunctions for scaling, rotatingand ordering page furniture canalso be a bit hit and miss, andyou have to line elements upby eye only.

Still, the finished results canbe pretty, and you can sharethem with friends and family onTwitter, Facebook, via email, orby saving to Photos. Sadly,there’s no way to save a designin a way that retains its‘editability’, and the finishedpages are limited to 480x320pixels; don’t envisage printingdesigns at high quality.

It’s a fun, sweet app thathas bags of potential, but theiPhone’s small screen is afrustration. An updated iPadversion is promised. ●

FlipTimeDESK CLOCK

ON A ROLLWatch timetick by withthis retroclock andcalendar

KEY INFOUK price £0.59US price $0.99Webwww.omletworks.comDownload size 1.5MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 2.2 or later

iHome+SleepALARMCLOCK

MR SANDMANTrack yoursleepinghabits so youcan see howmuch shut-eye you’regetting

KEY INFOUK price FreeUS price FreeWebwww.ihomeintl.comDownload size 7.5MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.2 or later

The App Store isn’t shorton clock apps, but withSpoonJuice’s Night Stand

being downloaded more thanthree million times, there’sclearly an appetite. This onecaught our eye, and though it’shardly the most feature-packedapp ever developed, it’s cheapand charming.

It’s essentially a softwareversion of an old flip clock. Asthe seconds, minutes, hoursand days march past, the cardsflick down to update – and allwith a satisfying (thoughoptional) clack.

It overrides your auto-locksettings too, so you can dock itand use it as a sweet clock foryour desk or bedside. ●

£0.59 Clack! Clack! Clack! It’s retro clock time!

Search for ‘alarm clock’ andyou’ll net almost 200results in the App Store,

but we’ve highlighted this onebecause it promises a rich,rewarding experience. It uses‘sleep cards’ that you configureto a bewildering degree. Definego-to-sleep music to drift off to,rise-and-shiney music to waketo, times, days, snooze periods,wake-up mantras and more.

In theory, it’s lovely. Inpractice, though, musicsometimes doesn’t play, it’s apain for podcasts, the weatherwidget is US-only, and,depending on what speakersystem you use by your bed,you can be blasted awake bythe poor volume controls. ●

FREE Feature-packed alarm clock

If you’re a fan of analogue, retrostyling, then this is a bargain

Packed with features it promisesa lot but fails to deliver

TimeTuner£1.79An elegant clock radio for your bedside

BEDSIDE ALARMCLOCK

SWEET DREAMSWake up and fall asleep to your favourite radio station

KEY INFOUK price £1.79US price $2.99Webwww.dreamsurface.com


Despite the BBC absenceand some other glitches,TimeTuner is arecommended purchase

4

The idea of using youriPhone or iPod touch as aclock radio isn’t particularly

original, but we like this littleapp because it manages to packso much in but at the same timefeels elegant and useful.

Designed to sit vertically in apowered dock (such as a speakersystem), it displays a clock thatshows any alarms you have setplus, optionally, the time in yourhome time zone; it’s a boon fortravellers. Tap the screen onceand everything but the timedisplay slides away.

You can set multiple alarmsand have them trigger onspecific days. Opt for either analarm sound or for it to open aninternet radio station. Usefully,you can define a backup soundin this latter case so that if itcan’t pick up the station youdefined, it still wakes you upwith the alternative alarm.

It’s also possible to listen tothe radio at any time, or to hookinto your iPod’s playlists to playyour music through the app. Aclever, unobtrusive slider at thebottom of the app will set asleep timer that counts downso you can fall asleep to music.Sadly, the only browsing optionis by playlist, so it’s hard to listento podcasts or audiobooks.

Although BBC radio stationsare available through the servicethat provides the internet radiofor TimeTuner, they don’tactually show up in the app(with the exception of theWorldService), presumably becausethey use an incompatible codec.

The app needs to be runningfor alarms to sound. However,we’re paranoid, and always kepta backup alarm in Clock,although TimeTuner seemedstable, as well as clean andattractively designed. ●



This is a remote control foriTunes and Apple TV. Solong as the iPhone’s

connected to the samenetwork, you can just click theiPhone entry under Devices inthe iTunes sidebar. You have fullaccess to all the media on theconnected Mac including allplaylists, and it even pulls thealbum art across to your iPhonescreen as well.

A bonus if you use Apple TVis that you can use the iPhone’skeyboard to type onscreen,then tap to play, pause, rewindand fast-forward. The updatesin version 2 include support forshared libraries in iTunes andApple TV, and compatibilitywith the retina display. ●

Wireless headphonescan be pricey, so we’reglad to see this cheap

app that turns your iPhone oriPod touch into a wireless audioreceiver. Just plug in someheadphones or dock it and youriPhone becomes a speaker set.

It needs a server app to runon an Intel Mac or, soon, aPowerPC Mac and PC, but oncethat’s running they discovereach other instantly. It claims toneed a Core Duo, but we ran iton a 1.5GHz Intel Core Solo,with only a little stutteringwhen changing volume. Therewere occasional latency issues,too, but this was only whenwatching video. A free trialversion is also available. ●

Scanning barcodes may bea geeky kind of fun, but italso has the potential to

save you a packet.RedLaser works by using

your iPhone’s camera to read abarcode and then asking thenet for matching prices. But,surprisingly, results are morecompetent on the originaliPhone, over the 3GS.

Results from Amazon areprioritised, but it also usesGoogle Product Search tomatch results from othervendors. Its parsing of thebarcode is flawless, though theback-end systems from Amazonand Google sometimes fail.Overall, however, it can save afair bit of cash. ●

You’ve been able toremote record on yourSky+ box via a text

message or the web for a whilenow; this iPhone app enablesyou do the same from youriPhone. It’s quick and thesearchable TV guide workedwithout a hitch. Once you’vefound a program to record, clickon it, tap R and the instructionis sent to your Sky+ box via theRemote Record setup.

The interface has beenupdated from the clunkyoriginal; the TV guide graphicsare improved and you canchoose between landscape andportrait modes. It also includesan HD section, and you cansave your favourite channels. ●

FREETake control of your iTunes and Apple TV

£0.59Turn iPhone intowireless headphones FREE Cashier number four please!

FREERecord programs on Sky+ remotely

Remote

AirPhones RedLaser

Sky+ITUNES REMOTE

WIRELESS AUDIO STREAMER BARCODE SCANNING

SKY+ REMOTE SCHEDULER

TAKE CONTROLYou can createand edit theplaylists,includingyour Geniusplaylists

CHECKCOMPATIBILITYTry the freeLite version ofthe app to testfunctionalitybefore you buy

QUICK SCANNow partof Amazon,this is anincrediblyuseful freeiPhone app

DOUBLE UPMake use ofthe ‘OtherAirings’option toavoidrecordingclashes

KEY INFOUK price FreeUS price FreeWebwww.apple.comDownload size 14.8MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.1.2 or later

KEY INFOUK price £1.79US price $2.99Webwww.airphonesapp.comDownload size 0.2MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

KEY INFOUK price FreeUS price FreeWebwww.redlaser.comDownload size 2.2MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.1 or later

KEY INFOUK price FreeUS price FreeWebwww.sky.comDownload size 1.3MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

With typical Apple panache, thisremote control is a big hit at parties

Harsh on the battery, but adds ahandy string to your iPhone’s bow

Dependent on Amazon andGoogle’s back-ends, but excellent

Functional and easy to use, and theupdate has improved its appearance



Although this IM clientfrom AOL is limited –you can only add one

account and it is, of course,limited to AIM and .Mac/MobileMe sign-ins – it is slickand easy to use. Unfortunatelythere’s no tie-in with youraddress book on the iPhone soall your contacts are shown bytheir screen names; you can, atleast, add new buddies, and itconnects to your Facebookfriends too.

It proved a little more crash-prone that we’d have liked, butunchecking then resyncingsorted it out. Updates have alsoreduced this occurrence. Aversion without any adverts isavailable, for £1.79 ($2.99). ●

Hooray, it’s Skype on theiPhone! Actually, it’smuch more than that,

but that’s the big news. Fringis a multi-protocol IM client(supporting MSN Messenger,Google Talk, ICQ, Twitter,Yahoo! and AIM connections)that also enables you to chateither by text or voice over theSkype network.

It isn’t the most attractiveapp, and the buddy list-cum-address book is cumbersome.The free Skype-to-Skype callstuff does work, however, andSkypeOut worked too.

Voice calls made are nolonger restricted toWi-Ficonnections either, as it’s nowcompatible with 3G. ●

FREE Slick and easy-to-usemessenger FREE Consolidate your IM and SIP accounts

AIM FringINSTANTMESSENGER IM& SKYPE

TEXT ALERTYou can alsosend amessage toa contactvia SMS

MULTIPLECHOICEIf you use aSIP service forVoIP as well,it enablesyou to hookinto that

KEY INFOUK price FreeUS price FreeWebwww.aim.comDownload size 5.7MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

KEY INFOUK price FreeUS price FreeWebwww.fring.comDownload size 18.6MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

The multiple chats functionis a great addition to this app

A decent alternative solution tousing Skype, and less restrictive

MeeboFREE Chat to your friends on AIM, Yahoo, ICQ andmore

MULTI-PROTOCOL IM

FREE CHATMeebo stays connected so you can receive messages at any time

KEY INFOUK price FreeUS price FreeWebwww.meebo.com


Suddenly, IM on the iPhonebecomes useful. Can get abit messy with lots ofaccounts, though

4

With everyone focusedon Twitter, it’s easy toforget that instant

messaging is still around andstill popular. However, IM on theiPhone has always seemed a bitpointless to us. It’s not just thatthe flow of conversation can beinterrupted by having to peckout a message on the iPhone’son-screen keyboard, but, muchmore importantly, because olderiPhones’ inability to run apps inthe background had meant thatunless you kept your IM appopen on the screen, you’d beoffline and unreachable.

Meebo changes that, becauseit uses the push notificationsframework that Appleintroduced in iPhone OS 3.0.Rather than apps running in thebackground, Apple maintains apersistent connection with youriPhone overWi-Fi or the mobilenetwork, and developers can

then push notifications out toyou via Apple.

The practical upshot of this isthat you don’t even have to havethe Meebo app open on youriPhone in order to let people getin touch over IM. So long as it’scorrectly configured (just acceptthe defaults), notifications ofnew chats – or new replies toexisting conversations – pop upover whatever you’re doing onyour iPhone just as it would witha text message. Tap on the Viewoption, and you’re taken rightinto the conversation.

Meebo supports everyIM protocol we’ve heard of,including Facebook Chat, andmany we haven’t. Your buddy listcan quickly get messy if you addmore than one or two services,but the fact that it handles allour IM accounts, does push, andis free, means that this app isstaying on our iPhones. ●


ENJOY Social networking

At first glance, theBirdhouse app mightseem pointless. If you

thought Twitter was vague,indulgent and useless, lookaway now; Birdhouse is anotepad designed to enableyou to draft multiple notes forTwitter and publish them whenyou choose. Frankly, we thinkthe idea has some merit; youmay not always want to publishimmediately – to check facts orspellings, for example – or youmight want to organisethoughts for multiple accounts.

As it stands, this appperforms its stated functionwell. You can rate drafts andeven unpublish notes that wereadded from Birdhouse. ●

£1.19Got something to say… later?

FREETweetie turns official

Previously, Tweetie was ourfavourite Twitter client to useon the iPhone, but updates had

slowed and it started to be left behindby other, more fully featured Twitterclients. Until, that is, Twitter themselvesdecided to buy it, and turn it into theiPhone’s official Twitter app.

Twitter is packed with loads of newfeatures such as Geotags, SuggestedUsers, Lists and (finally) new-styleRetweets. You’ve probably stuck withthe first Twitter app you used, but younow need a good reason not to switchto the official app. ●

BirdhouseTWITTER NOTEPAD

PLAN AHEADPrepare yourtweets asdrafts andedit beforeyou publish

KEY INFOUK price £1.19US price $1.99Webwww.birdhouseapp.comDownload size 0.7MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

A well executed app, but dedicatedto a task few people will need

TwitterTWITTER CLIENT

FULLY FUNCTIONING Thisofficial Twitter client ispacked with features

This lacks push notifications –coming soon, we’re told –but it has all the basics

KEY INFOUK price FreeUS price FreeWebwww.twitter.comDownload size 5.2MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.1 or later

Twitterrificfor Twitter£2.99Tweeting on themove just got a lot easier

TWITTER CLIENT

UNIFIED SCREEN The display shows replies, retweets, direct messages andmore

KEY INFOUK price £2.99US price $4.99Webwww.twitterrific.com


An app that repays thetime you spend exploringit; a firm favourite forfans of tweeting

3We were thrilled when

the cuddly folk at TheIconfactory brought us

Twitterrific – the first properiPhone Twitter client. But,recently, its simplicity in the faceof burgeoning competition wasbeginning to hurt it. However,Twitterrific 3.0 has now arrivedwith a beefed-up features list,including the ability to controlthe font size.

At first glance, it looks lessrich and more complicated.Werecommend watching the‘tweetorials’ at twitterrific.com/iphone/tweetorials. Even someof the really cool and basic stuff– conversation threading andprofile lookups – need to be

configured via the settings.The interface is lovely,

though, and the Twitterrificmodel – your tweets, mentionsand messages colour-coded andall in the same view – feelscompletely natural. You can alsofilter the list (temporarily only) toshow favourites, mentions andmore. And there’s now finallysupport for multiple accounts,trends and searches.

There’s little Twitterific can’tdo, although reposting betweenaccounts can be a bit tricky. Butit has so many neat little touchesthat, taken together, make ita real joy to use for avidtweeters. A free ad-supportedversion is also available. ●


Social networking ENJOY

Facebook’s iPhone-optimised website is oneof the best around, so we

had high hopes for the nativeapplication. It’s certainly fasterthan the web app, and it feelsslicker and more consistentwith the iPhone’s user interface.

There’s a dedicated photocapture button that can uploadyour photos directly toFacebook. The pushnotification server has nowbeen rolled out too, makingit even better, and FacebookChat enables you to messageanyone on your Friends list.

Places is currently onlyavailable in the US, but shouldbe compatible with UKaccounts in the next update. ●

The Upcoming servicegathers events such asconcerts and conferences,

and enables you to indicatethose you’ll attend. Theindependent Happening apphooks into this; you can thensearch for events or use youriPhone’s location-awareness tosee events happening aroundyou. As such, it’s dependent onUpcoming’s listings; in ourexample town of Bath, there’sapparently nothing happening.When we tested in London,though, there were dozens ofgeotagged events.

You can’t add events directlyto the iPhone calendar, thoughyou can subscribe to Upcoming’sfeed in a few different ways. ●

FREE Social networking hits the iPhone £1.19 Find outwhat’s happening around you

Facebook HappeningFACEBOOK CLIENT UPCOMING CLIENT

IN THE LOOPStatus updatescan berefreshed bypulling downat the top ofthe screen

KEEPING BUSYCheck fulldetails and alist of who’llbe attendingfor each event

KEY INFOUK price FreeUS price FreeWebwww.facebook.comDownload size 3.5MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

KEY INFOUK price £1.19US price $1.99Webwww.happening-app.comDownload size 1.0MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

This latest version adds even morefunctionality to a top iPhone app

Little to criticise about the app, butit relies on data that can be patchy

Momento£1.79A diary designed for the 21st century

IPHONE JOURNAL

RESOURCEFUL Each day shows which sources have been pulled in

KEY INFOUK price £1.79US price $2.99Webwww.momentoapp.com


A lovely mix oftraditional diary andmodern social networkand metadata integration

4

The idea of keeping aproper diary hastremendous appeal; if you

blog you’ll know the joy ofwandering through old posts,wallowing in the nostalgia ofpast highs and lows, andlearning from your mistakes.It all takes effort, though.

Momento is a brilliant littleidea, allying the idea of atraditional journal with modernnotions of metadata and socialnetworks. It’s all wrapped up in asmart interface for a device thatyou carry with you everywhere.

You can input diary entrieseasily, even retrospectively, andeach entry can have a slew ofmetadata associated with it,such as a rating, people taggedfrom your contacts database,places, pictures and more. Youcan browse your events in a list,though frustratingly you can’t godirectly from one day to the next

without tapping back to theoverview then back in again toanother day. You must use thecalendar view, or drill down byplace, people or tags.

The brilliance, though, isthat it hooks into four socialnetworks, automatically pullingin tweets, Facebook statuses,pictures on Flickr and tracksyou’ve ‘loved’on Last.fm. Even ifit’s not opened for days, it’ll lookback through activity on theseaccounts and add any updatesmade in the intervening period.A system of icons and numbersbeside each day’s entry showsyou what sources are pulled in.

Momento is making gooduse of Flickr’s API to pull in thepicture itself. It’s not so smart asto parse in pictures posted onTwitter to popular services suchas Twitpic in the body of tweets,and doesn’t make any linkstappable. Still, a terrific idea. ●


ENJOY Social networking

Postman makes little virtualpostcards on your iPhone, andenables you to share them using

Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, email andmore. You can snap a shot with youriPhone’s camera, load up a saved photo– or choose from a small catalogue ofstock landmark shots – or even grabyour current location on a map in Map,Satellite or Hybrid view, and then addsome text. Flip it over on to the backand you can write in a message; youcan also disable the front or back.

The interface is lovely, and there’s arange of themes you can add. Changingthe text size, style and colour is easy,but at the moment you can’t resizeimages – coming soon, though. You cannow tap and drag text to reposition itanywhere on the card, and use a sliderfor text resizing.

It’s easy to share your cards too, butthere’s currently no way to send directlyvia MMS; you have to save it as a photo,then MMS that instead. ●

SkypeFREEMake iPhoneVoIP calls via awireless network

WIFI & 3G CALLS

FREE CALLS Call other Skype users for free, or savemoney on landline calls

KEY INFOUK price FreeUS price FreeWebwww.skype.com


A great improvement onthe earlier versions of theapp; it now works on 3Gand with multitasking

4

On the Mac and PC, Skypeenables you to make freevoice and video calls to

other Skype users, and to makecalls to regular landlines formere pence – it’s great forinternational calls.

Despite the initialincompatibilities, on theiPhone version you can nowmake calls over 3G, as well aswhen you’re in range of aWi-Fihotspot. You still can’t makeVoIP calls over the cellularmobile network, however.

Skype also has an instantmessaging service system,which works well – you canmessage individuals or morethan one person at once.

Older iPhones don’t allowapps to run in the background.With the newer multitaskingmodels, however, you can stillbe contacted by your Skypecallers while other tasks are

running on the iPhone, or whenit’s turned off and locked.

Another issue has been fixedtoo; previously unless you hadstored all your contact numbersin international format, Skypewouldn’t recognise them as itautomatically starts eachnumber with +44. 01225442244, for example, converts to+4401225 442244 and that zerowould cause the call to fail. Thishas been resolved, and calls aremade with no problems.

While the long-promisednotification server is now out,Skype still doesn’t use it yet. Anymissed calls or messages aresimply listed on a red NewEvents badge on the tab for theparticular missed event.

Despite this small niggle, it’s agreat app. Add a microphone toa second generation or aboveiPod touch and it also enablesyou to make calls overWi-Fi. ●

Postman£1.79 Send an instant postcard from your iPhone

POSTCARDMAKER

GET CREATIVE Design your postcardusing a range of styles – or take acamera snapshot!

A nice idea, executed withcharm and polish; you mayprefer the alternativePostage app, however

4KEY INFOUK price £1.79US price $2.99Webwww.freeverse.com/postman



Social networking ENJOY

Hook up a SlingBox Solo or Proto your home network and TVequipment, and it takes your

television signal, encodes it, andstreams it over the internet. Theninstall this app on your iPhone oriPod touch to do the same.

SlingBoxes integrate with almostany domestic television equipment –Sky+, Apple TV, cable boxes – and cancontrol them remotely. But the set-up isexpensive: it’s £130 for a SlingBox Solo,rising to £250 for the Pro-HDmodel,plus the cost of this app and yourinternet access. On an iPod touch youcan only receive broadcasts overWi-Fi,but on the iPhone 3G, 3GS or 4 youcan also now use 3G.

The quality is good and solid, butthe interface is sparse to the point ofconfusing – you have to swipe acrossto see more options – and channel-changing is sluggish. The fact that youcan stream over 3G on compatibleiPhones, however, is a great addition. ●

SlingPlayer Mobile£17.99Watch live TV on your iPhone overWi-Fi

MOBILE TV

FULLY FEATURED Receiving terrestrialtelevision on your iPhone isimpressive in itself

Live TV on your iPhonesounds great, but thisis pricey – cheaperalternatives are available

4KEY INFOUK price £17.99US price $29.99Webwww.slingmedia.com


EyeTV£2.99No SlingBox?Watch and schedule your EyeTV remotely

EYETV CONTROLLER

THE SMALLSCREEN Catch up on your favourite shows on your iPhone

KEY INFOUK price £2.99US price $4.99Webwww.elgato.com


There’s little wrong withthe app, though bandwidthcan make the experiencequite frustrating

4

People pay good moneyfor a Slingbox, a piece ofdedicated hardware that

sits at home so you can streamTV over the internet to a PC orsmartphone. Now you can useyour Mac to do the same thing.

Add any TV tuner to your Macthat uses Elgato’s fantastic EyeTVapplication, then add this appon your iPhone or iPod touch.You can watch live TV – with theapp picking up the programmenames from the EPG data inEyeTV on your Mac – and play,pause and rewind it. You can doit on the same local network oreven over the web.

A Back-to-My-Mac-like serviceenables you to easily find yourhome computer over theinternet, though only a fewrouters fully make theconnection automatically. Allwe needed, however, was a littleport forwarding with our router.

Quality over the web isdependent on your broadbandupload speed, or whether you’reon 3G. Though if you own aTurbo.264 HD – Elgato’s video-encoding dongle – it can switchbitrates on the fly to give thebest quality as your bandwidthchanges. Live TV streamingrequires a Core 2 Duo, but wehad some success with a 1.5GHzCore Solo with a Turbo.264 HD.

You can watch recordingsyou’ve made through EyeTV onthe Mac, and view the schedulesto mark future programmes forrecording remotely. Sadly, there’sno way to search.

The app works well, thoughyour experience of watching liveTV and recordings remotelycould be spoiled if your uploadspeeds aren’t generous. It’s greatat scheduling and watchingrecordings, but the TVCatchupservice is better for live TV. ●


ENJOY Media&Entertainment

While the programmeguide in the Sky+ appdoubles as a listings

guide, it’s not ideal if you onlyhave terrestrial TV. It’s time toput the queen of listings in thepalm of your hand…

You can tell it what channelsyou have and preset them, oryou can scroll through bychannel or time, read adescription with RT ratings,and search for the show onWikipedia, YouTube and iPlayer.You can even mark shows asfavourites to create a schedulefor yourself. It’s a little sluggish,and sometimes confusing, butit has a good help system, andyou can build customisedchannel groups. ●

The annual TED conferencebrings together smartpeople from all kinds of

disciplines. This app lists all thetalks available for you to watch,wherever and whenever youwant. The videos are streamedto your iPhone, and will happilyplay over the mobile network;you just might have to be alittle patient as they buffer.

The app itself is fairly basic –the running times aren’t listedand there’s no way to mark youralready-listened-to talks aswatched, although you canselect ‘favourite’ episodes. Wereally can’t complain though, asboth the app and the talks onoffer here are free, and they’resimply brilliant. ●

£2.99What’s on telly? Pass the Radio Times… FREEDon’t fire up a game; expand yourmind!

Sky Mobile Sports &Football Score CentreFREE (£6 subscription) Live Premiership football on your iPhone

TV STREAMING SERVICE

SKY PLAYER Use your iPhone to watch a variety of events from Sky Sports

KEY INFOUK price Free (£6 subscription)US price N/AWebmysky.sky.com

Download size 1.3MB/1.7MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

If it worked on 3G it wouldbe better of course, buteven now it’s a brilliantiPhone app

4Sky Sports is pretty

expensive – a subscriptioncosts £20-£40.With Mobile

TV Sport for iPhone, all of Sky’sSports channels (Sky Sports 1, 2,3, Xtra and News) plus ESPN, Atthe Races and Sky News, areavailable to watch on Apple’sdevice. And you don’t even haveto have Sky Sports at home –all you pay is a £6 per monthsubscription. Curently if youalready have Sky Sports 1&2 athome then viewing is free withthis app and then just £5 permonth from January 2011.

Compared to regular SkySports, the app is cheaper.Obviously you don’t have thechannel choice – this is just

news and sport, and unless youhave an Apple Component AVcable, you’re limited to the smallscreen. But you do get all thelive Premiership and FootballLeague games from Sky andESPN, as well as cricket andtennis. The other app, Sky SportsLive Football Score Centre is freeand is the perfect companion forany footy fan on the move, withlive scores and commentary,

The electronic programmeguide is well put together – youcan see what’s on now and next,and by hitting the arrow next tothe listing, you can browsewhat’s on in the next 12 hours.When you’re watching, picturequality is incredible! ●

RadioTimes TEDTV AND RADIO LISTINGS INSPIRATIONAL TALKS

A BRITISHINSTITUTIONPersonalisethe listings tosuit youravailablechannels

MIND-EXPANDINGFree videosare yours towatch on ahuge rangeof topics

KEY INFOUK price £2.99US price $4.99Web radiotimes.click365.tvDownload size 0.9MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 2.0 or later

KEY INFOUK price FreeUS price FreeWebwww.motherapp.comDownload size 1.6MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

Sometimes unwieldy and counter-intuitive, but thorough and handy

Some of the most brilliant minds,in the most inspiring talks, for free


Media&Entertainment ENJOY

Offering radio for youriPhone, this handy littleapp lists thousands of

radio stations that arebroadcasting on the web,broken down by genres suchas Classical, Dance/Electronicand Golden Oldies. You canbookmark your favourites,search, browse the top 500 –as decided by whom, it doesn’tsay – or add your own streams.

The interface is clean andsimple, and because many ofthe streams will play even overEDGE, you’re never, in theory,short of something to listen to.It’s a great partner to Last.fm.

It’s also now been updatedto work with multitasking onnewer iPhones. ●

This is a beautiful little app,and we wish we could useit to control all of our

music collection. Apple wouldbe unlikely to approve an appthat duplicates the functionalityof the built-in iPod app,however, so we suspect thisone’s gimmick – a way to playalbums you haven’t listened tofor a long time – is just a wayto get round this.

The ‘unlistened-to albums’idea, however, is flawed, andnot just because you couldalmost do it with a SmartPlaylist. The problem is that youmay not have many full albumsyou haven’t listened to on therelatively small capacities of aniPhone or iPod touch. ●

£2.99Hearmusic from all over theworld £0.59 Fall in lovewith forgotten albums again

INTERNET RADIO

SUITS YOU Pause and rewind live radio to listen at your convenience

KEY INFOUK price £1.19US price $1.99Webwww.tunein-radio.com


A wonderfulimplementation of internetradio on the iPhone. Wellworth every penny

5

Tuner Internet Radio AtticRADIO STREAMER MUSIC PLAYBACK

ON THEMOVEStreamhigh-qualityinternet radiofrom youriPhone to yourcar stereo

LOOKING GOODThe attractiveinterfacemakes it analternative tothe iPhone’sbuilt-inmusic player

KEY INFOUK price £2.99US price $4.99Webwww.nullriver.comDownload size 0.3MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.2 or later

KEY INFOUK price £0.59US price $0.99Web atticapp.comDownload size 3.8MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

Supports AAC+, MP3, PLS and M3Ustreams, but sadly no BBC content

A beautiful interface but not,perhaps, the best basic concept

TuneIn Radio£1.19Tune in and turn on to 30,000 different radio stations

While there are plenty ofinternet radio apps forthe iPhone, you’d be

hard pressed to find one as fullyfeatured as TuneIn Radio. Yetdespite its bells and whistles, theinterface doesn’t feel cluttered –in fact it’s very Apple-like,showing a logo for the stationwith a mirrored reflection which,when tapped, reveals someartwork for your currentlyplaying artist.

The interface also makesit easy to browse stationsby genre, bookmark yourfavourites, and visit the artiststation for the current artist onLast.fm or buy their music oniTunes. In addition, you canpause live streams for 30minutes, rewind and fastforward, or record any stationyou like to listen to it later. Youcan set a station to wake you upin the morning and help you

drift off at night with the sleeptimer, or you can get it to play inthe background while you useother apps.

TuneIn Radio gets aroundApple’s multitasking ban onolder iPhones and the iPodtouch by opening the stream inthe Safari browser. This meansyou can’t use Safari to browse atthe same time while doing this,but the app does contain itsown basic web browser.

TuneIn Radio makes use ofthe Radio Time directory, withover 30,000 stations. At thesame time it makes it easy tofind the better stations. It alsoknows your location and canfind local radio stations withease. Playback onWi-Fi, EDGEand 3G was flawless. There aremany other radio apps on theApp Store, but at this priceTuneIn Radio offers greatfeatures in a slick interface. ●



With over five milliontracks available tolisten to for free, Last.

fm is a bit of a phenomenon.Since those in the UK aredenied the superb Pandoraapp, Last.fm will have to do. It’snot a great hardship, though,as Last.fm is fantastic.

Give it a tag or an artist nameand it will stream their musicand – and this is the clever bit –similar artists, creating yourpersonal radio station. You canthen share these with yourcontacts. It remembers thetracks you like and it’s generallyvery good at finding similarartists; it offers lots of additionalinfo too – such as tour dates– and the ability to buy. ●

What’s the name of thatsong you can hear?Now you need never

ask that question again. Fire upShazam, let it listen to themusic for a few seconds andthen it’ll tell you what’s playing.It might stumble with obscuretracks or when used in noisyenvironments, but it’s generallypretty accurate.

You’re also given a direct linkto buy the track from the iTunesStore (if it’s stocked), seeYouTube videos, and readbiographies associated with thetrack, view discographies andalbum reviews. It needs a micand an internet connection,however, so on an iPod touchyou’ll probably be a bit stuck. ●

FREETired of your ownmusic collection? FREEAmusicmastermind at your fingertips

SpotifyFREE (requires subscription)All themusic in theworld is yours

MUSIC SERVICE

ALWAYS READY In Offline mode you can listen even when there’s no connection

KEY INFOUK price Free (with subscription)US price Not availableWebwww.spotify.com/uk


The app and service workwell, but you may balk ata tenner a month withnothing to keep

3

Gone are the days when youhad to take your musicaround with you on tape

or CD, as you can carrythousands of tracks on an iPodwherever you go. And what’snext? Now you can take nearlyall the music in the world withyou to listen to.

Spotify is now on the iPhoneand it gives you access to a hugelibrary of music from the majorlabels, plus a bunch of indies. Aswith the Spotify app for Mac andWindows, the catalogue’s notexhaustive, but it is immense.

First, however, the bad news:though the app for the iPhone isfree, you can’t simply use it tostreammusic as you can on thedesktop apps – we wish they’dlet us pay for the iPhone app ifit meant we could enjoy thead-supported streams – andyou’ll need to be a premiummember. It costs £9.99 a month

(£119.88 a year); the 99p daypasses don’t work here.

The good news is that notonly can you streammusic fromSpotify onto your iPhone, youcan also cache up to 3,333 trackslocally. It’s a bit like downloadingtracks – except you don’t get tokeep them – and it means youcan listen to the playlists you orothers have created even if youdon’t have a data connection.

The app itself is generally wellbuilt, though there’s currentlyno support to scrobble yourlistening to Last.fm. Sadly, clickson a connected headphone settry to control the iPod, not theplayback in Spotify. Neither willthe app play music in thebackground.

This is great if you’re happyto consume your music onsubscription, without everactually owning it; if not, thenSpotify’s not for you. ●

Last.fm ShazamFREEMUSIC MEDIA IDENTIFIER

KEEPING BUSYThe app is nowcompatiblewith iPhonemultitaskingso it can runwhile you work

NAME THATTUNE Afteridentifying atrack, Shazamgives youlinks to buy it

KEY INFOUK price FreeUS price FreeWebwww.last.fmDownload size 2.2MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

KEY INFOUK price FreeUS price FreeWebwww.shazam.comDownload size 3.8MBiPod touch compatibleWith micRequires iOS 3.0 or later

The ideal way to find new music;complements the Genius feature

Augment your world of sound andyou’ll always know what’s playing



Darkslide Premium£2.39 Is that three billion images in your pocket…?

FLICKR PORTAL

Formerly called Exposure, and nowavailable as both a paid-for andfree ad-supported version,

Darkslide is the daddy of the iPhoneFlickr apps. At its most basic, it’s a portalto access your own Flickr pictures; it’snot as convenient as the iPhone’s built-in Photos app, simply because it hasto pull the images down from Flickr’sservers. It does a superb job of cachingthumbnails, however, so even if you’reonly using an EDGE signal it doesn’tfeel agonisingly slow.

Tap an image once to load it full-size,or double-tap to bring up the Infoscreen where you can add yourcomments. From either screen, you canalso tap an icon to post a link to your

Twitter feed (Twitterrific, Tweetie,TwitterFon and Safari are all supported),email a link to the photo, or open therelevant Flickr page.

It’s much more than that, though; itgives you access to all Flickr’s featuresin a way that’s been optimised for theiPhone. It can use the iPhone’s locationservices, for example, to show youthose images on Flickr that aregeotagged as nearby – marked as‘Near Me’. You can also search theentire universe of Flickr photos.

When you’re uploading your shotsyou can access all the details withinDescription, Tags and Location.Similarly, tap the More icon to browseyour contacts’photos, look at featured

photos, explore places, groups, sets,tags and favourites. You can commenton pictures and add them to yourfavourites. You can also upload photosfrom your iPhone, complete withpermissions, tags, descriptions andembedded location information.

There’s also the Explore section,where 500 images are featured everyday. You can view them on your iPhone,or mark them as favourite or sharethem with just one tap.

We’d recommend using the freeversion if you’re a light user andhappy to view the inline advertsalongside your photos, but it’s worthpaying for Darkslide Premium if you’rea regular Flickr user. ●

01 Darkslide is quick atgrabbing the thumbnails

of your Flickr photos

02 You can share a photo easilyvia Twitter or email, or even

view its Flickr page

03 Darkslide fully supportsgeotagging of photos, so

you can view location data

04 You can edit the full range oftags and descriptions when

uploading a photo

KEY INFOUK price £2.39US price $3.99Web connectedflow.com/darkslideDownload size 1.5MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 4.0 or later

How to make an iPhoneapp a front-end to a webservice; essential purchasefor any Flickr user

5

01 02

03

04



The iPhone isn’t great as aneBook reader: the screenis a bit small, and keeping

it on to read will draw a lot ofbattery power. But if you’re stillnot put off, eReader is great.

It’s the same system that youmight have used on a Palm, butwith an added benefit. If you’vealready bought books fromeReader, you can access yourdigital library from within theeReader app on your iPhone.Downloading books just takesa few taps, and there are over100,000 to choose from, withmore added each month. Thecolour, size and background ofthe display can be customisedto suit your preferences, and ithas an attractive page-turn. ●

As mentioned above,screen size and batterylife mean that the

iPhone isn’t an ideal eBookreader. However, it seems daftto have a compact, media-friendly device in your pocketthat you don’t use to readbooks. And Classics is the mostpolished app for the job.

It comes with a library ofclassic novels – Treasure Island,Pride & Prejudice, 20,000 LeaguesUnder The Sea and more, eachwith a lovingly crafted cover.You can flip the pages with asweep of your finger. The list ofbooks is limited to those thedeveloper provides, but they’recommitted to adding morewith free updates. ●

From the makers of themodo modelling andrendering software

comes this beautiful app; itshowcases images createdwith it. So if you’re a modouser, the constantly updatedLuxology Image Gallery mightbe a convenient way for you toexplore what other mododesigners and artists havebeen producing.

You can search throughthousands of images; whenyou find one you like, you canadd it to your favourites. Youcan view in landscape mode,and browse and bookmarkexceptionally nice images, butthere’s nothing more to thisparticular app than that. ●

There’s a huge choice ofFlickr apps, but this is theonly official one. Flickr

keeps things simple and is easyto use: you can search forphotos from Flickr’s onlinecollection, or choose from aslideshow of recommendedphotos. Tap a photo from yoursearch results to see its detailsand visitor comments; fromhere, you can see the photo atfull-screen size, save it to youriPhone or email it to a friend.There’s also a facility to uploadphotos direct from your iPhone.

Some other features haveto open in Safari rather thanthe app, but otherwise it’s apleasure to use: attractive andquick to download images. ●

FREERead books on the gowith this app

£1.79 You always promised you’d read them… FREEA gallery of inspiring 3Dwork

FREE Search the entire Flickr photo library

eReader

Classics LuxGallery

FlickrEBOOK READER

EBOOK READER IMAGE GALLERY

FLICKR VIEWER

READ ANDLISTENYou can readwhile alsolistening toyour iPhone’smusic library

SMOOTHACTIONRealistic 3Dpage turnswill track toyour finger

BE INSPIREDChoose to scrollthrough theimages or alsoview theirdescriptions

SNAP SHOTSFlickr’s appenables youto browsephotos fullscreen

KEY INFOUK price FreeUS price FreeWebwww.ereader.comDownload size 5.3MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

KEY INFOUK price £1.79US price $2.99Webwww.classicsapp.comDownload size 45.8MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 2.0 or later

KEY INFOUK price FreeUS price FreeWebwww.luxology.comDownload size 21.2MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.2 or later

KEY INFOUK price FreeUS price FreeWebwww.flickr.comDownload size 4.9MBiPhone compatibleYesiPod touch compatible iOS 3.0

A great way to read eBooks, thoughthe iPhone screen could be bigger

A limited range of books on offer,but presented with flair and style

A convenient source of inspirationfrom worldwide modo users

The simplicity of this Flickr apptrumps others with more features



There are other dictionariesavailable for the iPhone– English Dictionary &

Thesaurus by Ultralingua is oneof the best, as it includessynonyms – but there’s a senseof security from having the259MB OED at your fingertips.

It’s pricey for an iPhone appbut less than the RRP of theprint edition, and is moreflexible. Entries are hyperlinkedto definitions, and many havean audio recording of thepronunciation. The technicalquality of these audio clips isa bit rough, but it’s useful.

We’d have liked to have athesaurus as well, however, andsensitivity to poor spellingwhen looking up words. ●

From the maker of theArticles app, this is anotherWikipedia-based app,

focusing on squeezing everylast drop of juice fromWikipedia about whathappened on this day inhistory. The interface enablesyou to click through from eachevent, birth or death to therelated article on theWikipedia website.

It’s actually a fun way to learnmore about the world, sincerather a lot has happened inthe course of recorded history –much of it you’ll never haveheard of before. But bearin mind that the source isWikipedia, so cross-check allthose facts before quoting! ●

£11.99Over 240,000words and phrases FREEWhat happened on this day in history?

Articles£1.79MakeWikipedia pretty andmore useful on your iPhone

WIKIPEDIA CLIENT

LOOKING GOOD The information looks great on the iPhone screen

KEY INFOUK price £1.79US price $2.99Webwww.sophiestication.com


A jewel of an app,beautifully designed andeasy to use; we can’t waitto try the iPad version

4

Most of the negativereviews on the App Storemake the point that you

‘can do the same thing for free’with Safari. But even though youcan indeed browseWikipedia onyour iPhone – even to the extentof using the built-in feature ofadding a specific site shortcutto your Home screen – that’smissing the point.

Articles takes everythingthat’s great about Safari as a wayto accessWikipedia on the goand improves on them all. Forstarters, everything is prettier.The developer has done acracking job on the stylesheetfor text and tables; everythinglooks great on the iPhone’s smallscreen. However, it’s still a sub-optimal way to view somecomplex documents, but it’scleaner and more attractive thanSafari. The double-tap-and-scrolltrick to skip between sections in

long articles is a clever solution,but we’d like to see sectionheaders pop up so it’s easierto see where you are.

It’s not just aesthetics that areimproved; Articles also makes iteasier to interact with content.We like the way that the ‘vitalstatistics’ summary box’s manypages are hidden behind a mainimage, with an ‘i’ under a pagecurl prompting you to tap.

Specific pages can bebookmarked in folders that youcreate, and recently viewedpages are cached so you canview them offline. And evenfinding articles is easier thanwith the web view, thanks toa Title/Content button andautocomplete. Plus it cangeolocate you to suggestarticles for things around you,which is great for travelling.

There’s an iPad versioncoming out, too… ●

Concise OED On this day…OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY HISTORIC REFERENCE

SOUNDSRIGHTYou can listento an audiorecording ofthe correctpronunciation

STYLISHFACTS SophiaTeutschlermakesbeautiful-lookingiPhone apps

KEY INFOUK price £11.99US price $19.99Webwww.wordwebsoftware.comDownload size 259MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

KEY INFOUK price FreeUS price FreeWebwww.sophiestication.comDownload size 5.7MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 4.0 or later

There are cheaper dictionaries, butit’s worth it for the authority

A beautifully executed andinformative iPhone app


ENJOY Reseach&Relaxation

£1.19Good old-fashioned party fun

Blow into your iPhone’smicrophone to inflate anonscreen balloon. Once it’s fully

inflated, give it a shake to transform itinto a balloon animal. Each shake addsanother twist to until your creature’sfully formed. Then you can play with it –each animal knows a few amusingtricks – and once you’re bored, pumpit up until it pops and start again witha different colour.

The drawback is that youngones find it tricky to blow into themicrophone accurately, leavingyou with a soggy iPhone. ●

£1.19Toddler’s favourite puzzle

The idea of Tozzle is to drag anddrop shapes to their correctlocation in a given scene. Keep

getting it wrong and a little arrow willguide you. Most scenes have interactiveelements and some involve letters andnumbers, so kids will learn as they play.

Tozzle is essentially the same shape-matching idea over and over again, butas any parent familiar with the phrase“Again!” knows, kids love doing thesame sort of thing repeatedly, andwith over 30 different scenes there’senough variety here to keep themhappy for ages. ●

Some kids’ iPhone appsprovide real educationalbenefit and make you feel

good as a parent, proud thatyour Apple device has put yourchild ahead of the game. Thenthere are apps like Talking Carl.It’s not a bad app, it’s justpuerile – but in the best sense.

Carl is a little red… thing.You can tickle him to make himlaugh or poke him in the eye tomake him scream, but the realfun is that whatever you say tohim he repeats back to you in asilly voice. Your kids will love itand get progressively louder asthey start to shout, then screamthings at Carl. And you, dearparent, will grow to hate itin equal measure. ●

£0.59 Carl just hasn’t learned to shut up

£2.39Meet Thing 1 and Thing 2!

The Cat in the Hat has taken itsrightful place amongst theclassics of children’s literature for

very good reason. It combines beautifulillustration with a story full of fun andmischief. This app is an absolute steal at£2.39, because it brings the story to lifeby reading it out loud and letting yourchildren interact with the pages.

Any objects you touch on thepages are named, while swipesprogress the storyline. There’s no properanimation, but frequent use of a KenBurns zoom effect creates theimpression of movement. ●

BalloonimalsINFLATABLE FUN

SIMPLE PLEASURES It’s abasic idea, but kids love it

Great fun for toddlers butthe appeal is rather shortlived for older kids

KEY INFOUK price £1.19US price $1.99Webwww.ideotoylab.comDownload size 17.2MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

TozzlePICTURE PUZZLE

LEARN AND PLAY Buildyour children’s shape-matching skills with thesefun puzzle games

The perfect way to keep littleones amused in the car –they’ll learn as they play

KEY INFOUK price £1.19US price $1.99Webwww.nodeflexion.comDownload size 70.7MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.1.3 or later

Talking CarlTALKBACK CHARACTER

MONSTROUSFUN Tickle,pinch andpoke Carland watchhis reactions

KEY INFOUK price £0.59US price $0.99Webwww.skype.comDownload size 7.4MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

Complete nonsense, but kidswill undoubtedly love it

The Cat in the HatCHILDREN’S BOOK

BEWARNED This is theperfect excuse for yourkids to get their handson your iPhone!

Nicely done, and potentiallysaves you a job at bedtime!

KEY INFOUK price £2.39US price $3.99Webwww.oceanhousemedia.comDownload size 13.7MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later


Reseach&Relaxation ENJOY


WORK

98 Access your iDisk on your iPhone

100 Office tools

106 Utility tools

112 Apps for internet assistance

Mobile devices like the iPhone are great for casual tasks – butyou need a laptop or desktop computer when you reallyneed to get things done, right? Not any more: the iPhone

helps you be productive whenever it suits you, not when you happento be at your desk. Here, you’ll discover apps that turn your iPhoneinto a mobile office, as well as tools to help you maintain your entirecomputer ecosystem and alternatives to the iPhone’s built-in internettools. First, though, let’s find out how you can use the internet tostore and read documents using Apple’s MobileMe service…


SHARE FILES ONLINE

Access your iDiskon your iPhone

Part of the MobileMe suite ofonline services, iDisk is Apple’sonline storage solution. Available

to everybody who has a MobileMeaccount, iDisk provides you with aneasy way to store and share your filesonline, and integration with Mac OS Xmeans that copying files toyour iDisk is as easy as copyingfiles to another folder on yourMac. You can also access itthrough a web browser, whilethe MobileMe Control Panelenables you to access iDiskdirect fromWindows.

Now, to make things even simpler,you no longer have to be tied to a Macor PC to get to these files. Apple’s freeMobileMe iDisk app enables you toaccess your iDisk from an iPhone oriPod touch. As well as using the app toview the documents and media you’ve

stored online, MobileMe iDisk enablesyou to share these files with other usersand even add a password, right on theiPhone. To share a file you simply selectit from your iDisk and enter the emailaddress of the person you want toshare it with, and they’ll be able to

download the file from a link that’sprovided in the email.

The MobileMe iDisk app is a usefuladdition to your app library; you candownload it for free from the App Storein iTunes or your iPhone’s App Storeapp. In this tutorial, we’ll show you howto use it to its full potential. ●

Retrieve your online documentswhile you’re on themoveWHAT YOU’LL NEED● Apple’s MobileMe iDisk app,

free from the App Store● AMobileMe account (£59

per year fromwww.apple.com/uk/pricing)

ACCESS ANYWHERE With the ability to download filesand share documents, the MobileMe iDisk app is yourpassport to efficient mobile working


WORK Filesharing

MobileMe iDiskenablesyoutoaccessyour iDisk fromaniPhoneor iPod touch

1 Download and log inDownload and install the MobileMe iDisk

application from the App Store. Launch the app,enter your MobileMe member name andpassword, then tap Go. You now have accessto all the files and folders on your iDisk.

2 Open your documentsYou can view many files stored on your

iDisk, including movies, music, photos, PDFs anddocuments from the likes of iWork and Office.To access a document, tap on it; the file will bedownloaded directly from iDisk to your iPhone.

3 Get the best viewView your file in portrait or landscape

orientation by rotating your iPhone. Thedocument will rotate automatically. Swipeto view multiple pages and use the pinchmovement to zoom in and out.

HOW TO… Back up, restore, wipe andmigrate your iPhone data

ACCESS ANYWHERE files download to ability the With your is app iDisk MobileMe the documents, share and

passport to efficient mobile working


Filesharing WORK

7 Download a shared fileYour email will be sent to the other user

and will include a link to a location where theycan download the file. This is ideal when you wantto share larger files that are too bulky for emailattachments, for example.

8 Control your file sharesTap Shared Files to view a list of all the

files that are being shared. Tap the Share iconalongside a file and you can choose to stopsharing that file or send the link again so thatsomeone else can view it.

9 Shared file dataTap the i button when viewing shared files

to see the full details of the date and time a filehas been shared. Along with the date and timeshared, you’ll also be able to see the URL wherethat particular file is stored.

4 Tap to shareTapping a document once brings up the

controls that enable you to return to the iDiskfolder list. Other options here enable you to sharea file with someone else. Tap the Share buttonto the right of a file.

5 Enter an email addressNext, enter the email address of the person

you want to share it with. Do this manually or usea name from your contacts. You can also include apersonal message. To keep the document private,simply enter a password.

6 Limit the share timeIf you’d rather not share a file permanently,

you can add a time limit so that the downloadlink for the file expires after a certain period oftime. You can easily share the same file again inthe future, of course.

Quickoffice£2.99 Create and editWord and Excel documents on the road

OFFICE SUITE

There’s no shortage of applicationsfor the iPhone that can viewdocuments and spreadsheets,

but what’s missing is a way to createor edit them. On top of that, withdevelopments from the big name inPDA-style editing, Documents To Go,not necessarily offering all the editingfeatures that we might hope for,Quickoffice is a worthy inclusion in thiscategory. The app is available for just£2.99 as we go to press but you’ll needto act fast if this is the app for you, asthis is an introductory price…

The interface is good, if a littleclunky, and possibly lacks the flair ofthe best applications from the likes ofTapbots. But there are three clear

areas to work from – Quickword,Quicksheet and Quickoffice Files. Youcan create and editWord and Exceldocuments (DOC, DOCX, XLS andXLSX). In the document editor, you canchange fonts, style and size, createbulleted lists and, by Jobs, can it betrue… cut, copy and paste? Thebehaviour is a little fiddly, but it’s blissnevertheless. However, one problemis the keyboard’s intelligence – auto-correction and the like – is missing,making typing laborious.

The spreadsheet lets you enter andedit formulas, change cell formats and,of course, cut, copy and paste, and thelatest version now supports moreadvanced Excel features. There’s also

an update that allows you to createand edit PowerPoint files.

You can grab files from (and save to)your iDisk, or mount your iPhone over aWi-Fi network for direct copying from aMac or PC, and it’s easy to email filesdirect from the iPhone. If you purchaseQuickoffice Connect (£5.99), the appalso supports various cloud storageservices such as Box.net, MobileMe,Dropbox, and Google Docs.

The autosave facility kicks in everyfew minutes, which is great as it’ssometimes easy to forget to savechanges while on the move.

At this price, we’d recommendQuickoffice, but it’ll be interesting tosee what price it is after this offer. ●

01 Can it be true? The Holy Grailof Office documents – cut,

copy and paste…

02 Accessing files overWi-Fi oryour iDisk account is easy

03 Transferring files in Quickofficecan utilise an authentication

procedure for privacy

04 Quickoffice enables you toview and edit any Excel or

Word document

KEY INFOUK price £2.99 (introductory price)US price $4.99 (introductory price)Developerwww.quickoffice.comDownload size 13.7MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

It has some limitations butactually offers pretty muchthe full gamut of toolsrequired for business docs

4

01 02

03

04


WORK Office tools

4

EvernoteFREE Some clever technology behind the scenes

NOTETAKING APP

TAKE NOTEWrite, shoot or record your reminder – Evernote will take it down

KEY INFOUK price FreeUS price FreeWebwww.evernote.com


Some rough edges, but apowerful and free servicethat takes advantage of allthe iPhone has to offer

When this app first cameout, it wasn’t quiteready for prime time –

there were a few glitches andusability tweaks that needed tobe ironed out. But the designershave worked hard andfrequently updated the app withnew features, and you now havea great free app with some veryclever tech behind it.

At its heart, it’s just an onlinenotes service. Clients alreadyexist for the Mac and PC andnow the iPhone. Nothing’sstored locally; it is insteaduploaded to Evernote’s servers.The advantage is that every noteyou add is accessible from anyinternet-connected computerin the world, including youriPhone. You can set up multiplenotebooks, share them, and tagnotes. Best of all, though, is thatyou can use your iPhone’scamera to grab (geotagged)

photo notes, and when they’reuploaded, any text isautomatically recognised withOCR so you can search for stuffyou’ve snapped later. Of course,while Evernote will work just finewith an iPod touch, its lack ofbuilt-in camera means you can’tsnap and upload pics in this way.

You can also record audionotes, though again you’ll needan iPhone mic to allow you touse this facility.

It’s the integration of all thedifferent platforms that reallyimpresses; if you can get yourselftrained to dump everything intoEvernote, it’s accessible frompretty much anywhere you are.You can mark notes as favouritesfor quick access and there’s ahandy web-clipping URL thatlets you bookmark web pages,too. The current version allowsfor a lot more multitasking,making it really user-friendly. ●

Documents To Go£5.99Take yourWord documentswherever you go

MOBILEWORD PROCESSOR

WORD UP If you need Office docs on your iPhone, this app can help you out

KEY INFOUK price £5.99US price $9.99Webwww.dataviz.com


Consider Quickoffice for itsExcel editing, but this is agreat word processor forthe iPhone

4

Until Microsoft buildsWordfor the iPhone – not thatwe expect that any time

soon – this is the best option forcreating and editing wordprocessing documents on thego. In fact, there’s not a lot thatthis app can’t do!

You add documents to youriPhone using a companion appon your Mac (or PC) and thensynchronise them across usingWi-Fi. Annoyingly, while itsupports DOC, DOCX and TXTfiles, plus PowerPoint, PDF andiWork, there’s no support for RTF.

The real power of the system,though, is document editing.Even before iPhone OS 3.0 wasreleased, DataViz, the companybehind this app, had developeda copy/paste engine that feelsvery natural, though it meantyou could only do the editingwithin the app.With 4thgeneration iPhones, you can

now edit documents directly in‘DocsToGo’ from any third-partyapp that supports the ‘Openin…’ file sharing feature (egGoogle Docs, Dropbox, iDiskand more).

The iPhone’s auto-correctkeyboard intelligence is intact,and you can even use thekeyboard in landscape modeif you want more finger space –and a tiny, single-line letterboxview of your document.

Though you can’t change thesize of text, you can managelists, colours and more. You canjump to the beginning, middleor end of the document, do find/replace and word, character andparagraph counts. iPhone 4users can even grab attachmentsfrom Exchange servers. DataVizhas ironed out a lot of the bugsassociated with the app when itfirst appeared and it's now aformidable business aid. ●


Office tools WORK

Bento£2.99 Create databases and sync themwith yourMac

PERSONAL DATABASE

DATA AID Editing databases is easy thanks to the clearly presented display

KEY INFOUK price £2.99US price $4.99Webwww.filemaker.com


A superb app; latestimprovements makeit a steal at just £2.99

4

This app does theimpossible: it makesdatabases cool. Not an

easy task…When the Macversion of FileMaker’s personaldatabase launched in 2008, itfelt like the missing module toApple’s iWork suite. Slick, prettyand easy to use, it came pre-populated with a bunch ofuseful templates.

The iPhone version is justas lovely. It too has ready-builttemplates – a recipe book, eventplanning, expenses and more –though you can build your own.There’s support for lots of fieldtypes – multiple choice, ratings,dates, times, durations andmore, though some advanceddata types, most notablycalculations, require Bento forMac as well (see http://tinyurl.com/pl3vpb). It all feels veryiPhone-like. You can choosewhich fields are visible and

sortable in the list view, andadding records is a cinch.

Creating databases fromscratch on the iPhone can befiddly, and it did crash on us afew times. But here’s the magic:it syncs beautifully overWi-Fiwith the £30 Mac version, so youcan set up full, rich databases onthe Mac and then simply syncthem to your iPhone or iPodtouch for access on the move.

This is a great little databasewith room to grow. There’s nointeraction with iCal yet, thoughit reads your address book live– and the single-user Bentomodel means even smallworkgroups need to look to thefull, scary FileMaker range. Butits ease of use and ability to syncwirelessly with Bento for Mac –the latest version can synclibraries contained in foldersand maintain the order – markit out as a near triumph. ●

OmniFocus£11.99Nomore excuses for forgetting things

ORGANISER

POCKET PA Keep on top of your tasks with the omnipresent OmniFocus

KEY INFOUK price £11.99US price $19.99Webwww.omnigroup.com


It’s expensive but if you’re alist-maker then this has tobe on your iPhone…

4

Before we go on, we’llmention that this app wonApple’s Design Award for

Best iPhone Productivity back in2008, so it already comes withsome kudos.

Forgetting to pick up the drycleaning or to buy a loaf ofbread during your lunch break isnow a thing of the past, thanksto this iPhone version of thepopular OmniFocus.

This handy helper app wasreleased to complement thedesktop version for Macs. Thereal bonus with the iPhoneversion is that it’s totallyportable. You can consult, tickoff and generally manage yourto-do lists. Because that isessentially what OmniFocus is.It’s a to-do list on steroids.

It’s a very simple program touse; type in your chores and tagthem with contexts (say, phonetasks, for example), and even

locations and OmniFocus willkeep your tasks up to date withtheir status. Do a job then tickit off. You can even add anyattachments that might comein useful to your notes

OmniFocus is even cleverenough to use GPS (if you havethe iPhone 3G) or your location-aware status to tell you whatyou can achieve given yourgeographic location. Do youneed to buy a roll of toilet paper,or a bottle of wine? No problem,OmniFocus will tell you if there’sa convenience store round thecorner. Very clever.

The app works with MobileMeor your ownWebDAV server.

There is one caveat with thispiece of software, though, youdo have to be the tidy-mindedbox-ticking type to make it reallywork for you. It’s fair to say,slovenly, forgetful and plain lazytypes need not apply… ●


WORK Office tools

Wooji Presentation Remote£4.99Offersmuchmore than simply the ability to advance presentations’ slides

PRESENTATION TOOL

Wooji Presentation Remote turnsyour iPhone into a remotecontrol for presentations on

your computer. Unfortunately, althoughit’s a cracking application, you might bedisappointed to learn that it only workswith a Mac, since it only ties intoKeynote, Apple’s Mac-only presentationpackage; there’s no support for PCs orPowerPoint here.

That said, it’s a very well put togetheroffering, that’s easy to use. Initial set-upcan be a little bit of a pain; you launchthe free Presentation Manager helperapp on your Mac then pair it with youriPhone or iPod viaWi-Fi, enable thehighlighter, then pick whichpresentation to start on-screen. You do

need to read the instructions to figureout exactly how to link the two andenable one of the app’s show-stoppingfeatures, an on-screen highlighter.

The app running on your iPhonepulls down slides’ titles and presenternotes (swipe up and down) from youropen Keynote presentations, lets youadvance and rewind slides (swipe sideto side), and features a timer.

Best of all, though, is that you canrotate your iPhone, see the slide, andtap to have details highlighted on thepresentation display. It’s handledbeautifully, too, with a subtle spotlighteffect directing your audience’sattention to the points on the Mac’sscreen, or, of course, on an image

thrown from a projector hooked upto your Mac. Though it was initially notpossible, you can now advance slides inthis sideways-on view mode as well asin the portrait, presenter notes mode.

It can be a little sluggish movingbetween slides, but unless you’re tryingto flick through dozens of slides in a fewminutes, you shouldn’t really notice theoccasional delay. And there are niceadditional touches, such as light-on-dark mode to reduce glare when you’representing in a darkened room, and thepreview thumbnail of the next slide.

It’s a shame it doesn’t supportPowerPoint but this is one of the mosttechnically impressive and creativelysatisfying apps for the iPhone. ●

01 The presentation runningon your Mac shows the

elements you’re highlighting onyour iPhone’s display…

02 …and all you have to do is topoint to the part on the slide

that you want to draw youraudience’s attention to

03 Any notes that you’ve addedto your Keynote presentations

appear on your iPhone’s screen

KEY INFOUK price £4.99US price $7.99Webwww.wooji-juice.comDownload size 0.3MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 2.0 or later

We’d rather see more thanjust Keynote on the Macsupported, but this is aproficient and wellexecuted application

4

0301

02


Office tools WORK

We like this audio notesrecorder from top-class accessory maker

Griffin, not just because it’sreasonably polished and offershandy features such as theability to name, delete and picka quality level for recordings,but also because it makes iteasy to get the recordings offthe iPhone and on to your Macor PC. A helper app (iTalk Sync)on your computer finds youriPhone automatically over theWi-Fi network, and you cansimply drag the AIFF recordingsto your computer.

The UI looks good and thequality from the mic is prettygood. You can also append textnotes to recordings. ●

FREETime to get rid of that old dictaphone

The basic idea here is that yousnap a picture of someone’sbusiness card (you need an

iPhone 3GS for this, though if you addsomething such as a Griffin Clarificase to an earlier model you can getthe focus sufficiently close) and theapp converts the picture to text anddetects what part of the image is thename, which part the phone numberand so on. (It keeps the photos of thecard too as a nice visual reference.)

The ability to merge with existingcontacts, or look up on LinkedIn, isgood. The app stands out from itscompetitors thanks to its initialaesthetic, smart graphics, andimpressive reading accuracy. ●

£2.39 Frompaper to digital in one easy step

Billings TouchFREETrack your time and expenses

BILLING TOOL

CASH & CARRY The expenses app that’s thought of everything

KEY INFOUK price FreeUS price FreeWebwww.marketcircle.com

Download size 5.3MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequire iOS 3.1.3 or later

Even without syncing, thisis terrific – and if £9 is toomuch of an outlay, yourbusiness is in trouble…

5

Time may be money, butkeeping track of how longyou’ve spent on a client –

or the expenses you’ve rackedup on the job – can be tricky;Billings Touch helps. You createclients – optionally sucking indetails from a contact in youraddress book – projects andjobs, and then simply startadding expenses. It supportstravel expenses, other fixedexpenses and, crucially, timedslips, where you set an hourlyfee and start and stop the clockas you work on projects. (Andyes, it keeps tracking when theapp is closed.)

Clever and useful touchesabound, despite the surprisingcomplexity of billing. The homescreen that tracks hours andmoney is particularly welcome.

While the app itself is free, itdoes cost £8.99 to unlock theability to send invoices directly

from the app and sync with theMac version. If you sync withBillings on the Mac, you’ll haveaccess to over 30 professionallydesigned invoice templates, andbe able to analyse your datausing the built-in businessreports. You do have access toinvoice templates from the freeapp, it’s just that there aren’t asmany to choose from.

If you also invest in CreditCard Terminal (just 59p frominnerfence) you can acceptpayments for your invoices righton your iPhone or iPod touch.

The app also supportsmultiple currencies for billingclients in different countries,so you can define defaultcurrencies on a per-client basis.

At its simplest level, beingable to input your expenseswhile on the move will make adifference to all those who sufferfrom lost receipts. ●

iTalk RecorderVOICE RECORDING CONTACT INFORMATION

TALK TALKSurprisinglygood level ofaudio, even infairly noisysituations

KEY INFOUK price FreeUS price FreeWebwww.griffintechnology.comDownload size 1.1MBiPhone compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

Solid voice-recording app, and it’seasy to get recordings off, too

BusinessCard Reader

CALLINGCARD Forgetthat clunkycard holder,scan contactinfo instead

KEY INFOUK price £2.39US price $3.99Developerwww.shapeservices.comDownload size 18.4MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.1 or later

A great idea that works well.Slightly high price but truly useful


WORK Office tools

One thing Apple laptops –and even somekeyboards – lack is a

keypad, but now you cansimply use your iPhone byinstalling this handy app.It comes with skins for theMacBook, MacBook Pro andPowerBook (plus a vintage Mackeyboard) and connects via alittle helper app running onyour Mac overWi-Fi.

And that’s it; it just works. It’sa genuine help if you have topunch in a bunch of figures fora spreadsheet, or are doing afew calculations in Calculator,and while you don’t get propertactile feedback – and so haveto look at the iPhone as you tap– it’s still eminently usable. ●

Sure, the built-in Calculatorapp is fine for some basic2+2 maths (and did you

know that you can rotate youriPhone to landscape to get ascientific calculator?) but werather like this app from thebrilliant developers at Tapbots.

It’s not just that it looks great;it’s universal – ready for the iPadas well as iPhone – and has auseful history feature. It’s a bitlike the roll of paper on amechanical calculator, showingyou past calculations, but youcan also tap on previouscalculations to pull them intonew ones. Swipe, and ascientific calculator appears.Our only criticism is that it lacksparentheses. ●

£1.19Add a number pad to yourMacBook £1.19Upgrade your built-in calculator app

Pastebot£2.39 Copy& paste addicts can now rest easy…

CLIPBOARDMANAGER

COPY & PASTE Store information easily – and organise and sync and edit!

KEY INFOUK price £2.39US price $3.99Web tapbots.com


As a stand-alone app,it’s good. Add in theMac syncing, and itbecomes great

5

At its most prosaic,Pastebot is a clipboardmanager for your iPhone

or iPod touch. But rather thanjust being able to copy and thenpaste a single snippet of text ora picture, Pastebot lets you savean unlimited number of thesesnippets, and gives you theoption to organise them intorelevant folders. Tap any clippingand it automatically loads it intothe iPhone’s clipboard andpresents you with a menu,which contains Action andFilters menus as well as a smallinformation window.

The impressive thing, though,is that it can sync with your Mac;copy a snippet of text on yourMac and it’s pushed to Pastebot,and vice versa. You can copyimages straight from Finder.(You do need the companionMac app, Pastebot Sync, forthese features but you can

download that for free fromhttp://tapbots.com/software/pastebot/#sync).

Filters can be applied to toimages (convert a colour imageto black and white, for example);meanwhile, text can undergouseful transformations such as‘convert to upper case’or ‘wrapin HTML tags’ applied.

The search capabilities aregood, as is the metadata (suchas image size, character/wordcount and creation date). Youcan create new text clippingsfrom within the app, and sendthose clippings as emails or saveimages back to your photolibrary. The Actions menu is filespecific so it’s all very intuitive.

The only drawback toPastebot’s use is down to theiPhone’s limitations… you dohave to go in and out of appswhen sourcing and saving theinformation you need. ●

NumberKey CalcbotEXTERNAL NUMBER PAD CALCULATOR

THE MAGICNUMBER Ifyour keypad isnumericallychallenged,invest inNumberKey

IT ALL ADDSUP… to agood lookingaddingmachine

KEY INFOUK price £1.19US price $1.99Developerwww.balmuda.comDownload size 3.4MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 2.2.1 or later

KEY INFOUK price £1.19US price $1.99Developer tapbots.comDownload size 9.9MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.1 or later

A useful application; you’ll besurprised how often you use it

Features like history and currencyrounding make this a winner


Office tools WORK

TouchPad£2.99 Control yourMac remotely and stylishly

REMOTE CONTROL

HAND CONTROL A remote control app that’s designed like a… remote control!

KEY INFOUK price £2.99US price $4.99Webwww.edovia.com


It’s elegant and polished –with support for multi-touch gestures. Plus, it’saffordable: a winner!

4

For a long time this domainhas been ruled by AirMouse Pro (see opposite)–

a little app that can turn youriPhone or iPod touch into aremote keyboard and mouse foryour Mac – especially useful ifyou use one as a media centre,for instance – but now Edovia’sTouchPad app is giving it a runfor its money…

It’s a little more expensive,and doesn’t offer the optionalmotion-based control of AirMouse Pro, but it has more thanenough to recommend it. It’smore polished, for one thing,with beautiful UI design andsupport for, say the escape keythat the Air Mouse Pro lacks. Italso has a view that replicatesthe physical Apple remote – nicetouch – which makes it reallyintuitive to use and particularlysuitable for Front Row or Plexmedia applications.

In addition, TouchPad is acleaner system; it doesn’t requirea server daemon, instead it justuses the Mac’s built-in VNC clientto do the remote mousing andtyping. Interestingly, you canalso use the app if you run a PCon the Linux platform or evenwith aWindows computer(although you’ll need the freeVNC server software for this).

Configure your computer andTouchPad (it really is a doddleto set up) and you’ll find thatcommands are immediate,there’s no delay at all, and, asmentioned, the gestures areinstinctive – and one, two, threeand four finger gestures aresupported. The latest versionhas also incorporated inertialscrolling. If you’re already wellversed in using the trackpadon a MacBook, you’ll feel verycomfortable using the TouchPadapp on your iPhone. ●

Vocalia£2.39 Like the iPhone 3GSVoice Control? Have it! (Sort of…)

VOICE CONTROL

VOICE CONTROL Fairly accurate but you have to interact with the screen

KEY INFOUK price £2.39US price $3.99Webwww.creaceed.com


A beautiful app with someimpressive technology, butit’s hamstrung on theiPhone platform

3

There’s not that much theiPhone 3GS has thatowners of earlier models

don’t get with a firmwareupgrade. One thing that is3GS-only is Voice Control. WithVocalia, however, you can addthis to any iPhone or, so long asyou add an external mic, thesecond-generation iPod touch.

It has three modes, Contacts,iPod and Bookmarks, along witha big HAL-like eye that blinks asyou speak into the mic. Now,speech recognition is difficult,but Vocalia makes a sterlingeffort at getting it right. Speakclearly with the iPhone a coupleof inches from your mouth, andthe first result will often becorrect, even if some of theother matches seem weirdlyunrelated. (With contacts, youcan type your own memorablereferences – ‘the big bad boss’,say – which usually result in

better matches, though there’sno true phoneme editing.)

So the tech works reasonablywell, but there are problems. TheBookmarks mode requires you –thanks to limitations of the SDK– to manually export thenupload your web bookmarks;there’s no tie-in with Safari.Worse, part of what makesVoice Control useful is that it’slaunched with a hardwarebutton, making it safe to use for,say, voice dialling while driving.You need to look at the screento use Vocalia, and thanks toanother Apple limitation, evenwhen you’ve found the numberto dial, you have to manually tapa button on screen.

We’re impressed with thetechnology here, but it’s hard torecommend it when the benefitsof Voice Control are, for most,negated by having to interactwith the screen. ●


WORK Utility tools

The idea here is that you can log inand control your Mac or PC overthe internet by logging in from

your iPhone. You’re presented with ascreen showing what’s being displayedon your Mac or PC, and can control thekeyboard and mouse as if you were infront of the computer. The cursor isfixed in the centre while you move thescreen around it, which takes a littlegetting used to. A tap on the screen isa click, two finger taps are a right-click,and you can zoom out with a pinch.You can limit the colour palette or haveit optimise automatically. It uses theiPhone’s virtual keyboard too, and whilethe lack of some standard Mac keysis annoying, you can at least issuecommands with modifiers. We’d ratherLogMeIn was more sympathetic to Macusers and in our testing there were stillsome glitches to be worked out. TheiPhone’s limited memory caused someproblems as well, with frequent lowmemory warnings. ●

Air Mouse comes in twoparts: an iPhone app anda server app that runs on

your Mac or PC. They discovereach other over the wondersof the Bonjour service.

Once paired overWi-Fi, youriPhone can act as a mouse andkeyboard for your Mac. You canchoose to flick between anon-screen trackpad that youuse as you’d expect, or a modethat uses your iPhone’s motionsensor to control the cursor.The on-screen keyboard withmodifier keys is useful too,though the limitation of theiPhone’s on-screen keyboardmeans that you can’t performtasks that involve particularkey combinations. ●

The premise is simple:point your iPhone’scamera at a phone

number and, hold it steadyenough inside a green box,and your iPhone will call thatnumber. The makers say itworks best with black text ona white background, but it’ssupposed to work with othercontrasts, too. The problem is,it doesn’t. In a brightly lit roomwe couldn’t get it to work. Itwould incorrectly identify anumber, then initiate the callbefore you could stop it. Wedid get a correct reading of abusiness card outdoors, but itwas a struggle. The option toconfirm or save the number,would be good… ●

£1.19 Like having amini keyboard andmouse! £0.59Who you gonna call? Not this app…

LogMeIn Ignition£17.99 Control yourMacs (and PCs) over the internet, from your iPhone

REMOTE ACCESS

COMMAND FROM AFARAccess your Mac or PC remotely

Ignition is a brilliant ideathat works well; could bea bit more Mac friendly(and/or cheaper!)

4KEY INFOUK price £17.99US price $29.99Web secure.logmein.com


Air Mouse Pro Camera DialerVISUAL DIALLERREMOTE PERIPHERALS

REMOTEACCESSControl a Macor PC fromyour iPhone

WRONGNUMBER?If it works it’suseful, but itdoesn’talwayswork…

KEY INFOUK price £1.19US price $1.99Webwww.mobilemouse.comDownload size 4.0MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.1.2 or later

KEY INFOUK price £0.59US price $0.99Web gp-imports.comDownload size 3.5MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.1 or later

An invaluable remote mouse andkeyboard that actually works

A good idea, but it needs to workbetter than it does at the moment


Utility tools WORK

FileMagnet can turn youriPhone into a storagedevice. What’s more, it’s

not just a way to copy files toyour Mac, but to view them,too. Only the most common filetypes can be viewed – JPEG,GIF, TIF, PNG, HTML, RTF, DOC,TXT, PDF, iWork, some moviesand audio files, Word, Excel,PowerPoint – but anything canbe copied across – includingwhole folders – and that shouldsuffice for most folk.

We like the fact that youcan tilt to scroll – just tip theiPhone back to move downa document. We don’t likethe fact you need to run theFileMagnet Uploader appon your Mac to copy stuff. ●

There are now a numberof apps that let you storefiles on your iPhone, but

Air Sharing is an inexpensiveand simple option – you canuse it to connect to a computerrunning Mac OS,Windows,Linux or even just a browser,without having to install a littlehelper app first.

Connection instructions areembedded in the app, and itmounts the iPhone like a serveron your desktop. Only AirSharing docs are shown, butyou can edit files live from yourMac or PC. You can view manyfile types, too, though you can’tedit on the iPhone. Some solidconfiguration options, andgenerally it’s fast and robust. ●

£2.99 Store stuff on your iPhone in style! £1.79 Store and view files on your iPhone

DataCase£3.99Turn your iPhone into awireless drive

FILE STORAGE

DRIVE ON Turn your iPhone into a USB stick, and work on the documents too

KEY INFOUK price £3.99US price $6.99Web veiosoft.com


A memory stick might becheaper and leave room onyour iPhone, but you canview files with DataCase

4

Storing data on a USBmemory stick is onesolution to keeping your

files with you, but what if youwant to read your documentsor browse your photos whenyou’re on the move?

DataCase fromVeiosoftprovides the perfect solution. Itturns your iPhone into a wirelessstorage device where you canupload documents, photos,sound files and PDFs. So, notonly is it an easy way to replacea USB stick, it means you canactually look at your files andread them, too.

Using DataCase is simple. Fireit up and it appears on yourMac’s Finder as a Shared Drive.It’s Bonjour-savvy so it justworks. You just drag and dropfiles like you would with anyform of drive. DataCase workswith any computer with wirelesscapabilities; even better, the app

provides you with an HTTP andFTP address for your iPhone soyou can access your files fromany web browser. It’s really thatsimple. While FileMagnet(below) is superb, and certainlymore polished than DataCase, itrequires a partner app on theMac to transfer stuff; you coulduse DataCase to copy stuff to acolleague’s computer withoutinstalling anything first.

As well as a folder for sharedfiles, there’s a drop folder whereothers can deposit files for you.You can keep tabs on your datausage thanks to a large ring iconthat displays the different typesof file on your iPhonegraphically. You can easily filterthe files stored on your iPhoneby type, too. It’s a genuinelyuseful app, and boasts extrassuch as remembering where youleft off in a document so youdon’t have to scroll through. ●

FileMagnet Air SharingFILE STORAGE FILE SERVER

POCKET PCKeep yourfiles to handon youriPhone

MAKE THECONNECTIONAir Sharingreally worksand is veryuseful whenyou’re out ofthe office

KEY INFOUK price £2.99US price $4.99Webmagnetismstudios.comDownload size 0.9MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

KEY INFOUK price £1.79US price $2.99Web avatron.comDownload size 11.9MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

We’d rather lose the dependenceon a Mac app, but still useful

Could be prettier and easier to use,but it’s a powerful, flexible option


WORK Utility tools

All businesses know thatit’s vital to monitor howmany people have

visited their site; and for the restof us, this info just strokes – ordestroys – our ego. Either way,Ego aims to show these figureson a single, login-free screen.

It supports Google Analyticsand Mint, and can report RSSsubscriber numbers fedthrough a FeedBurner engine.

The data’s not that granular(tap the module to cyclebetween visits today, this week,this month and this year) and itwould have been good to tap abutton to launch us into thetracking site. But it’s still ahandy app that enjoysdeveloper support. ●

ReaddleDocs turns youriPhone into aWebDAVserver, so you can mount

it on a Mac or PC over aWi-Finetwork, and copy files to andfrom it. Once on your iPhone,you can view them and emailthem as attachments. You canalso save attachments byforwarding them to Readdle’siDisk-like space.

You can’t edit documentsand while we welcome theability to copy files from youriDisk and others’ Public folders,there’s no provision to uploaddocuments to them, and ifyou wish to email or viewa document, it has to bedownloaded to your iPhonefirst, which is inconvenient. ●

£1.19Are you obsessive aboutweb stats? £2.99Anything it won’t do? Ah, editing…

3

MobileMe iDiskFREEAccess your iDisk’s files on the go!

IDISK ACCESS

IN THE CLOUDS Access your MobileMe iDisk content from your iPhone

KEY INFOUK price Free (MobileMe members)US price Free (MobileMe members)Webwww.apple.com


Solid, if basic; we’d like tosee a suite of MobileMeapps, allowing, say, Backto My Mac

Before we go any further,this app is free… but onlyto MobileMe subscribers.

Many apps have added theability to connect to your iDisk –if you’re a MobileMe subscriber– and the public folders of otherMobileMe members, but this isApple’s own, so is it any good?The bottom line is, if you justwant an app to browse your files– and preview many file types,includingWord and Exceldocuments, iWork (Pages,Numbers), PDF, Images, Music,Movies and more – then this appis great. It’s slick, simple to use,and lets you share these fileswith others by sending out anemail with a link that can bepassword protected.

Still, you can’t filter the list,edit the files, attach them to anemail (rather than just sendinga link) or use it to upload files –a limitation of the whole

operating system really, ratherthan this application itself – oreven move files into folders.

You can view your files inportrait or landscape, and openiDisk documents in compatibleapps -- like iBooks for PDFs.

You can now stream .MP3and .AAC music files on yourMobileMe account directly toyour iPhone – and it streams thecontent at a good speed – butyou can only stream one fileat a time, so don’t expect theluxuries of playlists or album art,although you can get on withother things while the musicplays. The addition of thisfeature has sparked a lot ofdiscussion about the possibilityof a cloud-based iTunes…

The app also supports localstorage of up to 500MB foroffline viewing, although audioand video files are streamed andnot stored locally. ●

Ego ReaddleDocsPOPULARITY TRACKER DOCUMENTMANAGER

STAT SLATEAll yourimportantweb dataharnessedin one app

ACCESS ALLAREAS Justdon’t expectto be able toedit them…

KEY INFOUK price £1.19US price $1.99Web ego-app.comDownload size 1.7MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

KEY INFOUK price £2.99US price $4.99Web readdle.comDownload size 9.7MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

Be it for your ego or your business,stat tracking has never been easier

Good stab at an all-in-one solution,but you can’t edit or annotate


Utility tools WORK

Wallet£2.99 Keep your personal data safe and in sync

SECURE DATABASE

SECURITY Keep important numbers and passwords under lock and key

KEY INFOUK price £2.99US price $4.99Webwww.acrylicapps.com


Wallet has made itselfinvaluable over the years;the app is a great add-on

4

At its most basic, Walletis just a database forinformation – such as

credit card numbers, passwords,software serial numbers, etc –so why not just use Bento byFileMaker (available for the sameprice), say, and create your own?Well, you could, but we likeAcrylic Software’sWallet forseveral reasons. It’s stable andwell designed, and while it’s setup especially for keeping trackof web logins (though it can’tenter them for you on mobileSafari, in the style of 1Password)and serial numbers, you can alsomake things more personal andcreate your own database types.

The whole thing is lockeddown with 256-bit AES ‘militarygrade’encryption, so it shouldbe secure. And, if you switch onthe LockWhen Inactive optionin theWallet Settings, itautomatically locks itself if you

forget to close it down, too.Best of all though is that

it syncs with the $20Wallet forMac OS X application, too (checkout the website to purchase) –either seamlessly over the airvia MobileMe orWebDAV, oryou can sync any time you’reconnected to 3G, EDGE, orWi-Fi– so you can keep your maindatabase of information in yourpocket wherever you go – safelyand securely.

Set-up is simple andstraightforward – there’s a step-by-step wizard to guide you, andstoring information is just a caseof filling in fields (you’re notlocked to predefined fields, it’salso easy to add custom fields)or syncing data.

The app is very thorough for£2.99, and includes the samefeatures as the Mac version, yetthe UI is very straightforwardand easy to use. ●

1Password£5.99A very polished application that keeps data safe

SECURE STORAGE

SAFE AND SECURE Keep passwords to hand – and enter them automatically

KEY INFOUK price £5.99US price $9.99Web agile.ws


We’re not saying it’s hacker-proof, but it’s undeniablyhandy; quite pricey though

4

One of the big problemswith Safari on the iPhoneis that it doesn’t have

an equivalent of the Mac’sKeychain, so you have toremember and enter passwordsmanually each time you want tolog into a secure site. The task ismade no simpler by the iPhone’skeyboard, especially if you’refollowing good practice andmixing lower case, upper caseand symbols in passwords.

1Password solves thatproblem by providing you witha secured app in which you canstore login details and notes.Two levels of security areoffered: a four-digit PIN(potentially in addition to thesystem-level four-digit PIN youcan lock your entire iPhonewith) and an optional masterpassword of your choice.

Enter details correctly, andwhen you can tap on a site, it

loads in the app’s embeddedbrowser and fill your details infor you ready to log in.We can’tdecide if not using thestandalone Safari browser isgood or bad; there’s a securityargument either way, and in anycase 1Password’s own browserwill be built on the sameframework as Safari.

Usefully, you’re not limited tothese site login details, either;you can write notes to yourselfthat are secured – great forkeeping details that you needto present in a confidentialmeeting or just for keepingpresent ideas safe!

The app can sync with thedesktop version on your Mac(available separately throughthe website for around £27)to save tedious re-keying.

There is also a universal appavailable for iPhone, iPod touchand iPad, for £8.99. ●


WORK Utility tools

iStat£0.59 Keep tabs on yourMac’s resources… over theweb

STATISTICALMACANALYSER

This app’s job is to give youinformation on how the resourceson your Macs are being used. (A

Linux and Solaris version of iStat Serveris also available but some features, suchas temperatures, are not yet supported.)

It works by running a daemon on theMacs you want to monitor, and thencommunicates the usage informationover the network to your iPhone.Whilethe daemon runs transparently, theserver app can be used to generatepasscodes to show connected clientsand keep a log. The iStat Server requiresMac OS X 10.4 or later and is availableas a free download from bjango.

The presentation is beautiful, withelegant colour schemes and clear,

01 Determine the path taken bypackets across an IP network

via Traceroute

02 iStat utilises the Bonjournetwork to communicate

with Macs on a local network

03 The app can even give youa thorough statistical

analysis of your iPhone

04 The sheer number of statisticsconcisely yet clearly displayed

is impressive

KEY INFOUK price £0.59US price $0.99Web bjango.comDownload size 0.7MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

A fantastic presentation ofvital Mac statistics, thoughit doesn’t tell you whichapps are hogging the CPU

4

0301

02

04

and how hard the CPU has beenworking but, unfortunately, there’s noreporting of what processes are usingthe most CPU cycles. We’d like to seemore help with port forwarding, too,or a different way to connect to Macsover the web.

iStat also offers you stats for youriPhone, including detailed battery statsand disk space, and showingWi-Fi andIP addresses, MAC addresses and youriPhone’s Unique Identifier. And you canclear your iPhone’s memory with thetouch of a button, which is great if it’sstarting to operate at a crawl.

(Note: 59p is the current sale price aswe go to press, the app may be around£1.19 by the time you read this.) ●

concise information. Processor loadand upload/download stats all showas easy-to-read graphs, and memoryallocation is shown as a pie chart. Youcan see howmuch space is availableon mounted volumes, and thetemperature and fan sensors on yourMac are monitored and their valuescommunicated too.

Macs on your local network areautomatically discovered with Bonjour,but if you want to access Macs over theinternet you’ll have to set up port-forwarding on your router. It’sreasonably easy, but because it’sdifferent for each router model, you’releft on your own here. You can checkhow long it’s been since the last restart


Utility tools WORK

Since NetNewsWire on theMac moved from its parentcompany NewsGator’s

syncing service to GoogleReader, there are plenty of Macusers who now have a choiceabout which RSS reader to useon their iPhone. If NetNewsWireleaves you cold, considerReeder. It syncs with GoogleReader with support for tags,starred items and notes, andlets you read your feeds eithersplit by source or inchronological order.

It integrates Instapaper,Delicious and Read It Later, andhas a built-in browser so youdon’t have to bounce out toSafari to see the original source.It’s satisfyingly fast, too. ●

When Pocket Lint did anApril Fool’s joke thatproposed using a

smartphone’s built-in camera toshow the view ahead while youwere composing an email tostop you bumping into things,we thought we were alone inthinking that it was actually agenius idea.We were wrong.

Fire up this app and you’represented with a live video feedfrom the camera, with whitetext displayed over it – you canenter a subject line and thebody; when you hit Send, itpasses your text to the Mail appfor addressing. Unfortunately,the angle you hold the phonemeans that you miss horizon-level obstacles.

£1.79Get RSS feeds on your phone £0.59Avoid putting your foot in it, as it were

Reeder Email ’n WalkRSS READER EMAIL COMPOSER

FEED MENOW A verycool lookingreader foryour iPhone –and it workswell, too

WATCH YOURSTEP Moreuseful thanyoumightthink if youhave to sendan urgentmail…

KEY INFOUK price £1.79US price $2.99Web reederapp.comDownload size 2.2MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

KEY INFOUK price £0.59US price $0.99Webwww.phase2games.comDownload size 0.0MBiPod touch compatible NoRequires iOS2.0 or later

This app is clean and simple yetit boasts plenty of good features

Surprisingly useful, but you have tohold your iPhone at an odd angle

Opera MiniFREE CanOpera top Safari as the iPhone’s bestweb browser?

WEB BROWSER

SHRINK TO FIT Opera Mini compresses pages to offer high speeds and low costs

KEY INFOUK price FreeUS price FreeWebwww.opera.com


Great for most webbrowsing, but not aselegant or consistentas Apple’s Safari

3

We joined the rest of theworld in slack-jawedamazement when

Opera Mini first popped up onthe App Store. Compared toSafari, it’s like your iPhone hashad a processor upgrade,especially over 3G, EDGE orGPRS. Pages load so quickly youwill be amazed; the makersboast of up to six times fasterbrowsing, but there have beensome sacrifices made here…

First of all, there’s only onelevel of zoom, so the web pageeither fills the screen or youzoom in to a fixed reading level.All text is rendered in the samefont, making pages look a bitugly. Scrolling up and down isalso an issue. Safari forces yourscrolling to be either vertical orhorizontal; in Opera Mini it’smore like ice skating for the firsttime – you never quite knowwhere you’re going to end up.

Opera Mini achieves its speedby routing all its web trafficthrough its servers in Norway,where images are heavilycompressed (by up to 90 percent), which also means it costsyou less if you’re on a pay-as-you-go scheme since less datais being downloaded.Unfortunately, it also means thatsites detect your login as comingfrom somewhere that’s not yourusual location (unless youactually live in Norway). SoFacebook, for example, freezesa UK account if you log inthrough Opera Mini.

Despite the flaws, there are afew nice features here beyondraw speed – the start page withits quick links, and a passableattempt at tabbed browsing –but we soon found ourselvesreturning to Safari when onWi-Fi, just to make pages morereadable again. ●

●


WORK Internet assistance

NetNewsWireFREEGet up-to-date newsfeeds direct to your iPhonewith this RSS reader

NEWSREADER

There’s no dispute thatNetNewsWire is the best overallRSS reader for the Mac and, as it’s

free, there’s no reason not to use it tokeep yourself up to date with newsand blogs. The same company is alsoresponsible for the freeWindows RSSreaders FeedDemon and NewsGatorInbox for Outlook, and it has nowdeveloped this version for the iPhone.

The great thing about all theseapps is that they synchronise with thecompany’s servers, so that regardless ofwhether you’re reading your news ona Mac, PC or iPhone, you get the samefeeds that you’ve subscribed to. Not justthat, but individual items that you’veread are synced with Google Reader

too, so that you never have to read thesame story more than once (read storiesare greyed out). Alternatively, you cansave articles for later in Instapaper orby starring them.

The initial release of the iPhone-native version was a good basic app,but there have been manyimprovements since. There’s no way toadd new RSS feeds; instead the list offeeds you’re subscribed to is pulleddown from the Newsgator servers.Frankly we’re not that bothered aboutthat for the moment, as it works so wellotherwise, though an update thatbrings that will be welcome for many.

Groups that you’ve set up on yourMac or PC are preserved in the iPhone

version of NetNewsWire, and you canconsume your news by individual siteor by group.

NetNewsWire for the iPhone has itsown version of the Safari web browserbuilt in, so you don’t have to constantlybounce back and forward between itand the main Safari to read full posts.And you can email items or add themto a clippings file simply by tapping anicon at the bottom of the screen. Youcan even share by posting links toTwitter or by sending email — withoutleaving the app.

The display isn’t customisable, as youmight be used to on the desktop, butit’s clear, although the grey text/whitebackground may be tricky for some. ●

01 Tap on one site or on a groupof sites to load up all the

headlines; you’ll find that already-read stories are greyed out

02 When you read an individualstory you can tap on links or

open the whole thing in Safari

03 NetNewsWire has its ownbuilt-in browser, and you can

email links to stories or add them toyour clippings

04 The overview of all your feedslets you see at a glance which

sites have new stories, grouped ason the desktop

KEY INFOUK price FreeUS price FreeWebwww.newsgator.comDownload size 0.9MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.1.3 or later

Arguably the best RSSreader on the desktop isnow arguably the best RSSreader for the iPhone

5

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Internet assistance WORK


PLAY

116 Meet the game developers

120 Skill & Ability games

126 Logic & Dexterity games

134 Mystery & Adventure games

142 Simulation games

146 Racing & Action games

154 Sport games

156 Ten apps wewish existed…

You’ve used your iPhone to create, explore, enjoy and work: nowit’s time to kick back and have some fun!With its speedyprocessor, brilliant display and touch-sensitivity, the iPhone

makes a fantastic vehicle for games on the move. There arethousands of games available for the iPhone: so many that there’sbound to be something to match your gaming tastes, whether you’rea hardcore gamer who likes to play anywhere and anytime, or acasual gamer who just likes a quick distraction from time to time.But first, we meet some of the names behind the games…


Meet three of the faces behind some of the App Store’smost popular games

Although you can use your iPhonefor work, creativity or education,the biggest single use is simply

having fun. Of the 250,000 options tobuy or get for free through the AppStore, over 65,000 are gaming orentertainment titles, according toApple, and games regularly featurein the App Store charts.

With the technical ability of theiPhone, of course, the popularity ofgaming shouldn’t come as a surprise.The processor’s power means you canfind games with a graphical

sophistication that isn’t too far off theirequivalents on desktop computers,while the multitouch screen hasencouraged a wealth of new ways ofcontrolling games – and even brand-new types of game. The iPhone’scellular andWi-Fi networking alsoencourages multiplayer games, andgame communities where you cancheck your high scores againsteveryone else worldwide.

With everything from recreatedboard and card games to sports titles,and from high-octane racing to deep

management sims, there’s an iPhonegame for every taste. And with aniPhone in your pocket, you can pick upand play whenever you feel the urge.

Behind every great new game is asingle person or team who’s createdthat title: the developer. Here, we meetthree of the faces behind some of themost popular games in the App Store:we’ll find out what attracted them tothe iPhone, what makes the iPhonesuch a compelling device for them, andget a hint of where iPhone gamingcould be headed in the future. ●

Take three…


PLAY Gamedevelopment

QWhat do you useMacs forat your company?A All the programming on ouriPhone titles. Our programmerscome mainly from the console worldwhere PCs runningWindows arecommonplace, so they had to adjustto using a Mac and Xcode. Thetransition was very smooth, and wenow have some people who want touse Macs for all their work, not justfor iPhone!

Q How did you come to work onSuper Monkey Ball for iPhone?AWe’d done work for Segapreviously that they were quitepleased with, so when theopportunity came about to developthe Super Monkey Ball demo for theApple SDK announcement theybelieved we were the right choice.The demo went well and we enteredinto a contract for the game.

Behind the scenes of...

PROFILENameGordonWoodLocation Charlottetown,CanadaOccupation Senior programmerCompanyOther Ocean InteractiveSystemMacBook ProWebwww.otherocean.com

Super Monkey BallGordonWood, fromOther Ocean Interactive, reveals his love of the iPhone

NEW APPROACH Ocean worked on Super Monkey Ball for iPhonelike a console game, rather than a traditional mobile phone title

GOING LARGE GordonWood of Other Ocean Interactive notes, “Our artists were happy to have somuch texture spaceto play with and a phenomenal screen to show everything off!”

Q How did you convert Super MonkeyBall to iPhone?AWe were surprised at how powerful theiPhone was. It was clear we had to treatSuper Monkey Ball like a fully featuredconsole game, to take advantage of this. Wegot the core game up and running quickly,due in large part to the flexibility of theiPhone SDK. From day one, our focus wason pushing the hardware as hard aspossible, to make the game really cometo life on the iPhone.

QWhat software and hardware did youuse to work on the game?AWe used a combination of MacBook Pros,iMacs and PCs to create the game. The codewas written on a Mac running Xcode andthe iPhone SDK, while our art teammostlyused PCs since we had to hit the groundrunning with this project and they werealready set up. They then switched to Mayafor the 3D modelling and Photoshop foreverything else.

QHow does working on iPhone differfrom other mobile platforms?A The iPhone uses OpenGL ES for itsgraphics, which means developers canget up and running quickly since mostgames programmers are familiar withOpenGL. The iPhone SDK and itslibraries are feature-rich and easy touse. In many ways, it’s like having ahandheld Mac.

Q Are you pleased with the responsethe game got?A The response has been great, butwhen you’re developing a game yougenerally know the type of responseyou’re going to get from internalfeedback – our studio is full of gamersand we have internal testers. We wereexcited – we knew we had a goodgame on a good platform. Some peoplehave found it quite challenging at first,but it’s Super Monkey Ball – it’ssupposed to be challenging! ●


Gamedevelopment PLAY

Q How areMacs instrumental inyour work?A The iPhone SDK only works withMacs, so I use my Mac for iPhonedevelopment, but beyond that I usemy MacBook for everything. Fordeveloping games, I work withXcode, Photoshop and Illustrator.

QWhy did you decide to developiPhone games?A I’ve always loved developing formobile platforms, and the iPhoneis the nicest one. I like Apple’s‘ecosystem’– it brings back theexcitement I had when I first got intocomputers, back in the days of Atariand Commodore.

QWhat do you think of iPhone asa gaming platform?A It’s near perfect, and also a known


PROFILEName Peter HirschbergLocation Linden,VA (USA)Occupation iPhone softwaredeveloperSystemMacBookWebwww.vectortanks.comwww.peterhirschberg.com

Vector TanksPeter Hirschberg explains the inspiration behind his retro game

quantity – you’re not developing forhardware variations and can develop forthe touchscreen, accelerometer andinternet, because you know every devicehas those same things. I sometimes wishthere were some hardware buttons for usein games, but I can also argue that iPhone’slimitations spark developers to becomemore creative.

I’ve long said that platform limitationsresult in better games than limitlesshardware, since they force experimentationand originality.

QWhat particularly appeals to you aboutretro games?A I grew up with them, and they were soincredibly cool to me as a child. I guess Inever outgrew that sense of wonder! Istill consider old arcade machines to beamazing devices. Seeing those retro gamesrunning on hardware that I couldn’t have

imagined as a child is how I connect thepast with the present.

Q How did your gameVector Tankscome to be?A I started out wanting to create agame that utilised the controlmechanism of one thumb on eitherside of the screen, as sliders. Tank-typegames immediately came to mind asthey’re best suited for that set-up.

QWhat are your future plans?A At the moment, I plan to work onVector Tanks updates – there are a lotof features I want to add. Beyond that,I definitely want to work on somemore retro apps – I can’t help myself!Hopefully, the future will enable meto continue developing my work topreserve our gaming past, in ways thatmake people happy. ●


PLAY Gamedevelopment

PROUD ROOTS Adventure: Revisited is a reenactment of Atari Adventure, the first action-adventure game!

PAYING HOMAGE Vector Tanks is Peter’s tribute to classic tank-based arcade games

QWhat’s your Mac history?A I co-founded MacroMind, where Ico-designed VideoWorks, whichbecame Director. I remember mypartners there waiting in line at anApple store for the 128k Mac tocome out! I held onto my Macs wayinto the 1990s, by which time I wasat Atari so I had to abandon them.

Q Before then, you created theclassic Mac game Dark Castle –how did that come about?A I was asked to create a game bySilicon Beach, and I suggested amedieval theme because I knew it’dsell well. Our meeting was one of themost inspired days I’ve ever had –they had this flip chart and I literallydrew out the entire game on the fly.

PROFILENameMark Stephen PierceLocationAustin, TexasOccupation CEO of SuperHappy Fun FunSystemsAn iPhone and lotsofMacsWeb superhappyfunfun.com

After then, I’d mail the programmer mock-ups in MacPaint and animations inVideoWorks, and we did the game in sixmonths. The programmer was JonathanGay, who invented Flash!

Q How does today’s creativeenvironment compare to then?A The energy around the Mac back then –which showed everyone a different way ofworking – is similar to what I’m seeingtoday with the iPhone and iPad. Likewise, Iworked in a wonderful environment at Atarifor 15 years, with small teams creatinginnovative games, and that’s now back inthe form of the App Store. The iPhone’sbeen a godsend for me – you don’t have apublisher telling you what you can do, andthe people buying games are the only filter.The iPhone’s a game-changer, and it

brought me back to Apple. All ourgames are designed on Macs.

QWhat games are you working on?AWe recently released maze puzzlegame Ace Yeti Trapper. There’s alsoStar*Burst, an evolution of my Atarigame Klax. Gems march towards youand must be flipped upwards andmatched.When updating the game,we inverted the playfield so it workson the iPhone, and encourages peopleto make patterns in the gem pit byawarding collectable cards that canbe posted to Facebook.

I’m also hoping to get Dark Castleinto production for iPhone; I like itsside-on view and puzzles. But it was abrutal game, so it’ll be a redesign thatwon’t be so tough! ●


Star*BurstGaming legendMark Stephen Pierce thinks the iPhone is a game-changer


Gamedevelopment PLAY

LEGENDARY GAMEMark’s Dark Castle is one of the few original Mac games afforded ‘classic’ status

VIDEOGAME REMIX Return to Dark Castle brings the original game tomodern Macs

NEW FORMAT Star*Burst is ideal for iPhone and you can even send cards to Facebook

Sol Free SolitaireFREE Keep track ofwhat you’re spending... in style!

CARDGAME

Few of us can resist a bargain, andwhat’s better than free? Thoughwe admire the sheer

comprehensiveness of Mondo Solitaire,Sol Free is an incredibly slickimplementation of Solitaire on theiPhone and it’s just been updated toinclude five games. You can, if you’re areal Solitaire nut, buy the paid-forversion with its endless variations ofSolitaire games, but you don’t have to.

So let’s see what the deal is here.Firstly there’s the choice betweenBaker’s Game, Demon, Klondike Deal 1,Klondike Deal 3 and Spiderette.Confused by those? Don’t be! There areeasy rules built into each type ofSolitaire so you can quickly acquaint

yourself with the way the game isplayed. Perplexed? Click on the rulesand all is explained really clearly.

For those of us who ever whiledaway half a lifetime on aWindows PC,the Klondike Deal 1 will be fairlyfamiliar. It’s the classic Solitaire gamewhere you build up stacks of alternatecoloured suits and then transfer themto foundations starting with an Ace andbuilding all the way up to the Kings inseparate suits. Got that?

The cards are displayed in an easy-to-see format and you can transfer cardsto their foundations with a simpledouble tap of your finger. Too lazy to dothat? Press the Auto button and haveSol Free do it for you.

The program keeps track of yourstats, telling you how long it took youto solve the game and in howmanymoves. You can switch games any timeyou like and your present game will befrozen.Want to move from Klondike toSpiderette and keep your game intact?No problem.

There’s no better way to waste timethan to idle a few hours playing cardswith your iPhone, and since Sol Free is,if you’ll excuse the repetition, free,there’s no reason not to install it onyour iPhone or iPod touch to entertainyou in a doctors’ surgery. That it’sbeautifully-implemented and comeswith rich, easy-to-read graphics issimply the icing on the cake. ●

01 The large cards are easy toread, and the suits are clearly

differentiated

02 If you don’t know how toplay any of the games

included on the app, you’ll findcomprehensive help is provided

03 If you want more game typesyou can buy Solebon Solitaire,

but the five offered here should keepyou amused for some time

04 Sol Free keeps track of howmany games you’ve played,

howmany you’ve won andmore

KEY INFOUK price FreeUS price FreeWebwww.smallware.comDownload size 1.2MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequirements iOS 3.0 or later

Great fun and it’s free. Canyou ask for any more? Themost fun you canhave with an iPhone!

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PLAY Skill &Ability

There were, a week after launch,more than a dozen Solitairegames already available on the

App Store, but this is our favourite,though, despite having a soft spot forthe ultra-clear and free Sol Free Solitaireit’s very polished, has some greatpersonalisation options, and a couple ofvery clever usability tweaks that makegameplay very simple.

Top of our list is the magnifying glassthat lets you see what’s in each pile inmore detail, but we’re also big fans ofthe ability to slot a virtual papercliparound a selection of cards to movethem all at once.

The customisation options –including pure eyecandy stuff suchas changing the colour of the tableand card backs, plus more usefulgameplay settings, such as the abilityto automatically flip cards – makes thegame feel very well put-together. Italso features a huge library ofcustomisable game types. ●

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Battleship£0.59 iPhone gamers get that sinking feeling

TABLETOP CLASSIC

WAR GAMES Pick your targets and hope you strike it lucky with a direct hit

KEY INFOUK price £0.59US price $0.99Webwww.eamobile.com

Download size 10MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 2.2.1 or later

A perfect version of theclassic pen and paper game

Unless you’ve played thegame with pen andpaper, you won’t fully

appreciate this iPhone version.In the old days, two playerswould draw various battleshipson graph paper then call outgrid references to see if theirmissiles had scored a hit or not.

Later, Milton Bradley made afun but cumbersome electronicversion of it. Now the game hasfound its perfect home, thanksto Hasbro and EA. As well as thebasic gameplay, this version alsoboasts salvo and superweaponmodes, featuring multipleattacks, airstrikes, mines and thelike. Graphically, the game isspiced up with smart cut-scenesdepicting weapons being firedand ships sinking, and there’smultiplayer fun to be had acrosslocal networks. Battleship isn’teveryone’s ration of rum, butlove it or loathe it, it’s hard to see

how the classic game could havebeen any better implementedon an iPhone. As well as theWi-Fi and Bluetooth multiplayeroptions there’s also the ability touse one iPhone and pass it fromone to another for their turn. ●

Mondo Solitaire£2.99More than 100 variants of the classic tabletop card game

CARDGAME

STACK ’EM The classic Klondikesolitaire is supported but there’s acheaper version called Mondo Top 5Solitaire that has this, too

If you’re feeling the pinch,Sol Free will do the job,but Mondo Solitaire ismuch richer

5KEY INFOUK price £2.99US price $4.99Web www.ambrosiasw.com



Skill &Ability PLAY

Texas Hold’Em£2.99Bluff yourway to poker successwith this gambling game fromApple

POKER ANDMORE

Only Apple could have taken theiPhone platform and produceda version of poker that is simply

stupendous. Choose where you want toplay your poker and then place yourbets. You can choose between yourgarage, Paris, Dubai, Istanbul and LasVegas. Most of these exotic locationsrequire you to have won a certain levelbefore you buy in – $100,000 in thecase of Dubai. Choose garage andyou’re in for free with the possibilityof winning a maximum of $1,250. Thegraphics of the garage are awesomewith old Apple posters on the wall andlong-defunct Apple kit stacked on theshelves, a very amusing homage to thecomputing giant.

The graphics are simply awesomeand are every bit as good as the bigonline poker websites. In portrait modeyou get to see your opponent’s faceand their expressions. Turn the iPhoneinto landscape and the screen becomesan overhead plan of the Poker table.When you’re holding the phoneupright, the dealer throws out the cardsto you and there they sit in the bottom-right corner of the screen. If you’re newto poker and unsure of the hand you’vebeen dealt, the program helps. Simplytap on your cards and a rating meterappears to show you just how goodyour hand is. It’s this friendly approachthat really helps to ease you into thepoker world.

You can also play against up tonine real players if you want but thismultiplayer function is only possibleif all players are on the sameWi-Finetwork – long-distance poker is outof the question.

Texas Hold’Em is the perfect way topractice and hone your poker skillswithout losing real money. It’s a bitbattery-hungry on a account of theamazing graphics but don’t let that putyou off. Whether you’re a seasoned,whiskey-sodden pro or a newbie tothe table, give it a try. In the recentlyupdated version there’s even animatedgestures as you play as well as morestatistics tracking and unlimited buy-insfor longer play time. ●

01 Play against up to nine realplayers and see each player’s

facial expressions in portrait mode

02 If you rotate your phone intolandscape view, you get an

overhead view of the poker table

03 You can choose which locationto play your game: Las Vegas,

Paris, Dubai or, erm, your garage

04 Keep your cards close to yourchest by viewing your hand at

any time in the bottom- right-handcorner of the iPhone’s screen

KEY INFOUK price £2.99US price $4.99Webwww.apple.comDownload size 129MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.1 or later

A great way to hone yourpoker skills. Superbgraphics and an intuitiveinterface makes this ahugely enjoyable game

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This app is essentially a quizmachine, with several play modesfor solo players and groups. There

are also more than 5,000 questions perlanguage (so if you fancy trying UK,Aussie or even Indian-themedquestions, your options are huge). Thequestions are surprisingly varied too,categories including movies, TV shows,sports, cheeses(!), animals and mathpuzzles, to name just a few.

It’s a shame there are no picture orvideo challenges, but at just over £1this is superb value and surprisinglywell put-together. Just think howmuchhowmuch you would save buying thisapp over having to those expensivequiz machine you find in bars and pubs!

The latest version has almost 1,000new questions so it’s really worth apurchase as these are included in theoriginal price. There’s also improvedcategories, several new awards to tryfor and question time has beenincreased to 15 seconds. ●

The classic game ofswapping game piecesfrom white to black to

capture you opponent’s piecesgets an iPhone makeover here.It’s not the only Othello/Reversi-style game on the store but itgets our vote because it feelswell put-together and it hassome pretty good AI playingagainst you.We’d like to see atwo-player mode – even if it’snot over theWi-Fi or internet;just some way to allow twoplayers to compete – but it’s agood start, especially as it’s free.The game will last you a whilethough as there's four levels ofopponents and it's certainlymore challenging than youthink it would be. ●

This is the iPhone’s take onthe classic Boggle game.It’ll be familiar to anyone

who’s played PathWords onsocial networking siteFacebook. You’re given a grid ofletters – 5x5 by default, but 4, 6,7 and 8-sized grids are possible– and have to find as manywords as you can, the longerthe better, by linking togetherletters that are horizontally,vertically or diagonallyadjacent. The implementation isvery good, and there are plentyof options (including a ‘passand play’ two-player mode) tokeep you amused. It’s a fun littlegame, and a great way to keepyour mind active while waitingfor a bus. ●

FREEGreat new look for a vintage game £1.19Hours of vocabulary-busting fun!

QuizQuizQuiz£1.19 Put your brain through its paceswith this quiz app

TOUCHQUIZMACHINE

Q&A Fancy a quick-fire quiz round?Then QuizQuizQuiz is the questionand answer app for you

A great take on a classicgame. If only we could playagainst real people

4KEY INFOUK price £1.19US price $1.99Webwww.quizquizquiz.com


Black and White WurdleCLASSIC PUZZLER WORDPLAY

DISCWORLDWin the gameby capturingall of youropponent’scoloured discs

WORD UPGet a grid andfind as manywords as youcan – it’seasy!

KEY INFOUK price FreeUS price FreeWebwww.weiphone.comDownload size 0.5MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 2.1 or later

KEY INFOUK price £1.19US price $1.99Webwww.semisecretsoftware.comDownload size 7.3MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 2.2 or later

A great take on the classic gamefamily boardgame

Could use a work on the interface,but otherwise it’s great


Skill &Ability PLAY

Look at the App Storeratings and this particularwidget is getting an

undeserved kicking frompeople who don’t know anybetter. It’s a Commodore 64emulator and comes with ahandful of games thrown in.It also has a built-in store fromwhich you can buy additionalclassic 80s C64 games for aslittle as 59p each.

The emulator itself is nicelyimplemented with full-screenlandscape mode and a verticalmode with a small screen and ajoystick-shaped icon controller.The controls can be a little bitfiddly but the games areperfectly playable, totallyauthentic and really fun. ●

£2.99 If you’re under 25, youmight not get it…

The successful Guitar Heroseries has seen fivedifferent iterations on

home consoles. So, it was abouttime the franchise made anappearance on the iPhone andthe result is mostly good.

The game comes with abatch of six songs (includingSeven Nation Army and Paint itBlack) with expansion packsavailable at £1.19 each.

The gameplay is spot-onwith responsive four-buttonplay and innovative slide movesto take advantage of theiPhone’s screen. A lack of singleplayer career progression iscompensated for by a wholebunch of challenges to becompleted on each track. ●

£1.79The rhythmgame rocks onto the iPhone

Monster Pinball£1.19 Play the silver ball on your iPhone

PINBALL SIM

PINBALLWIZARD Go for that high score bymaking combinations with your shots

KEY INFOUK price £1.19US price $1.99Webwww.matmi.com


A superb pinball experiencecleverly designed to workon a small screen

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Pinball aficionados willprobably crucify us forsaying this, but Monster

Pinball is a great pinball game.OK, it’s not quite the experienceyou’d get in a darkened bar, noris it as accomplished as certainrevered videogame pinball simsof the past (you know the oneswe’re talking about). But interms of straightforwardpinballing fun at a ludicrouslyaffordable price, Monster Pinballis absolutely unbeatable.

The ball physics are spot-onand the major features of anydecent table are present andcorrect. And rather than try topresent real tables in a shrunkenform (which would be, frankly,unplayable on a small screen)Monster Pinball’s developershave prudently made theinterconnected tables herespacious enough to allow formuch bashing and mashing of

balls in an incredibly smallspace. The tilt function has madeit to the game too, and isactivated via the iPhone’saccelerometer. ●

Commodore 64C64 EMULATOR

RETRO GAMESRelive classicC64 gamingwith this funCommodoreemulator

KEY INFOUK price £2.99US price $4.99Web http://c64.manomio.comDownload size 20.4MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.1.3 or later

An enjoyable C64 emulator withplenty of games included

Guitar HeroRHYTHMACTION

FRETWORKOne themostsuccessfulconsole musicgames finallycomes to theiPhone

KEY INFOUK price £1.79US price $2.99Web hub.guitarhero.comDownload size 122MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.1 or later

A very cheap and veryworthy rhythm game

FLIP IT! Use the left and right buttons toactivate your flippers on the pinball table


PLAY Skill &Ability

Almost overnight, Angry Birdsbecame an App Store hit andhas been topping the popularity

chart in the games section for months.It’s now become so popular thedevelopers are even thinking ofreleasing a movie and a series of toys!What makes the game so enjoyable isits mix of its beloved little charactersand easy to grasp touch controls.

The game has a rather bizarre storyinvolving the Angry Birds getting theirrevenge on the green pigs who keepstealing their eggs. You get to use theunique powers of each individual birdto help attack the pigs, capture theeggs and free any kidnapped friends.

You start off each level by flingingbirds at the pigs in their battlements,but you’re limited to just a few birdswith different powers for each level.With over 195 levels, Angry Birds shouldcost five times as much, as it is there’sno reason not to buy this one – go on,join the Angry Birds craze. ●

Up There begins with ahelium balloon trappedin a house.When the

balloon is released, tilt youriPhone or iPod touch left andright in order to move theballoon up through gaps inshelves. Succeed in thisendeavour and the next set ofobstacles is a series of rafters inthe roof. Break out through thetop of the house and thebranches of trees form the nextset of things in the way. And soit goes on, ever upwards. Thelonger you can ascend forwithout getting trapped, themore points you accumulate.Better your score each timeand check it against otherplayers online. ●

If you know the likes of GuitarHero or Dance DanceRevolution then this game

will feel very familiar. It’snowhere near as sophisticated,but it’s fun nevertheless.

The idea is that you tapalong to the beat of a song,tapping the correct point in thescreen where the bubbles,dropping down the threebeautifully coloured strings, hitthe bottom of the screen. Itstarts off fairly easy but you’llbe really hard pushed tosucceed at the more difficultguitar riffs. There are fourdifferent difficulty levels, andthe two-player mode is greatfun. Uses its own tunes, notyour library. ●

£0.59The charming life of a red balloon £1.19 Simple, pretty and diverting; awesome!

Angry Birds£0.59An iPhone phenomenon, Angry Birds is amust-have game

CRAZY PUZZLE CRAZE

TWEET TWEET Fling your Angry Birdsat the pigs’hideouts to rescue birdsand eggs and complete missions

As far as App Store gamesgo, Angry Birds is anessential purchase

5KEY INFOUK price £0.59US price $0.99Webwww.clickgamer.com


Up There Tap Tap RevengeGUITAR HERO CLONEBALLOON ESCAPE

FLOAT AWAYUp, up andaway…Proves thatsimplicity canbe the key toa good game

TAP ITThink yourreactions arefast? You’ll betested withTap TapRevenge

KEY INFOUK price £0.59US price $0.99Web www.veiledgames.comDownload size 7.6MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 2.2 or later

KEY INFOUK price £1.19US price $1.99Webwww.tapulous.comDownload size 8.8MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 2.0 or later

On paper this is barely a gameat all, but it’s so addictive!

Fast-paced interactive guitar funat the tap of your iPhone screen


Skill &Ability PLAY

This is an almost pixel-perfectconversion of the arcade andhome computer classic Pang. The

idea is to pop bubbles with a verticallyfiring grappling hook.When a largebubble pops, two smaller ones appearand so on until the screen getsterrifyingly busy with different sizedbubbles going everywhere. Clear thebubbles and you move on to the nextof the game’s 50 levels.

There are different numbers ofbubbles, platforms, and power-ups, allof which keeps things interesting. If youdon’t like frustration, it’s probably bestavoided though, you’ll be tearing yourhair out soon enough with bubblesbouncing around all over your iPhone’sscreen! Otherwise, it’s an addictive andchallenging game that relives theclassic game from 1989. Being touch-based though, it’s actually moreintuitive than the original joystick-based game. Expect more games likethis to head to the App Store. ●

For the benefit of the under 40s,Q*Bert was a classic arcade coin-op. The premise is simple. The

player has to make Q*Bert jump arounda simple structure made of cubes. Eachtime he touches a cube it changescolour. When all the cubes have beenchanged it’s onto the next level. Theproblem is that there are many enemieswho are also bouncing around thecubes and if Q*Bert gets touched, it’scurtains for the little fella!

If Q*Bert gets into a tight spot he canattempt to leap onto a floating disk thatwill whisk him away to safety. He’snever safe for long though, as thefurther he gets, the more times he hasto change the blocks’ colours. Thisrelease features the original version, asexier updated mode with multiplayerand Co-op modes and a series ofcolourful jungle levels. It’s a bitrepetitive, but essential for retro fanswho will love to be reminded thatQ*Bert still exists. ●

Pang

Q*Bert Deluxe

£0.59 I’m forever blowing (up) bubbles

£1.19A blend of blocks, bouncing and baddies

BUBBLE BURSTER

CUBE CONUNDRUM

BUBBLING UP If you like to bursta bubble or two, the classic Panggame is just your thing

CUBOID The cubic worldof Q*Bert is both funand frustrating

It looks cute but this isa proper old-schoolchallenge. Terrific!

If you like retro gamingand aren’t afraid of toughrepetitive challenges, you’lllove this app

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KEY INFOUK price £0.59US price £0.99Webwww.soft-go.com

KEY INFOUK price £1.19US price $1.99Webwww.sonypictures.com




PLAY Logic&Dexterity

Pretty much any game thatfeatures a ball and a maze –and that uses the iPhone’s

accelerometer – is going to beworth the asking price.

Mad ’o’Ball 3D, while not as slickor interesting as the more expensiveMonkey Ball or Labyrinth, neverthelessfrustrates and fascinates from start tofinish. The idea is simply to roll the ballfrom the start to the finish of 32 floatingmazes. Hazards come in the form ofrotating platforms, steep inclines, jumpsand the like. You can play each trackwith different racing styles to make iteven more challenging and this alsoextends its game time.

The topography of the mazes is notalways clear, which can lead to somefrustration, but it’s compelling enoughto keep you plugging away to the bitterend, then go at it again to improve yourtimes. If you’ve got an iPhone 4, anupdated Retina Display version iscoming soon as a free update. ●

This game employs physicsnot unlike those found in theincredibly popular Angry Birds. In

Ragdoll Cannon, the player (predictably)fires ragdolls from a cannon in order toreach a target marked ‘HERE’. Prettystraightforward, but for the fact thatblocks, dangling chains, balls and allsorts of other obstacles are introducedforcing you to really think about how touse the realistic physics of the ragdollsto get to the target. As they areragdolls, their limbs are very floppyand cumbersome, adding an extrachallenge to how you propel themaround the screen. You’ll also need tomaster chain reaction when hittingobjects to achieve goals in the moredifficult levels. There’s 220 levels, aone-touch control scheme and iOS 4multitasking support. Also, there’s RolyPoly Cannon on the App Store which ismore complex, featuring timebombsand targets that you must both hit andavoid; oddly, it’s slightly less fun. ●

Mad ’o’ Ball 3D

Ragdoll Cannon!

£1.19Ball plusmaze plus accelerometer equals fun

£0.59p Love Angry Birds? It’s your lucky day

BALL &MAZE

RAGDOLL PUZZLE

FRUSTRATING FUNMad ’o’Ballprovides yet another reason for youto be addicted to your iPhone

RAG TIME Fling ragdolls at speedto clear a path to the goal. There’sendless fun to be had

Not all that slick, but Mad‘o’ Ball is oodles of fun

A ludicrous amount ofbizarre puzzling foralmost no money

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KEY INFOUK price £1.19US price $1.99Web www.madoball3d.com

KEY INFOUK price £0.59US price $0.99Webwww.fdg-entertainment.com




Logic&Dexterity PLAY

Bejeweled 2

Critter Crunch

£0.59The classic comes to the iPhone

£1.19Use your tongue to grab gems

GEMMATCHING

BEJEWELED ALTERNATIVE

IPHONE GEMSMatch gem shapes and win big with Bejeweled 2

CATCH ’EM ALL If you’re a fan of Bejeweled you’ll love Critter Crunch

KEY INFOUK price £0.59US price $0.99Webwww.popcap.com

KEY INFOUK price £0.59US price $0.99Web crittercrunch.com



Fantastic. The perfect ‘pickup and put down’ game forthe doctor’s waiting room.It’s good-looking, too

Although it’s sluggishto load, it’s one of ourfavourite iPhone games.Totally addictive

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Ahhh, Bejeweled. Forgetthe laggy, clunky web-based versions that first

debuted on the iPhone, runningin Safari, and hinting at itsgaming potential – this is theproper native app. And if you’venever played Bejeweled before –first, obviously, welcome back toEarth; what’s Mars like, anyway?– you’re in for a real treat.

The basic concept is almostfacile: it’s a gem-matching game,so you swap different colouredgems around to makes line ofthree, four or five same-colouredgems. It’s the perfect way tospend a fewmindless minutes ina doctor’s waiting room or at abus stop, and there’s enoughvariety and strategy involved tokeep you interested. Lines ofthree gems pop into oblivionimmediately, lines of four giveyou a special exploding gem

that you can trigger later, anda line of five gives a gem thatcan wipe out all others of thesame colour in a spectacularchain reaction or ‘cascade’ofdestruction. You can also playagainst the clock for an added-pressure challenge.

Also included in the appon the App Store these days isBejeweled Blitz – which enablesyou to play against yourFacebook friends. BejeweledBlitz has over 10 million playerson Facebook, so if you’re intocompeting for global highscores, Blitz is just the thing foryou. In Blitz mode you can earncoins and buy boosts to allowyou to reach even higher scoresthan ever before. If you like youcan even use the coins andboosts you get on the iPhoneversion back on the Facebookapplication instead. ●

Essentially another gem-matching game, but witha twist. You control the

monster at the bottom and useyour sticky tongue to feedsmaller monsters to biggermonsters. When they’re full, theypop, releasing point-givinggems or power-ups. It’s toosluggish to load for our liking,but it’s adorably Japanese andsome clever thought has beenput into the gameplay.

Critter Crunch is still one ofour favourite puzzle games forthe iPhone platform simplybecause the gameplay is sovaried and addictive, andbecause it’s just gorgeous tolook at – and the sound effectsare great, too.

Essentially, in Critter Crunchyou work against a time limit asthe critters advance down thescreen. You score extra points bypopping a critter that’s part of a

chain of similarly-colouredfriends, who’ll all pop at thesame time and give you extrapoints. There are also ‘FoodChain’ combos. If you feed asmall critter to a medium-sizedcritter who’s under a big one,the big one will then chomphim straight up and pop,dropping a coin to boostyour combo further.

As you work your waythrough, you’ll start toencounter power-ups, or ‘PowerFoods’ as they’re known here.Pop a sparkling critter, and youget a power food, which turnsinto an icon at the bottom left.When tapped, you get a specialability for a limited number ofuses, such as being able to spitwatermelon seeds to popcritters and clear some space.There’s more to discover too,with new elements constantlyadded to the game. ●



£1.79Another reason to love indie coders

Tilt to Live is a near-perfectexample of a simple idea,executed beautifully. You move

your ship around the play area by tiltingthe iPhone (the controls here arephenomenally accurate and responsive)in order to avoid red dots (enemies)and pick up weapons in order todestroy those enemies. The further youprogress in the game, the more insanethe action becomes, and there aresome entertaining achievements to behad. If that’s not a turn-off, Tilt to Liveshould be right near the top of yourshopping list. It’s a blinder. ●

Tilt to LiveTILT SHOOTER

ON THEWONK Unlockingnew andmore powerfulweapons are one goodreason to keep playing

Perfect use of theaccelerometer. This is anear-perfect little shooter

KEY INFOUK price £1.79US price $2.99Webwww.onemanleft.comDownload size 13.2MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

Like Vector Tanks, this isanother great vector-based game, which serves

to reinforce our theory that anygame with old-school vectorgraphics is automatically awinner on the iPhone.

Spirit sees the playerdragging a little vector ghostaround the screen, creatingloops around enemies in orderto trap them in a destructivebubble. Enemies have varyingshapes and movementcharacteristics, making trappingthem increasingly difficult aswave after wave of neonassailants litter the screen.

It’s clever, cool, and your littleghost even adds a bit ofcuteness to the mix. ●

£0.59 Suck enemies into another dimension

SpiritENEMY TRAP

SPACEINVADERSCreate loopsaround yourenemies towipe them offyour screen

KEY INFOUK price £0.59US price $0.99Web spiritapp.comDownload size 13.7MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

Superbly implemented. Anotherindie gem for your iPhone

This game is kind on the eye buthard on the brain. There’s acannon at the bottom of the

screen and when you tap the screenit fires and deposits a ball (the size ofwhich depends on howmuch space ithas). To destroy each ball takes threemore collisions. So it’s a balancing act ofcreating and destroying balls, withoutshots rebounding back into your firingarea. It’s the splitting of each elementdown into three parts that makesOrbital particularly challenging. Onceyou get the hang of it however, you’llsoon be smashing your way throughthe game’s levels. It’s a real mix ofstrategy and reflexes that will keepyou entertained for weeks on end!

Make sure you practise though asthe online players’ scores are always,always better than yours! In the latestversion there’s graphics updates andeven direct support for Facebook, soyou can show off your high scoreswith friends online. ●

Orbital£1.79 A three-in-a-row gamewith a twist

TOUCH SKILLS

TAP IT! Orbital offers the simpleyet addictive gameplay that willlose you for hoursThis game is as frustrating

as it is addictive

5KEY INFOUK price £1.79US price $2.99Webwww.orbital-game.com




Sometimes the crudest games turnout to be the most compelling andso it proves with Squareball, a

game inspired by Pong, Breakout andyour generic basic platformer.

All you have to do is guide a ballaround a maze, collecting good stuffand avoiding bad stuff. Look for thegreen blocks to clear each stage andyou’ll be fine. You’ll spend as much timeswearing at it as smiling upon it, but it’sstupendously addictive.

Squareball sits halfway betweengenius and madness with its garishcolour scheme and frustrating leveldesigns. To go with the retro graphicsare retro sound effects and being 60fpsit’s a like a flashy disco on your iPhone!The game has 20 stages spread acrossfive fantastic worlds and there’s verydifferent obstacles found in each maze.To celebrate the game’s first anniversarythe developers have issued a freeupdate that contains an ‘endless’modewhich extends the game’s levels. ●

In each level of The Package,a carboard box has to be transportedfrom the entry point to the exit by

means of positioning a number ofhandy gadgets such as fans, conveyorbelts, springy boxing gloves andexplosive charges.

As play advances, the rooms becomemore hazardous, featuring moreelaborate routes from start to finish,nooks and crannies in which to gettrapped, and even crushing machinesand furnaces that destroy the package.

There are 20 levels in total, whichdoesn’t seem that many. However, ThePackage chooses not to guide youthrough lots of introductory challengesand instead starts off tricky, and rapidlybecomes incredibly difficult with littlehelp available if you’re struggling. It’sa long process of trial and error, butsatisfying when you find a solution.

Part Incredible Machine, partLemmings, part Royal Mail sortingoffice, it’s a great puzzler. ●

Squareball

The Package

£1.19Mixing primary colourswith frustration

£1.19A game that proves parcel delivery is a lotmore complex thanwe initially thought

BALL &MAZE

DELIVERY PUZZLE

SQUARED OFF It may look shockingin terms of visuals, but you just can’thelp but play Squareball

THE TRANSPORTER Deliver theparcels to their correct destinationwithout making any errors

A throwback from the late1980s. Vile colours, butbrilliant all the same!

A superb puzzle package,but it’s a tough one

5

5

KEY INFOUK price £0.59US price $0.99Webwww.dromsynt.com

KEY INFOUK price £1.19US price $1.99Webwww.rockpocketgames.com





The iPhone is rapidly evolvinginto a compelling gamingplatform, but every now and

then a genre-defying app comesalong that isn’t quite a game in thetraditional sense. Zen Bound is aperfect example, but it’s fair to saythat it’s utterly pointless.

However, that misses the point.The basic idea is that you rotate awooden animal sculpture to wraprope around it, coating it with paintas you do so. There’s no timer, and,though you can’t rotate the viewitself, the act of spinning thesculpture with one or two fingers iscalming. It looks beautiful and thesoundtrack is stunning. Try it! ●

Catch a falling droplet andput it in a canister. Hmm…that doesn’t sound quite

right. But hey, this isn’t a gamefor oldies – it’s fun for kids andalso a useful physics lesson.

Use bumpers, sliders,sponges and accelerators tomove water, oil and lava froma dripping vessel to anothercontainer. Earn points as yougo and extra bonuses forcompleting the level quickly.

It takes some concentration(and patience), but is worth theeffort. If you love a challenge,there are 50 levels for you towring every last drop of fun outof. Mastering the liquids is reallyfun and makes brilliant use ofthe accelerometer. ●

£1.79More like the Turner prize than a game

£0.59Have funwhile learning physics

ZenBound

EnigmoSCULPTUREWRAPPHYSICS STRATEGY

ART ATTACKNot so mucha game, butZen Bound isa captivatingartisticexperience

PHYSICSLESSONLava andwater havevery differentproperties, asyou’ll soondiscover!

KEY INFOUK price £1.79US price $2.99Webwww.chillingo.comDownload size 53.5MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.1 or later

KEY INFOUK price £0.59US price $0.99Webwww.pangeasoft.netDownload size 5.5MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.1.3 or later

It may be pointless, but paintingsculptures is very satisfying

It’s fun and you can learn someelementary physics while you play

Balcassa£0.59Rubik’s Cubemeets sliding tile puzzle

CUBE CONUNDRUM

COLOURMATCH It looks simple, but Balcassa is far from awalk in the park

KEY INFOUK price £0.59US price $0.99Webwww.openplanetsoftware.com


There’s a great idea here,it’s just not been turnedinto a proper game

3

There’s proof here that youshould never judge a bookby its cover. Balcassa’s

creators, for some inexplicablereason, have decided to hidetheir rather smart andridiculously challenging puzzlegame behind a truly dreadfulfront end.

The game is essentially afusion of sliding tile puzzle anda Rubik’s Cube. By rollingindividual cubes around a grid,you have to achieve variousaims, perhaps getting all theupper faces of the cubesshowing the same colour, orassembling the faces of a bunchof dice in numerical order. Theobject of each of the games isto rotate a number of cubesinto a sequence, a pattern ororientation by moving themaround the screen.

In some games it may beenough to get each cube intoposition with the correct sideshowing, while in other gamesrotation of the cubes must alsobe considered. The idea issimple, the solution of courseis far from it!

There’s only a handful ofpuzzles available, but like aRubik’s Cube, it’s not the varietybut the complexity that’simportant to the game, it’s theskill involved.

It’s just a shame there’s nolinear progression through thelevels, no ‘journey’ through thegame. As it stands, Balcassa is adiverting toy rather than a fully-fledged game.Worth the money,but a bit workmanlike. Might beworth a look if you loved otherpopular iPhone cube rotationgames such as Cubes. ●



Geared£0.59 It’s a form of cog-nitive therapy

COG PUZZLE

COMPONENT PARTS Use your brain to align the cogs correctly to complete levels

KEY INFOUK price £0.59US price $0.99Webwww.bryandev.com


A limited premise, but onethat opens up to create asatisfying challenge

4

There are some puzzlegames that lay their stallout early. Tetris is a good

example. There are fallingshapes and you fit themtogether… that’s all you haveto do. Then there are the overlycomplex ones, introducing moreand more elements until yourhead hurts and you wonderwhat you were thinking aboutin exchanging cash for mentalforms of torture.

Geared is a weird one. It startsoff so simple that it’s almostmundane, and continues toplough its initially tediousfurrow for roughly 20 levels.Only then does the playmechanic – that of placing cogson a grid in order to link theinitial gear to the end one – findits feet and provide challenging,engrossing puzzling for theremainder of its 150 levels.

Progress through the game is

saved automatically and there’sa skip feature so you can try anylevel rather than having to waitto unlock the harder ones. Thisis particularly handy if you getreally stuck too, as you can crackon with the other puzzles andrevisit the one that’s causing youproblems later on.

If you get really stuck or makea mistake don’t panic, there’salways the Reset button on eachlevel to take you back to thestart of the puzzle, and there’seven a community section onthe game to discuss solutioswith other iPhone users.

Geared is the sort of gameyou’ll buy, be mildlydisappointed with for fiveminutes, then go on to playconstantly until you’vecompleted it – at which pointyou’ll be sorely disappointed it’sall over. The 150 levels is worthevery penny of its price. ●

Cogs is like a sliding tile puzzle, butinstead of completing a picture,you’re arranging cogs in order to

bring a clanking Victorian contraptionto life. An additional challenge comesfrom having to work out arrangementsover several sides of a 3D object.

There’s two different modes: Inventorand Challenge Mode. In Inventor Modeyou start with simple puzzles and haveto use the tools you’re given, whereasChallenge Mode (unlocked bycompleting Inventor Mode), you haveto tackle the same puzzle again withlimited time of just 30 seconds.

Unfortunately, you only get a fewlevels at first and have to pay foradditional level packs. It’s not a dealbreaker, but we’d have preferred to buythe whole game up front to avoid thefaff. Even so, this is a beautifullydesigned puzzler made all the more funthanks to its steampunk presentation.Extend the game by competing on theonline leaderboards. ●

Cogs£0.59App Store gaming paid in instalments

COG PUZZLE

TILE FUN Build increasingly complexcontraptions within attractive 2Dand 3D environments

Superb steampunk puzzlingusing a tiled 3Denvironment

4KEY INFOUK price £0.59US price $0.99Webwww.chillingo.com

Download size 27.1MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.o or later



This was the game that goteverybody talking about theiPhone as a gaming platform, due

to the nifty use of the accelerometer asa control device. In this SEGAMegadrive classic you tilt your iPhoneto guide a little monkey in a glass ballthrough a series of floating 3Dplatforms, trying to avoid a fall from theedge. Unfortunately, it had a verysensitive control system, which meant itwas fiendishly difficult to play and spoiltthe experience for too many people.

The new version of Super MonkeyBall is essentially more of the same styleof gameplay but features improvedgraphics, more options, more levels,more characters, and it’s not as difficultas the original, which makes it more funfor the casual user. So long as you don’ttry to collect every single banana oneach level (get 10 and you gain an extralife) mere mortals do now actually havea chance of completing most levels.Thank goodness for that! ●

Super Monkey Ball 2£3.49 Themonkey in a bubble returns

ARCADE CLASSIC

BALL GAME Every banana counts –that’s the overridingmessage ofSuper Monkey Ball 2

Superb. This is just whatthe original game shouldhave been like

5KEY INFOUK price £3.49US price $5.99Webwww.sega.co.uk


We suspect the originalLabyrinth – in which you tiltedthe iPhone to send a steel ball

from the start to the finish of a woodenmaze wouldn’t provide enoughentertainment for gamers in the longrun, but actually it’s one of the mostpopular games on the App Storebecause it’s so much fun.

If you loved the original freeLabyrinth game then you’ll love thesequel. There’s plenty to make the taskharder including buffers, cannons,moving walls and magnets. It’s not justabout the tilting anymore! It offers somuch variety that there’s something foreveryone and there’s enough levels tojustify the price. It’s exactly the sort ofgame the iPhone was made for. Thecurrent version (1.3.1) has beenupdated for the new Apple GameCenter (including 36 achievements toobtain), with global leaderboards andit now supports the Retina display ofthe iPhone 4 for extra clarity. ●

Labyrinth 2£2.99An a-maze-ingly good game…

TILT BOARD

TILT AND SHIFT Simple, addictiveand loads of fun. Labyrinth 2 is ahit as far as we’re concernedThis is a fantastic expansion

of the original game

5KEY INFOUK price £2.99US price $4.99Webwww.labyrinth2.com




De Blob£0.59Another oldie that’s a goodie for the iPhone

TOPDOWNPLATFORM

This is still exemplary iPhonegaming even though it was oneof the original iPhone games. At

its simplest, you just roll a little sphericalmonster around a townscape,controlling its movements by tilting thephone and using its accelerometer.

You bump into little pots of paintthat change your colour, and you canthen roll into buildings to paint themthe same colour as you. Thereby youbring a splash of colour to the drabgrey world, which is menaced by theevil INKT Corporation.

There’s lots of variety to keep youengaged, though. Colours can be mixed– a good thing since some buildingsrequire you to be a particular colour

and size before they’ll take the paint –and there are inky baddies that causeyou to leach colour away from buildingsinstead of adding it. You can squashthem by tapping on them when you’renearby and the target icon appearson-screen, or, if you get inked, find apond to wash yourself off in. There arefour different zones, 16 levels and threedifferent modes of play for you to workyour way through, bringing colour backto the once-lavish city of Chroma.

It’s the implementation and sheerscale of the work that’s gone intocrafting this long-lasting title that isreally impressive, however. For the priceof a chocolate bar, this is phenomenalvalue indeed. ●

01 Luscious graphics and cheerysoundscapes mark this out as

a premium app, and it’s cheap!

02 It has a fantastic calibrationroutine that sets the neutral

rest point and the tilt sensitivity

03 The tutorial level tells youeverything you need to know;

just as well, as there’s lots to take in!

04 There are four districts to workthrough; they’re locked until

you complete earlier levels

KEY INFOUK price £0.59US price $0.99Web www.thqwireless.comDownload size 8.8MBiPod touch compatible YesRequires iOS 2.2 or later

Looks great and offersplenty of scope for morecommitted gamers. The tiltcontrol option is welcome

5

01 02

03

04

ON THE LEVEL You can choose not to use the tilting controlsystem, which is a welcome option when you’re travelling


PLAY Mystery&Adventure

With its polished interface andpretty graphics, this physics-based iPhone game is very

much in the visual style of Sony PSP’sLoco Roco – but the premise issomewhat different. Here you’re in theworld of the Moki – small cute creatures– and the idea is to move the Mokiaround by blowing up any obstaclesthat are blocking their way. It’s all abouta combination of positioning andtiming to best effect.

So you might, for example, set abomb to start the Moki rolling, setanother to blast it over a chasm, andthen set another to make it leap anobstacle. All these bombs have to havetheir timers set accurately to pull off thestunt successfully.

There are 85 levels in seven differentworlds, each with its own gameplay,and there’s also a level-editor so youcan create your own. You can playagainst friends, too. It’s clever, and itshould definitely be on your iPhone. ●

iBlast Moki£1.19 Getting blown up for good…

TOUCHACTION/PUZZLER

LIBERATE THE MOKI! Usewell timed explosives toforge their path to freedomAn inventive puzzler with

an explosive play mechanic

5KEY INFOUK price £1.79US price $2.99Web www.godzilab-games.com

Download size 11.6MBiPod touch compatible YesRequires iOS 2.2.1 or later

The spiky speedster has finallyarrived on the iPhone, enablingyou to relive the gaming

memories of the 90s. Battle Dr Eggmanand collect golden rings in thisnote-perfect recreation of the originalMega Drive cartridge; it will delightany SEGA fan or younger gamerexploring the origins of today’splatform gaming.

The controls on the iPhone areresponsive and visually it’s a real treat.The fast-paced gameplay also remainsas enjoyable as ever, as you careenthrough the levels in search of the evilDr Eggman. The only downside is thelack of a save facility. If you lose yourlives you have to go back to thebeginning. It’s harsh, but to be fair,that’s true retro-gaming for you.

Sonic The Hedgehog 2 is alsoavailable for £3.49, and the latestrelease is Sonic The Hedgehog 4.Costing £5.99, this also include twoexclusive iPhone levels. ●

Sonic The Hedgehog£3.49 Sonic speeds forward onto the iPhone

PLATFORMHEDGEHOG

GOLD HUNTER Race around theobstacle courses, collecting goldrings and avoid evil Dr Eggman

The pixel-perfect iPhonedebut of everyone’sfavourite hedgehog

5KEY INFOUK price £3.49US price $5.99Web www.sega.co.uk

Download size 4.0MBiPod touch compatible YesRequires iOS 3.0 or later


Mystery&Adventure PLAY

The aim here is to saveRolandoland from peril by rollingits inhabitants (Rolandos) through

various hazards. Rescue a certainnumber of Rolandos on each level andyou progress to the next challenge.

The key is its physics engine. TheRolandos roll about the landscape withthe tilt of the iPhone. Basic Rolandos goleft and right and need a swipe of thescreen in order to leap over obstacles,while Spikey Rolandos can roll acrossceilings and vertical surfaces. You haveto reach and activate switches thatopen doors, release bombs and shoveblocks into pits to create bridges.

Progression through the 36 levelsrequires concentration, thanks to thecomplexity of the maps and levels.While Rolando seems casual, it is alsoa triumph of good, old-fashioned,game design that will transport you toaddiction without you realising thatit’s sucked you in and made you amaster of its internal prescript. ●

Rolando£1.79A stroke of genius for the accelerometer

ROLLING INVASION

QUICKWITS Quick fingers willrescue you from any hazards

A visually beautiful andwell designed game.Cheap, cheerful, andwonderfully playable

5KEY INFOUK price £1.79US price $2.99Web rolando.ngmoco.com


This appears to be a true original.That’s not to say it’s a work ofgenius – it’s pretty short-lived and

the control system can be frustrating –but it’s a game unlike any other. Itsingenious design is a product of theiPhone touchscreen’s uniquecharacteristics.

It’s like a platform game, but ratherthan standing on the platforms, yourcharacter hangs from them and movesaway by swaying. Gently moving yourright and left thumbs controls theswing and grip of your character’srespective arms as he traverses thescenery collecting stuff, ultimatelygetting to the exit. Your score iscalculated by how quickly youcomplete each level. It’s tough,rewarding, sweet and annoying…

A Lite version is also available for freeif you want to try out the game first.Once you’re hooked, you'll need to payto unlock the full game if you want all25 levels and 10 characters. ●

Sway£2.99A dose of old-fashioned hangin’ around

OPPOSINGDIGIT PLAY

STARRY-EYED As well as movingto the exit quickly, you also collectstars as you swing past them

A frustrating but rewardinggame. And you won’t haveplayed its like before

4KEY INFOUK price £2.99US price $4.99Webwww.illusionlabs.com




£1.19 Tinkerwith evolution on the fly £2.99 Like a Dyson – suck to succeed

Spore Origins isn’t as ambitious asthe Mac version; you don’t evolveyour little creature onto land, and

there’s no web connection to sharecreations in populating new worlds. It’smore suited to casual gaming.

There are 30 levels in the mainEvolution mode, and as you progressyou can add defensive, offensive,navigation and sensation upgrades toyour little creature. The game is packedwith charm, and it looks great, but it’snot perfect. The calibration routine ishandy, but it’s difficult to get it right,and the gameplay can be repetitive. ●

The iPhone is introducing casualgamers to all sorts of weirdJapanese titles that were

previously the preserve of hardcoregame fans only.

Here the protagonist, a prince,collects junk by rolling a sticky ball andpicking up stuff. Starting small, youcollect pegs and dominoes, beforemoving onto bottles and cartons, thensmall pets, furniture and buildings.

The game is basically a collect-em-up, but the surreal premise andaccurate physics make rolling this ballchallenging and compelling. ●

Spore Origins I Love KatamariEVOLUTION CHALLENGE PICKEMUP

END IN SIGHT The lastcouple of levels arefrustratingly much harderthan previous ones

ADDICTED TO TIDYING?No, neither are we, butyou could be after a blastof I Love Katamari

A beautiful, fun game, but itlacks depth, and we’d like someclearer instructions

An odd game, but theoriginality and inventivenessis beyond question

KEY INFOUK price £1.19US price $1.99Webwww.eamobile.comDownload size 70.5MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 2.2.1 or later

KEY INFOUK price £2.99US price $4.99Webwww.namcogames.comDownload size 84.2MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 2.2.1 or later

Could you pilot a spacecraftthrough 3D celestial challengesacross three levels of difficulty,

reliving Star Trek-esque intergalacticantics? You’ll need agility becauseSolarQuest’s controls are crude, withjust an afterburner for thrust and a liftjet to keep you aloft.

As you crash headlong throughspace, you can collect three types ofpower-up boosts to assist you on yourway. Your spaceship has shields toprotect you and there are three lives.Trying to steer by wiggling your iPhoneisn’t easy and there’s horrid thrashmusic to accompany your efforts, whilethe iPhone’s vibrator also kicks in fromtime to time when you hit something.

There are a few bugs in this appbecause operation is neither smoothnor fluid. But you’re talking aboutpocket-money price, so if you like thecut and thrust of competing on anonline leaderboard, this could be theway to idle away a few hours. ●

SolarQuest£1.79 Strap yourself in for a rough landing

INTERGALACTIC EXPLORATION

DODGE BALL Steer your wayaround the universe and avoidhitting obstacles in thisintergalactic adventure

It’s clumsy, crude and jerky.But if you like clunky spacegames, it’s perfect

3KEY INFOUK price £1.79US price $2.99Webwww.neonsurge.com




The Secret of MonkeyIsland Special Edition

£4.99 The best pirate adventure ever is back

PIRATE POINTANDCLICK

LucasArts set the bar for point-and-click adventures when The Secretof Monkey Island was released

almost two decades ago. In terms ofstoryline and comedy scripting itremains the best adventure of its type.

The release of this Special Edition forthe iPhone gives you a fresh chance tosee wannabe pirate GuybrushThreepwood trying to earn his stripes.He must carry out three tests to take onevil Ghost Pirate LeChuck.

The Special Edition is very specialindeed. But not because of the control

system. Rather than having to tap adesired area or object, you have tograb and drag an onscreen pointer.This is fine for the most part, but whenyou’re trying to get Guybrush to headoff the side of the screen, it cansometimes be a little difficult to get thepointer pointing in the right direction.Irritating it may be, but to deductpoints for the slightly awkward iPhonecontrols would be petty.

No, Monkey Island SE is specialbecause it not only faithfully recreatesthe original game, but also adds

improved graphics, a new voiceover bythe original Monkey Island cast, and anenhanced soundtrack with liveinstruments – while retaining all thecharacter of the original.

In fact, the original version of thegame is included and you can, ratherbrilliantly, toggle between the oldClassic mode and the new SpecialEdition mode during gameplay, simplyby swiping the screen.

Monkey Island SE is adventuring atits most amusing and entertaining, andas such shouldn’t be missed. ●

KEY INFOUK price £4.99US price $7.99Webwww.lucasarts.comDownload size 355MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 2.2.1 or later

A superb revamp of alegendary adventure.An essential in every truegamer’s library

5

01 If you want to be a pirate, thedock is a good place to start

02 LeChuck is scary, but not asspooky as the Ghost Pirate

himself, coming to haunt you

03 Hmm, what is this islandcalled, we wonder? Backdrops

hold many clues

04 Your enemy, the evil LeChuckowns a spooky ghost ship

02

01 02

03



This sci-fi point-and-click adventurefollows the character of Robert,who was adopted and raised in

the Australian outback. Years laterRobert is kidnapped by security soldierssent from Union City but manages toescape, and this is where his newadventure begins. The backstory isintroduced through a comic book,drawn by famous artist Dave Gibbons.

It’s familiar fare, with Rob workingwith his sidekick, an intelligent talkingrobot called Joey that he’s built himself.Together they travel around and solvepuzzles by talking to people, pressingbuttons, collecting and using objectsand so on; in its day it was prettysophisticated stuff, and even nowstill proves to be enjoyable.

The voice acting, it must be said, ispoor. The clunky delivery is irritatingand Joey is plain annoying. This,however, is not a deal breaker and thisadventure should appeal to a broadspectrum of players. ●

Beneath a Steel Sky£1.79A post-apocalyptic talewith a sense of humour

SCIFI POINTANDCLICK

BRIGHT SPARK Rob’s partytrick was going well untilthe ventriloquist’s dummyspontaneously self-combustedEven annoying voice acting

can’t spoil this cool classic

4KEY INFOUK price £1.79US price $2.99Webwww.revolution.co.uk


This retooling of a BAFTA-nominated game that debutedon PC in 1996 features visuals

by Dave Gibbons – the artist behindWatchmen and Beneath a Steel Sky(see above). There’s also a score byBarrington Pheloung. In thisglobetrotting adventure George teamsup with journalist Nico to investigatethe Knights Templar, after a murder inParis’ Palais Royale.

The new script includes humourand pathos in equal measure. As such,it feels like the result of rammingInspector Morse,MidsomerMurders anda variety of comic books into a blenderand ending up with an unlikely yetthoroughly palatable adventure.

That’s what it ‘feels’ like. What itplays like, however, is a precursor tothe Professor Layton games on theNintendo DS, but without thebrain-bending puzzles. As a result,it’s less taxing but every bit asengrossing. Excellent stuff! ●

Broken Sword: Director’s Cut£2.99An oddly familiar tale retold on iPhone

MYSTERY POINTANDCLICK

ZUT ALORS! A brutal murderin Paris is the start of thisenticing chain of events

A superb update to theclassic with impressiveproduction values

5KEY INFOUK price £2.99US price $4.99Webwww.revolution.co.uk




We missed the first chapter ofthis mystery adventure, buthaving caught up with it, we

recommend it. Told through high-reshand-drawn animation, the story takesplace in a version of America with agovernment that has banned booze,cigarettes and seems intent on spoilingeveryone’s fun.

Not a lot happens initially – in factthe protagonist just has to perform afew chores. But a recurrent nightmareand increasingly incongruous eventssoon starts to unsettle him. It’s up toyou to solve the mystery, throughmultitouch puzzles and multiple-choice dialogue.

Our only gripe is that each chapteris quite short, and at six chapters longthe whole game will cost £18. You don’thave to buy the previous versions,however, as you can start at any pointwith a handy recap. And this is anongoing drama that we can’t waitto get to the bottom of. ●

1112 – chapters 1&2£2.99 (per chapter)Dream… fantasy…nightmare…

EPISODICMYSTERY

PUZZLING IT OUTWhile themaid’s making out you canduck inside and steal her keys An unsettling and

intriguing adventure

4KEY INFOUK price £2.99US price $4.99Webwww.1112game.com


FightingFantasy£1.79Warlock of FiretopMountain

TIMELESS ROLEPLAY

MODERN UPDATE The iPhone is well suited to classic pen-and-paper role-playing

KEY INFOUK price £1.79US price $2.99Webwww.bigbluebubble.com


A timeless classic. And now,a little piece of role-playinghistory in your pocket

3When Steve Jackson

and Ian Livingstoneintroduced the first

Fighting Fantasy gamebookback in 1982, TheWarlock ofFiretop Mountain captured thehearts and imaginations ofgeeks everywhere. The ideaof playing a Dungeons andDragons-style adventure onyour own, with the book actingas the dungeon master, was aninstant winner.

28 years later, on the iPhone,the basic adventure remains thesame but the dice rolling, statcalculations and inventorysystems have been automated.In addition, the originalmonochrome illustrations arenow full colour.

Even with its basic gameplay,Firetop Mountain enchants fromthe very first paragraph. ●



Ubisoft and Griptonite have donea spectacular job in bringingAssassin’s Creed II to iPhone. The

visually stunning console chapters werenever going to be squeezed in, ofcourse, but as Assassin’s CreedDiscovery, this side-scrollinginterpretation of the experience is acredit to whoever was on the designteam. It’s an extra untold chapter fromthe main game, where Ezio travels toSpain to rescue his fellow assassins.Once there, he’s caught up in anotherTemplar plot.

It looks a treat and the controls formoving, jumping, rolling and fightingare intelligently implemented. It’s onlythe stealth sections that mar things abit by being just a little too unforgiving.Otherwise, though, it’s a beauty withexcellent gameplay.

A multiplayer version is also availablefor £1.79, where you can compete inreal-time multiplayer games to becomethe master assassin. ●

Assassin’s Creed II£3.99 Consoles’ killer-sequel stalks iPhone

THIRDPERSON COMBAT

SIDESCROLLING Assassin’s Creed IIgets the side-scroller treatment butremains faithful to the originalAgility, combat and stealth

all in one pleasing package

4KEY INFOUK price £3.49US price $5.99Webwww.assassinscreed.uk.ubi.com


The makers of Final Fantasy, SquareEnix, have graced our iPhoneswith this RPG. And save for a few

niggles and an inflated price tag it’sa stunner, which will keep youentertained for many hours.

The story involves characters beingtransported to an unknown realmwhere ‘The Agent’ informs them theyhave to fight in order to attainimmortality. Weird!What follows ismonster encounters, exploration,turn-based combat and levelling up.

There are four scenarios, as youcompete in a tournament in the ArkArena.With sensitive navigation there’ssuperb gameplay and high-qualitygraphics that befit the price tag.

There are puzzles to break up therandom battling. It has plenty of replayvalue too; once you’ve finished, play thecomplete storyline again with each ofthe other characters and experiencealternate endings. There’s plenty ofgame here… ●

Chaos Rings£7.49 The first iPhone-only RPG fromSquare Enix

RANDOMBATTLE RPG

WORK TOGETHER In combat youcan either attack your opponentsindividually, or as a team

A great-looking andthoroughly enjoyableiPhone exclusive

4KEY INFOUK price £7.49US price $12.99Webwww.dlgames.square-enix.com




Final Fantasy£5.49The seed fromwhich themighty Final Fantasy franchise grew

ROLEPLAYINGGAME

Less experienced gamers who arefamiliar only with the epic 3Dcinematic splendour of recent

Final Fantasy releases will find theoriginal game a bit flat and crude bytoday’s standards. But at the time of itsrelease back in 1987, Final Fantasy wascutting-edge stuff and has sincedeveloped a real cult following. Itwasn’t until the release of Final FantasyVII that the franchise achievedmainstream success and this first gamewas initially a Japan-only release,making the iPhone version particularlypleasing to see.

Final Fantasy follows a party of fouradventurers known as theWarriors ofLight, all of whom seem to figure in a

great prophecy and who, according tothe ancient rules of role-playing games,must save the world from a greatthreat. The action takes place via threeeasy-to-use interfaces. There’s a close-up map used for exploring villages,castles, dungeons and so on. The worldmap provides an expanded view fromwhere the party can travel betweenlocations and randomly get involvedin battles. And when this happens, theaction changes to the battle window, atwhich point, individual party memberscan be allocated tasks such as attack,use magic, defend, run away or evenperform healing and curing spells. Thebattle moments are all in a side-on viewand players can choose a variety of

characters and classes to help completelevels and achievements. They will ofcourse get helpful upgrades along theway to help fight off increasinglydifficult enemies.

The game has a classic set-up, and isone that’s extremely entertaining fromstart to finish. The single irksome aspectis that, as in the original 1987 release,there’s way too much random battlingrequired to level up between eachquest. Despite this, it’s a really funadventure, and an important gamefor iPhone gamers.

Final Fantasy II has also made it’s wayto the iPhone for £5.49 ($8.99), whichextends your role-playing adventuringfor many more hours. ●

A great excuse to discoverthe Final Fantasyphenomenon

5

KEY INFOUK price £5.49US price $8.99Web dlgames.square-enix.comDownload size 81.4MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequirements iOS 3.0 or later

01 Explore the Final Fantasyworld with your character

by roaming about the landscape

02 Use objects around thelandscape to aid your

adventure; here columns can beused to hide from enemy attacks

03 Your choice of weaponaryappears at the bottom of the

app for easy switching in combat

04 Fight scenes are all in the side-on view, whichmakes it easy

to seemore of the action on screen

04

01 02

03


PLAY Simulation

You might think that trying tosqueeze a game of such epicscope as Civilization onto a tiny

device, such as the iPhone, would be afool’s errand.Well, this version boasts alot of depth.

Featuring 10 substantial scenarios(and a randommap generator), yougather resources to build cities andarmies to gain influence and createa thriving civilisation in your pocket.

You can choose from 16 differentcivilizations from history, includingAmerica and China and victory comesin four flavours – you can capture allenemy cities, collect 20,000 gold pieces,launch a space mission or collect 20WorldWonders and Great People.

The gesture-based control systemis excellent, particularly the pinch tozoom controls, but the only problemsare the lack of a multiplayer mode andthe small view of your surroundings.Otherwise, this is a real winner andyou’ll want to spend hours on it. ●

Farming games such as HarvestMoon and Animal Crossing aren’teveryone’s bucket of swill; in fact

they’re normally dismissed as beingtimewasters. But most gamers, ifpushed, will admit they find them aguilty pleasure. Astro Ranch could easilyhave been a cheap knock-off, but farfrom it. This is a fully fledged and ratherexcellent farming RPG in its own right.

After crash-landing on a Jetsons-styleplanet, you must build up a plot of landby growing crops and rearing livestock.Along the way you’ll meet characters,perform tasks, play minigames, collectstuff and share experiences with othersonline. Astro Ranch features a hugevariety of alien crops, animals to helpyou build up your farm. The stunning3D graphics are very colourful and itreally shows off what the iPhone andiPod touch can do with their brilliantscreens. Overall, it’s a gentle, non-threatening and more-ish farm gameyou can play with your friends. ●

Civilization Revolution

Astro Ranch

£3.99Build a huge civilisation in your pocket!

FREE Experience some colourful alien agriculture

WORLD STRATEGY

FARMING FUN

BUILD IT Despite being squashedon to a small screen, CivilizationRevolution boasts impressive detail

ANOTHER PLANET Life on the AstroRanch won’t set the world on fire,unless the landscape catches alight!

Revolution is a greatinterpretation of the full-sized game, but the smallscreen causes a few issues

Attractive design withsome of the best featuresof other simulation games;truly engaging gameplay

4

5

KEY INFOUK price £3.99US price $6.99Webwww.civilizationrevolution.com

KEY INFOUK price FreeUS price FreeWebwww.astroranch.com

Download size 80.9MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequirements iOS 2.2 or later



Simulation PLAY

The Sims 3 World Adventures£1.79Nurture your pocket Sims and even prepare them for a great journey

PEOPLE SIM

Unlike its desktop counterparts,The Sims 3World Adventures isnot an expansion requiring the

original game, but a standalone titlein its own right. As such, we wouldrecommend new gamers to ignorethe first game as this is a much morerounded experience.

The idea here is that your Sim canbreak the shackles of its household andlocal neighbourhood in order to seekfortune and fun in various locationsaround the world. The three exoticlocations on offer are China, Egyptand France. The player has enoughSimoleons (currency) to jet straight offto foreign parts if they want, but themoney soon runs out, so it’s worth

sticking to your home turf initially anddoing some more traditional Simming.This of course involves getting a job,making friends, extending your house,washing, eating and using the toilet…which is all very mundane but casuallyentertaining nevertheless.

Later, as tasks are offered to you(sleep in a friend’s bed, visit the GreatWall of China, kick over a dustbin andso on) you can either opt to lock themin as firm goals or simply let them passyou by and get on with the chores.

Heading off to distant places is assimple as leaving your house to accessthe town map, then heading off to theairport to buy a ticket. During the flightyour Sim will experience turbulence

and in order to avoid air sickness, youmust take part in an exceptionally dullminigame. Succeed, however, andyour little person will arrive at thedestination thoroughly refreshed andready to explore.

In foreign locations there’s a wealthof stuff to do. Here, as at home, you canmake friends, go shopping and so on,but you can also choose to learn aforeign language or explore some oldruins; success in such endeavours beingachieved by playing and winning asimplistic minigame. Alternatively,perhaps the tourist in you will opt forvisiting great landmarks such as thePyramids or Eiffel Tower for a delightfulcut-scene and history lesson. ●

An excellent casual Simsexperience with broaderthan usual horizons

4

KEY INFOUK price £1.79US price $2.99Webwww.eamobile.comDownload size 98MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequirements iOS 2.2.1 or later

01 On a sightseeing tour to theGreatWall of China, you get to

take in great views and learn stuff

02 If you want to learn a foreignlanguage, you’ll need to play

one of these simple minigames

03 Touch down in Egypt andyou can head off to see the

pyramids, the Sphinx, or evenexplore some ruins

03

01 02


PLAY Simulation

Nintendo’s AdvanceWars franchiseis a joy, providing a rich strategicchallenge presented in an

accessible way. But seeing as Nintendowill probably never bring its games tothe iPhone, UniWar is the next bestthing for war strategy fans.

Hexagonal tiles represent thebattlefield, with forests, mountains, andother scenery providing both offensiveand defensive advantages. Units canbe employed to engage the enemy,defend territory, capture bases and soon. The game is a turn-based strategysim that enables players to take turnsbuilding their army and fighting againsteach other using the different arsenalsat their disposal. Move up the ranks tobecome a top player in the onlineUniWar universe and try to hold onto your high scores.

UniWar is a really fun way to passtime for a fraction of the cost of otherwar strategy games. Be warned though,it’s highly addictive! ●

Have you ever wished you couldtake control of dozens of aircraftand their passengers? No.

Neither have we.As it turns out, the stresses of being

an air traffic controller make for greatgame fodder. Flight Control presentsthe player with a top-down view of anairport. The aircraft then appear so theplayer can trace flight paths to guidethe planes to the landing points,hopefully avoiding mid-air collisions.The random paths and speeds of theaircraft make it harder than you think,and more addictive than you canimagine. From small airliners to jumbojets and helicopters, you'll have hoursof fun trying to juggle all these aircraftaround the runways without themcrossing paths and colliding. There's avariety of airports, from simple landingstrips to busy airports and even anaircraft carrier. The current version hasalso been updated for the new GameCenter for competing with friends. ●

UniWar

Flight Control

£0.59Budget strategy gamingwith premium fun

£0.59Aircraft chaoswithout the turbulence

BATTLE STRATEGY

FLIGHT SIMULATION

MAP ATTACK Fans of strategy battlegames with love the intuitiveinterface of UniWar

FLIGHT PATH Test your airplanelanding skills with the challengingand fast-paced Flight Control

A wonderful strategy game– easy to play yet stillprovides a challenge

The cool app that turns airtraffic control into the bestand most fun job ever

5

5

KEY INFOUK price £0.59US price $0.99Webwww.uniwar.com

KEY INFOUK price £0.59US price £0.99Webwww.firemint.com

Download size 8.7MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequirements iOS 2.2



Simulation PLAY

ChinatownWars is a spin-off ofthe smash-hit Grand Theft Autofranchise, bringing its controversial

but action-packed car theft gameplayto a string of mobile devices. Gameplay-wise, there’s little to distinguish thisfrom the DS and PSP versions. It’sbasically the same game, but withcontrols tweaked to suit the iPhone’stouch-sensitive display. Although thegame features 3D visuals, it still usesthe top-down view of the original andfeatures cel-shaded graphics.

The camera occasionally gets a littleconfused and the driving controls are alittle sensitive for our liking – but theseare minor irritants in what is otherwisea substantial and superbly craftedgame. The illustrative elements, cut-scenes, environments and missions areevery bit as involving as those in theGTA releases you get on living-roomgame consoles. Creator Rockstar Gamesdeserves huge respect for thisspectacular release. ●

To all intents and purposes, thisgame is a hark back to the originalGrand Theft Auto. That’s no great

surprise considering that Paul Farley,founder of Car Jack Streets developerTAG Games, was part of the originalGTA team.

There are no fancy visuals in this title,with the emphasis placed firmly ongameplay. You view the city top-downand scroll around to follow your deviantcharacter, Randall Meyers: his task is torun around the city, nicking cars andperforming tasks in order to raise cashand get in the good books of the localcrime boss.

The game runs in real time and youhave an actual week in which to rack upeach $50K payment you have to make.Playing more often, therefore, increasesyour chances of success. One negativepoint is that the steering controls canbe a bit fiddly, but this is still a classy bitof top-down crime-foolery – and a lotof fun to boot. ●

GTA: Chinatown Wars£5.99A life of crime has never beenmore affordable

CITY RACING

RACE AGAINST TIME Outmanoeuvrethe cops and pick your automobile ofchoice from the law-abiding public

A criminally good versionof GTA for the iPhone,especially once you getused to the controls

5KEY INFOUK price £5.99US price $9.99Webwww.rockstargames.com


Car Jack Streets£1.79The gamewhere crime does pay

STREET RACING

FROMTHEMAKERS OF…Some facesbehind the original Grand Theft Autohavemade a compelling look-alike

Even the awkward controlscan’t ruin a game that’sessentially Grand TheftAuto on the iPhone

5KEY INFOUK price £1.79US price $2.99Webwww.carjackstreets.com



PLAY Racing&Action

Crash Bandicoot Nitro Kart 3D£1.79 It’s noMario Kart, but this classic racer still keeps us amused

KART RACING

Yes, we want Mario Kart on theiPhone – but until then, CrashBandicoot Nitro Kart 3D will have

to do. In any case, the similarities arestartling: you race a kooky characterround a series of tracks – there are adozen in total, a number we’d like tosee increased – driving through boxesto reveal various offensive anddefensive power-ups. The graphicsmay look disappointing if you’rewedded to your PS3, but they’resufficiently fluid and detailed to impresshere. Think Nintendo DS and you won’tbe far wrong.

The tilt-the-iPhone-to-steer controlsystem can be tricky to get to gripswith, although there is a calibration

option. Part of the problem with anyaccelerometer-based navigation systemis that the angle of view on someiPhone screens isn’t particularlyaccomplished: as soon as you move the

screen away from the normal viewingangle, it can be tricky to see detailon-screen as the colours shift, nevermind the play of reflections fromambient lighting. Ironically, we found itdifficult to play this racing game whilebeing a passenger in a car or bus.

For our money, Crash BandicootNitro Kart 3D doesn’t quite have thecharm that Mario Kart has, but it’s stilla well-built game.We’d also like to seea multi-player option; even without it,though, it’s still huge amounts ofbattery-sucking fun. The great thingabout the iPhone and iPod touch as agaming platform is that the games aremuch cheaper than usual, makingCrash Bandicoot a good buy. ●

KEY INFOUK price £1.79US price $2.99Developerwww.activision.comDownload size 10.2MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 2.2.1 or later

There’s room forimprovement here,especially in the number oftracks to race through, butthis is a competent andfun racing game

3

01 CRASH BANG Race a series of‘zany’ racers round a dozen

tracks; it’s lots of fun, but the navsystem isn’t easy

02 COLLECTWEAPONS You canpick up power-ups that can

help you beat your opponents, orprotect you from their aggression

03 REVERSE GEAR Yes, we’redriving backwards in this shot.

We told you the navigation wastricky to master…

04 MARIO KART INSPIREDSpecial parts of the track

boost your speed – nowwhere havewe seen that idea before?

01 03

04

02

FAMILIAR FACES Friends and foes from other CrashBandicoot games control your rival vehicles


Racing&Action PLAY

Motor sport took some time tofind its feet on the iPhone, butnow there are plenty of great

titles available. While Aqua Moto Racingisn’t destined to become the definitivewater racing experience, it certainlypresses the right buttons.

The accelerometer is perfectlyemployed in steering your jet ski, whiletouch spots at the bottom of the screenenable you to apply brakes and boostsas required. The 18 courses, set acrossthree locations including theEverglades, are simple yet nicelydesigned; you can extend the game’slifespan by racing each course inreverse too. The difficulty level is spot-on, enabling you to progress easilythrough the initial levels, but throwingup challenges later in the sevenchampionships provided. Completingstunts to receive power boosts addsa level of strategy to races, while timetrials encourage you to hone yourracing skills. ●

Cro-Mag Rally was a big hit on theMac, and is every bit as good onthe iPhone. In fact, it’s even more

fun, as steering via the accelerometer isvery intuitive.

You can choose to be Brog or Grag,respectively male and female StoneAge drivers, and there are nine tracksand a choice of 11 karts. As well assteering, there’s forward and reverse,plus a release button for throwingweapons at your rivals.

There are two gamemodes to testyour skills against: Race is exactly whatit says, and Gather is about collectingspears, bone bombs and bottle rockets,and heat-seeking pigeons. There’s alsoa wireless multi-player option.

There are echoes of Mario Kartthroughout, of course, and it’s all aboutgetting around the track at breakneckspeed. If you crash often, you can endup disorientated. Thank goodness, then,that the game displays a big red Xwhen you’re going the wrong way. ●

Aqua Moto Racing£1.19Dip a toe into the concept of racing onwater

JET SKI RACING

SPLISH SPLASH Attractive locations,competitive races and cool watereffects enliven AquaMoto Racing

With plenty of challenges,Aqua Moto delivers solidracing thrills and intelligentuse of the accelerometer

4KEY INFOUK price £1.19US price $1.99Webwww.resolution.se


Cro-Mag Rally£1.79Go back to the Stone Age for a fun-filled racing experience

KART RACING

WACKY RACES Cartoon fun aboundsin Cro-Mag Rally, a racing gamethat’s suitable for all ages

Such great fun. The speedcontrol is a bit too jerky;that aside, this is a reallysuperb waste of time

5KEY INFOUK price £1.79US price $2.99Developerwww.pangeasoft.net



PLAY Racing&Action

Doom Resurrection£3.99 It’s neither the original Doom, nor Doom3, but it’ll do for now

FIRSTPERSON SHOOTER

Following the conversion of theclassicWolfenstein to the iPhone(see the next page), the smart

money was on the subsequent releaseof a chunky-pixel-perfect version of theoriginal Doom. That arrived as DoomClassic – but, more interestingly,developer id has also created DoomResurrection, an entirely original titlefor your favourite handheld device.

Don’t get too excited, though. Ratherthan the free-roaming action of theDoom franchise, this is more like one ofthose light gun point-and-shoot gamesyou may have played in a seasidearcade, with movement beingpredetermined and the player left todeal with the oncoming hordes by

tilting the iPhone to aim and shootat stuff with a tap of the screen.

To be fair, there’s a little more toDoom Resurrection than that – but onlya little. As you play, you’re given theopportunity at points to take cover anddodge enemies. If you get grabbed, youcan shake your iPhone and break free.In this regard, it offers a little moreinvolving combat than your averageon-rails shooter.

To its credit, Doom Resurrectionlooks amazing – far more sophisticatedthan eitherWolfenstein or DoomClassic. The linear action has enabledthe developers to make the scenerythat bit more detailed, and the storyhas been crafted with care, too. There

are also some suitable chunky soundeffects to complete the sensoryexperience. In summary, this is a decentsimulacrum of the real thing, butultimately you may be left wanting. ●

KEY INFOUK price £3.99US price $6.99Developerwww.idsoftware.comDownload size 80.8MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 2.2.1 or later

A great shooter with strongDoom flavourings andpolished graphics, but it’snot the real deal

4

01 That guy’s not slowing down.Switch weapons or be

mincemeat…

02 A floating disembodied face?Now that’s different – and no

less frightening

03 For heaven’s sake, is therenothing normal in this place?

Heel, boy

04 Yup, that’s his bowels. Youcan see what this foe had

for his breakfast

01 02

03

04

FREAK SHOW A compelling animation sets the scene forthe story behind Doom Resurrection’s violent gameplay


Racing&Action PLAY

The Metal Gear series is known forits stealth-based gameplay, so it’sodd that this instalment, created

for iPhone, ditches that remit almostentirely in favour of first-person-styleshooting action.

Metal Gear Solid Touch stays trueto its roots on one level, with highproduction values and long, butinteresting, cut scenes. In this respect,devout followers of the series will lapup the latest plot revelations and twists.To be fair, the gameplay itself, involvingpicking off distant enemies with variousguns, sniper rifles and the like, is solidlyentertaining. But surely the Metal GearSolid fan base (and we includeourselves in this) would’ve been betterserved by a collection of puzzle-likechallenges based on the VR missionsin previous chapters, rather than thederivative blasting action seen here.Let’s hope that any subsequent chapteris more like the Metal Gear solid gameswe know and love. ●

Some say that id Software’sWolfenstein was the game thatdefined the first-person shooter

genre as we know it today.What wasonce a ground-breaking and cutting-edge desktop game is reborn here onthe iPhone. The premise (you play asuper-agent imprisoned by Nazis inCastleWolfenstein) hasn’t changed,and neither has the gameplay, whichinvolves finding your way throughcorridors and rooms in order to findthe exit, blasting enemies as you go.

There are 60 levels with gradedweapon pick-ups for you to battle yourway through. Crucially for a game notoriginally designed for a touch-screen,Wolfenstein features a superb controlsystem where you can strafe with onethumb, look around with the other, andshoot by moving a digit deftly to thetop corner of the screen. It worksbeautifully. WithWolfenstein 3D, you’renot just re-playing part of gaminghistory – you’re also having a blast. ●

Metal Gear Solid Touch

Wolfenstein 3D Classic Platinum

£4.99The legendary game series hits the iPhone and iPod touch, butwhat’smissing?

£1.19The grandaddy of first-person shooters comes to the iPhone

COMBATGAME

FIRSTPERSON SHOOTER

SOLID STORYMetal Gear Solid Touchcontinues the tale of this hugelypopular combat series

ALL-OUT ASSAULT It looks primitive,butWolfenstein popularisedmanyof the ideas seen in themodern FPS

Polished and fun, to besure, but this isn’t anythinglike the Metal Gear gamewe might have hoped for

A game design classic.Kitsch, comfortably familiarand yet still cool – and allon your iPhone

3

5

KEY INFOUK price £4.99US price $7.99Webwww.konami-europe.com

KEY INFOUK price £1.19US price $1.99Webwww.idsoftware.com




PLAY Racing&Action

While games on mobile phoneshave shown us that noveltypuzzlers can be entertaining,

the idea of settling down for aheavyweight gaming experience on amobile device wasn’t an option at first.Newer iPhone releases, though, provethat we have a proper gaming platformon our hands, rather than just a musicplayer with added gaming functions.

Hour of Heroes represents a steppingstone from electronic frippery to properhandheld gaming. Charting yourprogress across threeWWII campaigns,the game’s 12 missions provide thrills tospare. Slick cut scenes set the tone anddetailed 3D environments successfullybring big-screen shooting action to thesmall screen.

However, the developers havestruggled with the control system. It’sinaccurate and unresponsive, andmanic thumbmovements can obscurethe action at crucial moments. It’s stillworth a look at the price, though. ●

Although a game simulatingcombat situations in the MiddleEast might strike some people

as too close to the evening news forcomfort, Modern Combat: Sandstorm’s10 missions have an adherence torealism that make them whollycompelling to play.

Everything here is polished toperfection. The opening cut-scenes ofModern Combat alone are of a qualitybefitting a big-budget title – but whatmakes the game is the sophisticationof the level design and the controlimplementation. A directional stick onthe left leaves your right thumb to lookaround, shoot and select stuff, and itworks well.

The banter between squad membersis unconvincing, but that’s probablydown to budgetary constraints, so we’lllet it go. Sandstorm looks good, assailsyour ears with industrial-strengthsound effects and is one of the mostplayable iPhone FPS titles to date. ●

Brothers in Arms: Hour of Heroes

Modern Combat: Sandstorm

£2.99Big gaming goes small screen in this ambitious evocation ofWorldWar II

£2.99Modern Combat kicks sand in the enemies’ faces, then laughs

FIRSTPERSON SHOOTER

FIRSTPERSON SHOOTER

RETROWARFARE Hour of Heroes usesWorldWar II as the backdrop of itshours of action-packed gameplay

IN THE ZONE Forget DoomResurrection – this is thefirst-person shooter youwant for the iPhone

Brothers in Arms looksgreat and it’s a big game,although control issues marthe fun to a degree

Looking, sounding andplaying great, this is a first-person shooter of thehighest order

3

5

KEY INFOUK price £2.99US price $4.99Developerwww.gameloft.com

KEY INFOUK price £2.99US price $4.99Webwww.gameloft.com




Racing&Action PLAY

We’ve had a few decent first-person shooters on iPhonenow, but this original title from

Gameloft is possibly one of the best.The multiple internal and externalenvironments are reminiscent of thehugely popular PC and Xbox franchiseHalo, and the gameplay, while doingnothing innovative, is engineeredwith creativity and panache.

The story features the unoriginalpairing of a lone space marine anda bunch of aliens, but the superbgameplay more than papers overthe narrative cracks. The scenery isvery well designed throughout the13 missions, there’s a solid arsenalof weapons, and enemies are bothintimidating and intelligent.

Best of all, there’s an onlinemultiplayer mode, which enables youto take on other NOVA players in aselection of levels. We also love thesupport for iPhone 4’s gyroscope, whichintroduces a new control dynamic. ●

There’s not enough space to gointo the plot here except to saythat it’s the old story of ‘Native

American Indian boy meets girl whogets abducted by aliens and boydiscovers spiritual side’…

Thus the scene is set for a first-personshooter that works well on the iPhonethanks to intelligently designedcontrols. Unlike Doom Resurrection, agame that uses an on-rails, light-gunshoot-’em-up style, Prey Invasion hasopted to implement proper FPScontrols, with two analogue padscontrolling direction and camera angle,and a screen-tapping mechanism forshooting. It works almost perfectly, andyou can switch to a more conventionalcontrol system if you prefer.

Prey Invasion looks great, too. Earlycriticisms about the lack of enemieswere addressed in an update, althoughthe level design does remain a bit weak.Still, this offers enough fun to make itworth a look. ●

NOVA

Prey Invasion

£3.99 Experience the future face of combat as you journey to alienworlds

£0.59 Cheaper thanDoomClassic and just asmuch fun to play

FIRSTPERSON SHOOTER

FIRSTPERSON SHOOTER

SCI-FI SHOOTER If you’re intoFPS games, NOVA is definitelyone to grab for your iPhone

BEWARE! This brute’s clawmightlook withered, but get too closeand it can do a lot of damage

A full-on shooter with loadsof gaming value and anonline multiplayer modeas the icing on the cake

It’s not the most polishedFPS you’ll play, but this isgood fun and great valuefor money

5

4

KEY INFOUK price £3.99US price $6.99Developerwww.gameloft.com

KEY INFOUK price £0.59US price $0.99Developerwww.handson.com




PLAY Racing&Action

The Ace Combat series featuresgameplay that eschews strictflight simulation in favour of a

more arcadey take on airborne warfare.Much effort has been put into

making the iPhone version look great.The planes, scenery and effects are atreat. The controls can be fiddly untilyou get used to them, but flying usingthe accelerometer and accessingweapons with the on-screen buttonswork well.

With only five missions in the game,however, your play can end all toosoon, and it feels like you’re gettingshort-changed. Ace Combat Xi is justabout worth the asking price, thanks tothe high production values and thereplay potential offered by the game’sranking system. You can also buyadditional planes to squeeze morereplay value from the game. Utlimately,though, what we really want are moreof the missions and their gorgeousbackdrops to soar through. ●

£1.19An update of an updated old classic!

Vector Tanks, an iPhone homageto the 1980s Atari arcade classicBattlezone, has been beefed up

with the release of this Extreme!version, boasting more firepower onboth sides of the battle. You have rail-guns, rockets and nukes, while the twotanks of the original are joined by anewmodel that sports a laser cannon,plus land mines and even helicopters.

The aim is simply to get a high scoreby shooting as many enemies as

£0.59Nice suit. Have they got it in TKMaxx?

The financial commitment forgames based on films for is oftenlower, with complexity less of an

imperative. This means this simplisticIron Man spin-off is pretty good fun.

The reason this game works is thecontrol system. As Iron Man, you fly intothe screen, taking on enemies fromplanes to attack drones. Some enemiesare taken out simply by locking on tothem, while others have to be shotmanually. It’s very simple, but it remains

entertaining enoughthrough its 12 levels, makingit more than worth theasking price. ●

possible while you still can.You may get post-traumaticstress in the process (but in agood way). ●

Ace Combat Xi: Skies of Incursion£2.99The long-running flight combat series comes to iPhone

FLIGHT COMBATGAME

SHORT BUT SWEET Skies of Incursionslooks great, but we’d love a lot moreof it… five levels isn’t enough

Ace Combat Xi is a superblydesigned game with greatgraphics, but it’s all overfar too soon

3KEY INFOUK price £2.99US price $4.99Developerwww.namcogames.com


Vector TanksExtreme!

ARCADE COMBATGAME

BATTLEZONE REDUX VectorTanks Extreme! is a fittinghomage to a classic game

Vector Tanks Extreme! pumpsthe great old Battlezoneformula up a few notches

KEY INFOUK price £1.19US price $1.99Web vectortanks.comDownload size 12.9MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.2 or later

Iron Man:Aerial Assault

SHOOT’EMUP

ARMOURWARS Taking onenemies can be simple,even if they are disguisedas pesky military vehicles

Iron Man is cool, and so is thisgame. Excellent controls, nicevisuals and a low price

KEY INFOUK price £0.59US price $0.99Developer paramount.comDownload size 34.4MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 2.2.1 or later


Racing&Action PLAY

Things are looking bright for footyfanatics everywhere thanks to the2011 update of Konami’s beautiful

Pro Evolution Soccer franchise on theiPhone platform. Always the preferredchoice among critics in its consoleincarnations, PES on the iPhone alsodelivers a slightly superior game to EA’srival FIFA franchise – but only just.

As well as the flowing passing andshooting gameplay you’d expect froma PES game, this version is also notablefor the implementation of the controlsystems. A directional pad andsimplified single tap for passing andshooting is the preferred option, buteven the accelerometer control worksremarkably well. Chuck in UEFAtournaments, league games, quickmatches and proper player names andyou have a pretty pleasing footyexperience. You can also play friendsoverWi-Fi/Bluetooth. It lacks the finesseof its console counterparts but as apick-up-and-play fix, it’s unbeatable. ●

Pro Evolution Soccer 2011£4.99 Play the silver ball on your iPhone

ARCADE FOOTBALL

INSTANT REPLAY Have funmuckingabout with the replay camera torelive those classic footy moments

KEY INFOUK price £4.99US price $7.99Webwww.konami.com


SoccerManager£2.99Take your team to the top of the league in style

FOOTBALLMANAGEMENT

FOOTY MAD Line up your team in a variety of formations for better results

KEY INFOUK price £2.99US price $4.99Webwww.fizzsoftware.com


A tightly-designed, casualfooty management game.Just don’t expect the earth

With this latest version, PES2011 just edges out itsrivals on the footy scene

3

5

For a quick fix of footymanagement-lite, whichyou can pick up and play

whenever you fancy, SoccerManager ticks most of the boxesfor hardcore managerment fansand casual players alike.

This is a tidily designedfootball game and playertransfers, squad management,strategy and training options areall dealt with much like thebigger games you get fordesktop computers. However,there are no graphicalrepresentations of matches andthe text-based commentary onoffer is, at best, perfunctory.

Still, this game provides asolid framework for you toexplore your management urges

when out and about. Whatwe really liked about SoccerManager is its scope. Choose anyteam from the top two divisionsof six European countries, buyand sell players, negotiatecontracts, deal with yourchairman and even get yourstaff to help develop players

Your team can qualifythrough playoffs, get promotion,win the premier division andqualify and win Europeancompetitions in order to fill yourtrophy cabinet. Your status willrecord historical achievementseven if you change jobs. You canview all this detailed informationabout your club and players ina simple to use interface that’sperfect for the small screen. ●


PLAY Sports games

£2.99 Flip a skateboardwith your fingers!

There’s much fiddly fun to be hadwith this skateboard game.Operate the board using two

digits, sliding a front finger to move,releasing for ollies and sliding to doflips… and that’s just for starters.

After learning the basics you canwarm up in your backyard, go to theskatepark to practise more elaborateskills, then enter competitions.

Unfortunately, the controls are hardto master and the board takes up alarge proportion of the screen so you’reunable to see far enough ahead to plandaring stunts properly. ●

£2.99Get hooked on this superb angling sim

Afishing game could be thedullest grind in the world. Butnot so. Like golf, fishing games

are bizarrely compelling and FishingKings is a pretty good addition to theproud tradition of virtual angling.

After choosing your angler, youwander out to a stretch of water tocompete in competitions, unlockingnew items of tackle and fishing venuesas you go. Casting out and wrestlingwith fish is achieved by waggling thephone; reeling in takes a swirl of thethumb. Hitting your angling goals is,oddly, a hugely satisfying experience. ●

If the London Olympics areas fun as this competitiveapp, then roll on 2012

4

TouchgrindSKATEBOARDING FUN

FREESTYLE FINGERSKick back withsome kickflips

This game is fun, and it looksgreat too. It is quite awkwardto operate the board though

KEY INFOUK price £2.99US price $4.99Webwww.illusionlabs.comDownload size 6.9MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 3.0 or later

Fishing KingsVIRTUAL ANGLER

CAST OFF Catch yourselfa big ’un with thisoddly compellingfishing simulator

Plenty of fishing fun to be hadin this great little virtual angler

KEY INFOUK price £2.99US price $4.99Webwww.fishingkings-iphone.comDownload size 210MBiPod touch compatibleYesRequires iOS 2.2.1 or later


Sports games PLAY

When it comes to qualityand quantity versus priceInternational Athletics should

be a gold medalist. The game’sdevelopers have done a great jobof converting this from Sony PSP,presenting more than a dozen trackand field sports in full 3D. There’s noofficial event sponsorship, but themedal tables, personal bests and worldrecords featured will keep you comingback again and again until you’ve sweptthe board. As well as running eventssuch as the 100m and 400m there’sShot Put, High Jump, Discus, Pole Vault,Long Jump and the Hammer!

The only downside is that thethrowing events all use a similar playmechanic so there’s not much tochoose between them and it does takea while to get used to the odd controlsfor the hurdles and javelin events. Otherthan that this is a splendid sports simthat will keep you enthused aboutathletics while you’re on the move. ●

International Athletics£1.79Track and field sportswith a spin

ATHLETICS EVENTS

ON TRACK International Athleticsspeeds ahead when it comes togameplay, looks and addictiveness

KEY INFOUK price £1.79US price $2.99Web www.ghostlight.uk.com


MAPPED OUT Your iPhone’sgeolocation abilities can beused for all sorts of weird andwonderful location-based apps

1TwitticismKeeping up with the level of wry

wit generated by your Tweeting peerscan be tricky. This app would access thereams of quotes available online fromnoted wits such as OscarWilde, DorothyParker and John Major, then generate140 droll characters on the topicaltheme of your choice. For instance:“Those MPs are like the unspeakable inpursuit of the inedible,”“The only thingworse than being on a TV talent show isNOT being on a TV talent show,”etc.

2Morgan be goneDetects possible exposure to Piers

Morgan on TV or online, shutting downweb pages or using your phone’sWi-Fito deactivate your telly.

3Londoner’s eyeUses Google Maps and Yell.com

data to calculate whether a town islikely to be attractive to well-offLondoners. Thus, if the number oftattoo and body-piercing parlours, armyrecruitment offices and sportswearstores per square mile is found to beunacceptable, a large skull andcrossbones wearing a hoodie isdisplayed, warning suburbanites tokeep away. The presence of multiplecheese shops, farmers’markets andanything with the word ‘artisan’ in it, bycontrast, brings up a large smiley face.

4CCTV HackerFun aplenty could be had from an

app that gives access to live feeds from

any of the 4.2 million security cams inthe UK. Like TV channel surfing butwith more drunk tramps andshoplifting.

5“Working from home”The app equivalent of propping a

cardboard cut-out of yourself at yourdesk. Should the office email, thiswould send out vague but helpful-sounding replies such as “Sounds good,let’s meet about it tomorrow,”while youcatch up with some sleep or shopping.

6Singleton’s RadarTake a Facebook-like database of

single folk, add location services andaugmented reality and you’d have theultimate dating aid. Scan the bar,railway station or wherever you happento be with your phone’s camera, andunattached and/or available membersof the clientele will be highlighted witha big red arrow. Icons could denotehow discreet they require you to be,and what their “interests”are.

7Survey AvoiderMakes your phone ring as if

someone important is calling you assoon as you come within guilt-triprange of a dingbat in a red vest holdinga clipboard or jangling a bucket full ofcoins right in front of you.

8GET OUT!Another location-based app,

this would detect anywhere that couldbe described as undesirable butoccasionally tempting and make thesound of 1,000 vuvuzelas until you exit.Let’s say Starbucks, Subway or yourlocal illicit all-night booze store at 3amon a Tuesday, for instance.

9PintPullerGoing one better than the many

apps that find pubs in your vicinity,PintPuller will alert your chosen bar toyour arrival, so staff can dutifully pouryour favoured tipple in advance.

10 iPhone 4 Signal FixWell, we can dream can’t we?

In the meantime, grab a bumper. ●


PLAY Imaginary apps

10 APPS…we wish existed

“Hey, I’ve got an app for that!” That’s what Apple iPhone 4 users say atleast 20 times a day and Android users six to seven times a day. Nokiaand Palm users? They don’t talk somuch. But howmuchmore frequentwould these exclamations be if these fondly imagined apps existed…

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DEVELOP

160 The story of the iPhone

166 App Store success stories

170 The iPhone SDK

173 Build an iPhone app

176 Meet the appman

Every one of the 250,000 apps in the App Store was createdby an ordinary person or team with a great idea and thedetermination to make it happen. The free tools that Apple

provides means that you don’t need a programming degree anda vast budget: you can code your own app and put it in front of aglobal audience with just an ordinary computer. We’ll show you howanyone can build a basic app in half an hour and meet some of thepeople who made the apps you use. But first, let’s remind ourselveshow the iPhone came to be the phenomenon it is today…


The storyof iPhone

The idea of an Apple-brandedmobile phone existed long beforethe reality. Apple registered

‘iPhone’ as a trademark in somecountries as far back as 2002, while ashort-lived partnership between Appleand Motorola saw the latter offermobiles with iTunes support in 2005and 2006. Then the rumours reallystarted to fly…

In September 2005, Ed Zander, theCEO of Motorola at that time, told thenews website CNet: “We know thatApple is going to build a smartphone –it’s only a matter of time.”By March2006, speculation mounted as word ofApple shopping around for componentsuppliers arrived from the Far East.

Rumour finally became fact inJanuary 2007 when the iPhone was

unveiled. the device’s evolution sincethen has been a thrilling rollercoasterride for both Apple and everyone who’sbought one.We’ve seen three furtheriPhone models, culminating in theamazing iPhone 4 – as well as the iPodtouch and the magazine-sized iPad,which both much of the sametechnology that drives the iPhone. Over100 million iPhones, iPod touches andiPads have been sold worldwide.

We’ve also seen the arrival of theApp Store, a one-stop location withinthe popular iTunes Store. Well-knownsoftware developers have found abrand-newmarket for their productsbut, more importantly, a whole newgeneration of developers has emerged,encouraged by the ease with which youcan create your own app and offer it for

sale to a worldwide audience. (We lookat the iPhone from the developer’sperspective on page 166.) There arenow over 250,000 different programsyou can run on your iPhone.

The iPhone has seen its fair share ofcontroversy as well. A sudden pricedrop only a fewmonths into theiPhone’s life outraged early-birdcustomers who’d paid the original price.Initial complaints about having to useslowmobile networks turned to elationas the iPhone 3G made its debut. Andthe recent ‘Antennagate’ furore sawApple take flak for phone reception thatwavered depending on how you heldthe iPhone 4.

Here, we look back at some of thehighs and lows that have shaped thestory of iPhone since its launch…

From the original model to iPhone 4,we track the rise and rise of the phone that’scaptured the public imagination and led to the apps you use every day


DEVELOP The iPhone story


The iPhone story DEVELOP

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JAN 2007 iPhone is here!Finally, it’s a reality. The iPhone is announced atApple CEO Steve Jobs’ keynote speech at SanFrancisco’s Macworld Expo. Jobs teases his eageraudience by claiming that he’s “introducing threerevolutionary products” – a widescreen iPod withtouch controls, an all-newmobile phone and aninternet mobile communicator. He then drops thebombshell that these weren’t three separatedevices, but one single earth-shattering product.“Today, Apple is going to re-invent the phone.”

Perhaps the most innovative aspect of thisattention-grabbing device is its control system.Unlike anyone who has built a smartphonebefore, Apple has opted not to install a keyboard.Instead, the iPhone relies entirely on a touch-sensitive screen. “We’re all born with the ultimatepointing device – our fingers,” Jobs says. “iPhoneuses them to create the most revolutionary userinterface since the mouse.”

The phone itself is as attractive as you’dexpect an Apple product to be. What reallygrabs the attention of those listening to thedemonstration, though, are the built-in sensors.A proximity sensor automatically turns thedisplay off if you bring it close to your face.An ambient light sensor adjusts the screenbrightness according to the external conditions.Most astounding of all, an accelerometer senseshow you’re holding the phone, and instantlyswitches between portrait and landscape modes.

JUN 2007iPhone has landed!After six months of frenzied anticipation, USconsumers are finally getting their hands on Apple’siPhone. For a device that has variously been dubbedthe ‘Jesus phone’ or the ‘God machine’, Apple’sgroundbreaking handset has a lot to live upto. Judging by the first reviews and consumerresponse, it has not disappointed –although not everyone is as impressedby AT&T’s mobile network, whichcomes as part of the package.

An astonishing 200,000 iPhones aresold on the first evening of sale, accordingto US analyst Global Equities Research.New Yorker Greg Packer was the firstperson recorded as starting to queuefor an iPhone, lining up outside Apple’sFifth Avenue store 110 hours beforethe iPhone went on sale.

Apple’s use of iTunes to enablepeople to activate their iPhones fromhome, rather than waiting to activatethem in a store, works well – untilAT&T’s servers pack up under the strain…

SEP 2007 iPod touchpumps up the volume!Apple has launched the iPod touch, a brand newmediaplayer with an iPhone-style interface, as part of anoverhaul of the iPod range for the Christmas buying

season. The iPod touch represents a bigdeparture from the rest of the iPodmodels, which retain their existing

touch wheel interface. The touchhas a 3.5-inch landscape display,making it the first iPod designedfrom the ground up forwatching TV or moviedownloads.

“The iPod touch is alandmark iPod, ushering in awhole new generation offeatures based on itsrevolutionary multi-touchinterface and built-in WiFiwireless networking,” saysSteve Jobs. “People aregoing to be amazed athow thin it is and howmuch it does.”

DEC 2007iPhone rings uprecord salesThe iPhone is a smash hit, accordingto O2, Carphone Warehouse andApple, although none of the threepartners for the UK launch is willingto reveal precise sales numbers. O2reports that sales of the hot newgadget during its first seven dayswere in the tens of thousands butbelow 100,000. “Sales are morethan exceeding our expectations,”says an O2 spokesperson, addingthat two thirds of customers whobought an iPhone switched froma rival phone network.

A spokesman for CarphoneWarehouse, which carries theiPhone across its 1,300-plus outlets,says the company is “really pleased”with the demand the new phonehas created. “The iPhone will be onmost people’s Christmas wish list.”

NOV 2007iPhone hits the UKApple’s iPhone goes on sale in the UK on 9November, and O2 is the UK carrier for the handset.The iPhone costs £269 for an 8GB model, identicalto the one being sold in the US. Steve Jobs and O2UK’s CEO Matthew Key had announced the UKlaunch at Apple’s Regent Street store, revealing thatiPhone customers have to take out a minimum18-month contract with O2. There’s a choice ofthree contracts, ranging from £35 to £55 permonth. All three contracts include unlimited datatraffic, with the cheapest offering a maximum of200 minutes and 200 SMS texts per month.

Like the US, the UK iPhone eschews 3G infavour of the old, slow Edge technology for datatransfer. But Key admits that O2’s plan to upgradeits network to support Edge only covers around30% of its customers at launch time.However, Jobs adds that iPhone users get free

access to the 7,500 odd WiFi hotspots operated byThe Cloud, making patchy and slow Edge coverageless of an issue, as well as providing fastperformance for activities like web browsing.

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JAN 2008 iPhonebreaks browsing recordsPeople surfing the web withiPhones accounted for 0.09% ofall browsers being used duringNovember 2007, according to NetApplications, which monitorsvisitors to over 40,000 samplewebsites. That doesn’t sound likemuch of a dent, compared toWindows XP’s 78.37% share or the Mac’s 6.81% – but it’s50% better than the 0.06% combined market share forall Windows Mobile and CE smartphone handsets.

What’s more, the 2.5 million iPhones currently in usehave only been available for a fewmonths, whereas theseven million Windows Mobile handsets out there havebeen sold across six years. Also note that this is asnapshot of a just-released product entering its firstmarket (the US). Now the iPhone’s rolling out in Europe,everyone’s seeing significant rises noted in subsequentsurveys as iPhone mania takes hold.

It also begs the question: does the iPhone makes iteasier to browse the web, or are there a heck of a lot ofWindows Mobile phones gathering dust in desk drawersaround the globe?

SEP 2008 App Store is a huge success

App Store sales are off toa terrific start, with well inexcess of 100 million appsdownloaded since its Julylaunch. Developers are happy:“It’s been amazing,” says ElizaBlock, creator of the crosswordpuzzle app 2 Across. “I’ve soldthousands of copies of thepaid version, and the ‘light’version has been downloaded25,000 times in its first week.

MooCowMusic’s Band andPianist have been popularsince the App Store’sinception, according todeveloper Mark Terry. “Beingasked to stand on stage atWWDC in July alongside Sega,eBay and Steve Jobs gave mesome indication that Bandwould be well received. So Itook a gamble in quitting myday job to concentrate ondeveloping for the iPhone.

Sales of the apps so far willallow me to make moreapplications in the future.”

Sega’s Super Monkey Ballsold 300,000 copies in 20days, while free appsFacebook and Tap TapRevolution surpassed onemillion downloads each.

With all this activity, Appleraised an average $1 million

per day in sales during thefirst month, suggesting itcould make at least $360million a year from such sales.70 per cent of this total isgoing to developers, whoseshare of the first monthrevenues was about $21million, with the top 10developers earning $9 millionbetween them.

JUL 2008 iPhone 3G is here! Steve Jobs is talking iPhone atApple’s developer conferenceWWDC. “Just one year afterlaunching the iPhone, we’relaunching the new iPhone 3G thatis twice as fast at half the price.”Cheaper, thinner and faster thanits predecessor, iPhone 3G offersdata access up to twice the speedof Edge. It hosts built-in GPS forexpanded location-based mobileservices, for example trackingwhere you are on a Google Map,and supports quad-band GSM andtri-band HSDPA for voice and datacalls. It also supports WiFi, 3G andEdge, switching between themautomatically to ensure thefastest possible downloads. WithiPhone 3G, you can browse theweb, get directions and checkemail, all while on a call.

iPhone 3G also includes a newgeneration of Apple’s iPhone OSsoftware. Additional featuresinclude the ability to mass-moveand delete multiple emailmessages, a facility for searching

for contacts, a new scientificcalculator and parental controls.You can also save images directlyfrom a web page or email them toyour iPhone, and transfer them toyour computer photo library.

Inclusion of GPS support ushersin true location-based services,allowing you to and it opens upother new opportunities fordevelopers. Developers can buildapps using all the software andhardware features, including themovement sensors.

iPhone 3G integrates withMobileMe, which pushes email,contacts and calendars from anonline ‘cloud’ to native applicationson iPhone, iPod touch, Macs andPCs. This means email messagesare pushed instantly to all yourdevices, removing the need tomanually check email and wait fordownloads. It also keeps contactsand calendars continuously up todate so changes made on onedevice are automatically updatedon others.

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JUN 2009iPhone 3GS is in the building!More queues welcome the launch of Apple’s iPhone 3GS, the fastest,most powerful and best-featured model yet. On the first day of sale, O2sells more of the newmodel by lunchtime than it sold iPhone 3Gs acrossits entire launch day.

The new iPhone model is laden with attractive new features,including a three-megapixel video camera, longer battery life, hands-freevoice control and much faster performance. The device also runs thenew iPhone OS 3.0, which has also been made available for upgradingolder iPhones, and adds more than 100 new features, including MMSmessaging, Spotlight search and copy and paste.

JUL 2009 1.5 billion App Store downloadsAmillion-plus iPhone 3GSsales, and 1.5 billion App Storedownloads in one year, meanthat Apple’s winning thesmartphone war. In his firstpublic statement sincereturning to Apple afterrecovering from illness, CEOSteve Jobs says, “The AppStore is like nothing theindustry has ever seen beforein both scale and quality… it isgoing to be very hard forothers to catch up.” There arenow over 65,000 appsavailable in-store.

Others in the industry havebegun dismissing Apple’sadvantage, though. Speakingat the MobileBeat 2009conference, Google’sengineering vice president,Vic Gundotra predicts web-based apps will become thedominant mobile application

development platform.“We believe the web has won,and over the next severalyears the browser willbecome the platform thatmatters. And certainly that’swhere Google is investing.”

Earlier in iPhone’sevolution, Apple alloweddevelopers to create only

web-based apps for theiPhone, but expanded this tobuilt-in apps under developerand customer pressure. ButGundotra says, “I think SteveJobs really did understandthat, over the long term, itwould be the web, and I thinkthat’s how things will play outin the end.”

OCT 2009 UK iPhonebuyers get more choiceThere’s no longer any need to sign up to O2 in order toget your hands on an iPhone in the UK, as the carrier haslost its exclusive rights to distribute the device. Orange isnow offering the smartphone here, with Vodafonefollowing closely behind. O2 hasn’t lost all rights to sellthe must-have gadget, however – it continues to offerthe iPhone for sale.

Many iPhone users are likely to look for better dealswhen their contracts expire, but O2 is denying it intendsa price war, telling Stuff.tv, “We’ve sold more than amillion iPhones, so we’re confident. There are no plansfor price cuts”.

Orange has the largest3G network in the UK,and is likely to stress thisas it attempts to sell thedevice through itsnetwork of shops andonline channels. CarphoneWarehouse will also bejoined by Phones4U inoffering the Apple mobilethrough its stores.

MAR 2009 New iPhone softwareThe iPhone has entered a new chapter,as developers ponder the potentialpossibilities of the newly introducediPhone OS 3.0. The new release offersmore than 100 new features, includingthe ability to cut, copy and paste, aswell as send and receive MMS, and readand compose emails in landscapemode. It’s introduced by Scott Forstall(pictured), Apple’s senior vice-presidentof iPhone software.

iPhone OS 3.0 also includes a newVoice Memo app and expanded searchcapability for all key iPhone apps, aswell as Spotlight search across theiPhone or iPod touch. “iPhone OS 3.0 isa major software release packed withincredible new features andinnovations for iPhone customers anddevelopers alike. It will keep us yearsahead of the competition,” says PhilSchiller, Apple’s senior vice-president ofworldwide product marketing.

Tom Godber is CTO of Masabi, a firmthat develops secure applications formobiles. “This marks the point whereiPhone grows up and opens up to thereal world and becomes useful for non-trivial apps, exploiting connectivity

outside the handset in a way that otherhandsets do well on paper but rarely dowell in practice,” he says. “With stereoBluetooth support, could we nowfinally have your iPhone automaticallyflick from headphones to stereospeakers as you walk into your house?”

Godber adds that iPhone OS 3.0promises to extend the way iPhoneinteracts with the real world. “Properpush notifications have potential –not just for IM and messaging – to pluga gap between iPhone and the restof the mobile world, while truemicropayments allow the platform toleapfrog other handsets, which aremired in operator arguments andpoor margins.”

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JUN 2010 iPhone 4: Apple’s biggest ever launchApple’s iPhone 4 is a hugesuccess, with 600,000 sold inadvance and up to a million onits launch. Queues outsideiPhone retailers in Japan,Germany, France and US forlaunch morning confirm thedemand. In the UK, up to1,000 people wait outsideRegent Street, with aroundhalf that number standingfirm at Buchanan Street,Glasgow – the biggest linesfor the launch of any Appleproduct yet.

iPhone 4’s new designcomprises two glass platesthat are rimmed with a metalband. The iPhone is capableof multi-tasking, introducessupport for folders, and letsyou use the iBook app forreading a huge variety oftitles. There’s also the warmlywelcomed FaceTime

functionality, which letsiPhone 4 users make videocalls to each other withoutusing operator minutes.

Reviews are highly positive,with the device winningpraise for hosting an excellentcamera, boasting a stunningdisplay and for being atriumph of engineeringdesign. Stephen Fry calls it“a thing of rare beauty”.

With everything lookingso positive, it was almostinevitable the company wouldhit problems. No activationissues mar the introduction,but consumers quickly notethat the iPhone 4 would dropits connection if firmlygripped on its lower left-handside. Complaints emergewithin hours of the devicegoing on sale and quicklygrow to an uproar. Thousands

are affected.The Daily Mailwebsite evenpublishes (anddeletes) a storyclaiming theiPhone 4 faces arecall – the reportwas based on atweet from satiristFake Steve Jobs.

Apple releases astatement in response:“Gripping any phone willresult in some attenuationof its antenna performance,with certain places beingworse than others dependingon the placement of theantennas. This is a fact of lifefor every wireless phone.”But it does go on to offer asoftware update to presentthe reception strength moreaccurately, and free cases.

APR 2010 Multi-tasking comes to iPhoneMulti-tasking, socially-connectedgaming, iBooks and an all-newadvertising system Apple calls iAdsare all coming to your iPhone in asummer OS upgrade. Steve Jobspreviewed the features in apresentation at Apple HQ, observing:“iPhone OS 4 is the fourth majorrelease of the world’s most advancedmobile operating system. We’redelivering over 100 new features,including multitasking, folders, aunified inbox, and an iPhone versionof our iBooks reader and store.”

A beta version of the latestiPhone software is already availablefor iPhone developers. This providesover 100 new features for users.Perhaps the biggest improvement isthe introduction of intelligent multi-tasking. When you’re runningmultiple apps, a double-tap of thehome button invokes a dockrepresenting all active apps, to helpyou move between them. Multi-tasking also means developers canimprove their apps – so a music appcan play music in the backgroundwhile a internet phone app can

receive a call when the iPhone isasleep or the user is running otherapps. Apple says it has developedmulti-tasking so it doesn’t impactdevice performance or battery life.

“We figured out how to implementmultitasking for third-party apps andavoid those things,” says Jobs.

Apple also announces animminent new social gaming

network, Game Center, offering theability to invite friends to play agame, start a multi-player gamethrough matchmaking and trackachievements and high scores.

Breakin’ the lawWhen you look at some of the daftstuff in the App Store, you might thinkthat Apple will approve almostanything – but that’s far from the case.Podcaster (www.nextdayoff.com) wasbanned because it was too close toiTunes, while digital comic bookMurderdrome (www.infuriouscomics.com/2008/08/murderdrome-killer-app) was deemed too adult. However,Apple has since introduced an agerating system for apps such as these.

Here are some pointers so you cantell whether your app plans aredoomed to failure. Just for the record,you can’t: use secret APIs; break Apple’sHuman Interface Guidelines; enablestalking or harassment; provide real-time route guidance; access location

data without asking for permission;infringe copyright; libel people; includecontent “that in Apple’s reasonablejudgement may be found offensive byiPhone or iPod touch users” or “undulyburden network capacity orbandwidth”.

Also, “Apple reserves the right toapprove or withhold approval”. So evenif you stick to the rules, Apple can stillsay no. When Alec Vance’s FreedomTime app (www.juggleware.com/iphone/freedomtime), which counteddown to George Bush’s departure, wasbanned, Vance emailed Jobs to protest.The reply? “Even though my personalpolitical leanings are democratic, I thinkthis app will be offensive to roughlyhalf our customers. What’s the point?”


DEVELOP Success stories

Back in the early days of PCs,anybody with a computer and agood idea could make stacks of

money from writing software. Thosedays are long gone – unless, that is,you’re writing iPhone apps. The AppStore is Apple’s ace in the hole when itcomes to the success of the iPhone andiPod touch, transforming them into

versatile devices that can do so muchmore than anybody had imagined. It’sopened up a new platform fordevelopers and there’s a land-grabgoing on right now.While the appsdon’t cost that much, the number ofpotential customers means there’s goldin the iPhone. So how do you get it?Weasked three developers to spill thebeans on developing for the App Store.

The iPhoneand iPodtouchare transformedintodevices that candosomuchmore thananybodyhad imagined

Howdo iPhone app developersmake it big onApple’s App Store? Read on for the inside story

millionaireApp store


Success stories DEVELOP


DEVELOP Success stories

APP SUCCESS Trism is a polished and addictive puzzle game, which has gone on to become a huge success

Last September, Wired suggestedthat Steve Demeter’s puzzle gameTrism would turn over $2 million

by the summer. It’s a story Demeter’scome to regret. “Releasing sales figureswas a bit of a novice business move onmy part,”he says. “I’ve been swampedwith people asking for loans!”

After just two months of Trism sales,Demeter was able to leave his day jobwriting software for a large bank. “It’sbeen surreal more than anything else,”he says. “I’d put myself under pressureto polish and release the game on time– I’d burnt myself out two or threetimes by the time I finished coding.”

Demeter is quick to agree that partof Trism’s success was being in the rightplace at the right time, although itwasn’t all luck. He says, “Trism was thecombination of getting everything

done before launch; having a goodamount of buzz from people whoenjoyed the jailbroken version… andApple getting behind it and helpingmarket it as an iPhone exclusive. Onceyou have Apple behind you saying,‘Here, apps like this are why you shouldbuy an iPhone’, it’s money in the bank.”

So has the environment changed?“The market is definitely a lot tougherthan it was then,”Demeter says. Hisadvice to developers? “Make sure you’reasking yourself, ‘Does my app conveysomething unique and interesting in 10to 15 seconds?’

“Look at it this way: most people areeager to show their friends what coolnew things they’ve got on their iPhone.Of the 50 apps they may have, theymight only get a chance to show five ofthem. If your app is one of those five,

and it can prove its worth in 10 to 15seconds, then you’ve got yourself asuccessful app.”

Marketing matters, too, as Demeterexplains: “Start courting an audiencebefore you release,”he suggests. “Buildrelationships with the gaming publicand fellow developers. Make sure youcan get at least 20 people to buy yourgame and give your app good reviewsin the App Store on the very first day it’sout. And remember to put some ofyour profit back into advertising – onthe web and in-game.”

“The one thing I liked about doingTrism was that it was an opportunity. Itwas a chance to pull myself out of a dayjob I didn’t like, innovate a game genreand trailblaze an emerging platform, allwith limited amounts of time, resourcesand money.”●

PROFILEName Steve DemeterCompanyDemiforceApp inventedTrismWebwww.demiforce.com/games.html

Steve Demeter, Trism

How do I write an iPhone app?Fancy getting in on a little App Storeaction yourself? Anybody can writetheir own iPhone app. All you needto do is download the SDK (SoftwareDevelopment Kit) and become aregistered iPhone App Developer athttp://developer.apple.com/iphone/sdk1. It’s a simple sign-up processand the SDK is free. However, yournext step might be a little morecomplicated: you need to learn howto program in Objective-C. Appleuses a special abstraction API calledCocoa Touch. There are codeexamples you can study in theDeveloper area of the website.

There are also a number of hoopsApple makes you jump through. Firstand foremost you have to join theApple Developer Program, whichcosts $99 a year. Next, you have tosubmit your finished app forapproval by Apple, and this can be atortuous process. Once the companyfinds a single bug during testing,your app is rejected instantly. You fixthe bug, re-submit the app and waitagain, hoping that it passes testingthis time. This cycle can continuethrough many iterations until Appleis happy that your application is fullybug-free. GOOD EXAMPLE You can find free resources and code samples on the Apple Developer website


Success stories DEVELOP

The game iShoot started life as anafter-hours project. “It wouldn’thave been so bad if I hadn’t

already had a full-time job,” says EthanNicholas, who was working for SunMicrosystems and coding in his sparetime. “I was working 18-hour daysduring iShoot’s development, but[despite that] it only took six weeks, andthat included learning Objective-C,Cocoa and OpenGL.”

When iShoot took off, Nicholashanded in his notice. So does he spendhis days rolling around on piles ofmoney? “So far, not much has changed,”he says. “I spent the past four yearsworking from home, so I’m still at thesame desk, the same computer.Honestly, I don’t think the magnitude ofthe change has really sunk in. I haven’teven managed to take any time off!”

iShoot was initially offered as a paiddownload, but sales were hardly stellar.When Nicholas introduced the freeiShoot Lite, though, sales of the paidapp went into orbit. His other advice forpromoting your paid apps? “How about,‘Stop producing so much shovelware’?”

he asks. “One number-one hit generatesmore money than 100 bottom-of-the-barrel apps, so I’d prefer to see morepeople striving for number one and notpolluting the iPhone with so muchabominable crap.” For now, Nicholas is

continuing to improve iShoot. “I’m notready to share any details, but I havetwo firm game designs I’d like to getcracking on,”he says. “They’re verydifferent from iShoot, but I think theyboth have a shot at number one.”●

PROFILEName EthanNicholasCompany EthanNicholasApp invented iShootWebwww.ethannicholas.com

Ethan Nicholas, iShoot

TOP GUN Sales of iShoot rocketed after Nicholas released a free Lite version on the Apple App Store

Steam simulator iSteam has rackedup more than one milliondownloads. Just one week after its

launch, GreatApps, iSteam’s developers,predicted sales of $100,000 per month.We asked Great Apps’Bill Rappos, how’sthat target going?

“The 100 grand was only anestimation we made, based on our first-week sales. The way things are rightnow, it seems we’re going to hit thattarget a couple of weeks later thaninitial predictions.”

That doesn’t mean things are goingbadly, though. “The success of iSteamhas given us the luxury to make long-term plans,”Rappos says. “iSteam wasjust the beginning.We’re all committedto our vision, to become a significantplayer, providing a wide range ofamusing and cheap apps.”

GreatApps was founded inNovember 2008 by 24-year-old KostasEleftheriou and 22-year-old VassilisSamolis and they didn’t know anythingabout Mac or iPhones – so they boughta Mac Mini and got to work. The team iscurrently brainstorming its nextselection of apps. “There’s no easy wayin the App Store,”Rappos says. “It’ssaturated with apps, which makes itreally hard to survive. Our tip would be,keep it simple and be professional.”●

PROFILENameBill RapposCompanyGreatAppsApp invented iSteamWeb isteam.co.uk

Bill Rappos, iSteam

WET LOOK iSteam cleverly turns youriPhone into a steamywindow,leaving you free to doodle andimpress your mates

On 11 June 2007, Apple CEO SteveJobs announced that developerswould be able to create

applications for the iPhone. It wasduringWWDC, Apple’s developerconference, so the crowd couldn’t havebeen more pleased had Krispy Kremeannounced it was slashing its prices to4¢ a donut. A whole new platform! Awhole new revenue stream! A wholenew chapter in the long and endlesslyentertaining story of Apple.

But then Jobs dropped thebombshell. Dress it up how he liked,the shocked silence and mutteringsthat followed his announcement thatthese would only be web-based apps –tools that were stored on a web server,not proper applications that lived onthe phone – showed that developerswere disappointed. “We were a tad

underwhelmed by the announcementthat web apps were the ‘one true way’to bring third-party software to theiPhone,” says Marco Piovanelli, chieftechnology officer at development firmOvolab. “We felt this decision lefta huge potential untapped, despitethe power of today’s web apps.”

Software developmentFour months later, Jobs recanted in anopen letter on Apple’s website: properthird-party apps would be allowed afterall. And on 6 March 2008, the dreamcame true: the iPhone SDK (softwaredevelopment kit) for Mac OS X wasmade available for download.

Reaction to the SDK release has beenlargely positive ever since its release.“The iPhone SDK is wonderful – muchmore than I expected,” says CraigHockenberry, principal and engineerat Iconfactory. It’s a view echoed byequinux CEO Till Schadde. “Apple’s SDKsolution is well designed. It offers aneasy way for the existing communityto develop simple apps for the iPhone.The tool chain is complete and simple,and all necessary tools are available.”

Schadde’s point about it being easyfor existing Mac developers to createiPhone apps is important. Because the

iPhone is built on the same foundationsas the Mac’s operating system, thedevelopment tools used to create appsfor the iPhone are essentially identical.The core program is Xcode, whichenables you to write your iPhone app’skey functionality. Xcode ties intoInterface Builder, which enables you tocreate your app user interface and linkvisual controls to the functions you’vewritten. You can then open the app iniPhone Simulator, which emulates theiPhone operating system on a Mac forbasic testing, or transfer your app to areal iPhone for live testing. Anotherapplication, Instruments, enables you toperformance-test more complex appsso that you can make your software runas efficiently as possible. (The knock-oneffect, of course, is that the shareddevelopment suite also enables newdevelopers to discover how easy it is todevelop software for the Mac as well.)

“We’re very happy to see that ourexpectations were met,” says MarcoPiovanelli. “Developing for the iPhoneinvolves the same tool chain, the sameprogramming language, and mostly thesame frameworks modern Mac OS Xdevelopers know and love. That meanswe can leverage our long-standingexperience to get a head start over the

The hundreds of third-party apps you can install on the iPhone elevate it frommerely excellent totruly legendary – but none of thesewould exist if people didn’t create them.We talk to appdevelopers to seewhat they think of the tools Apple has given them toworkwith…

The story behind the apps


DEVELOP The iPhoneSDK

“Developing for the iPhone involvesthesametool chain, thesameprogramming language, andmostlythesameframeworksmodernMacOSXdevelopersknowand love”

MarcoPiovanelli, Ovolab

developers flocking to the iPhone fromother platforms.”

Not everyone has been happy withthe iPhone SDK, however. “The SDK alsocomes with many legal restrictions aspart of the agreement,” says PaulKafasis, CEO of Rogue Amoeba. “Theserestrictions are onerous, and we’vetalked publicly [on Rogue Amoeba’sblog, www.rogueamoeba.com/utm]about how we believe they’ll stifleinnovation unnecessarily. There will behundreds of good apps for the iPhone,but it will also be missing plenty ofapps it could have had, because theSDK agreement prevents developersfrommaking them.”

Through the App StoreFor iPhone users, the App Store isa one-stop outlet for buying anddownloading apps from the hugechoice available. It’s simple andconvenient. For the developer, the AppStore is the only option they have ifthey want to distribute their work tothe public. That means that iPhonedevelopers have no choice but toaccept the conditions Apple sets togain admission to the App Store.

For example, Apple takes a 30 percent cut from each sale. While this maysound high, Mac developer ChrisWilsonbelieves the deal is fair. “[High Street]retailers make the price whatever theywant, so profits range from 10 to 200per cent. With Apple’s model, there’s aconstant understanding of the costs,

and developers can account for Apple’swithholdings when determining theprice of their application.”

Piovanelli agrees: “The 30/70 dealsounds sweet to us, especiallyconsidering that Apple will beshouldering the entire cost of thedistribution infrastructure – hosting,bandwidth, payment processing,automatic updates – and even partof the marketing expenses.”

Rogue Amoeba’s Kafasis points outthat the revenue split is potentially theleast contentious part of the App Store.“I think 30% is a bit high, but it’s withinreason. People are overplaying thesupposed exposure they get throughthe App Store, but it’s still a good thing.It streamlines the process of gettingsoftware to users, and I think it willencourage many people who wouldn’totherwise buy software to do so.

“However, I view having the AppStore be the exclusive way of gettingsoftware as a distinct negative. The onlyargument I’ve seen in favour of thisis that it will enable Apple to bettercontrol the software. The idea thatApple can provide true quality controlor security isn’t realistic. They don’t dothis on the Mac; users would have a fitif they tried.

“This one limitation also means thatwe’re stuck with everything else in theSDK agreement. If users could load oursoftware on to the device on their own,we wouldn’t need to worry aboutappeasing Apple. However, because we

need to be approved for the App Store,we have to follow requirements.”

Health and safetyApple is justifiably keen to keepthe iPhone clean and stable; anyinstabilities or crashes that the userexperiences are as likely to be blamedon Apple rather than on the developer.It has publicly stated that it will notallow apps on the App Store that areillegal, malicious, pornographic, hogbandwidth, compromise privacy orfall under the worryingly vaguedescription of ‘unforeseen’. Apple canenforce these because its App Store isthe gatekeeper; the only legal and, asfar as the average punter is concerned,possible way to install apps.

There’s huge potential for the iPhoneas a platform – its meaty processor,accelerometer, location-awareness andinnovative Multi-Touch interface opensit up to some original programs – butdevelopers should understand all theimplications of writing iPhone appsbefore taking the plunge. ●


The iPhoneSDK DEVELOP

“The iPhoneSDKoffersaneasywayfor theexistingcommunity todevelopsimpleapps for the iPhone.The toolchain is completeandsimple, andallnecessary toolsareavailable”

Till Schadde,Equinux

Theworld’sgreatestgadgetmagazine,nowontheworld’sgreatestgadget*...

T3 iPad edition available to download on iTunesOctober 2010*ASVOTEDINTHE

T3GADGETAWARDS2010

GET CREATIVE

Build aniPhone app

Apple’s App Store in iTunes is byfar the world’s most popularvenue for software for mobile

devices. Over 250,000 applicationsare now available – all created bydevelopers with the iPhone SDK, asoftware package that anyone canuse to create their own iPhone apps.

The iPhone SDK (softwaredevelopment kit) is free to downloadat www.apple.com/developer, but it’savailable only for Mac OS X – there’sno windows version. It’s based on thesame Xcode development suite used todevelop many Mac OS X apps, whichprovides a versatile environment forwriting the Objective-C code thatunderpins iPhone software. It’scomplemented by companion toolsthat enable performance analysis anddrag-and-drop interface building.

Here, we’ll use the iPhone SDKto code and build an interface for arestaurant gratuity calculator, whichwe’ll call TippedOff. This softwarepackage will enable you to enterthe amount of a party’s bill with anon-screen keyboard, then adjust touch-operated sliders to set the number ofpeople in the dining party and theproportion of the bill that decides the

tip. The tip total will automaticallyupdate as you adjust these controls.

Getting startedIn Xcode, select File ➜ New Project. Inthe dialogue box that appears, clickCreate a new Xcode project. In thenext dialogue box, click Applicationunder iOS in the left-hand list and

chooseWindow-Based Applicationfrom the selection of applicationtemplates. Make sure that the Productdrop-downmenu below the templatesis set to iPhone.When prompted, namethis new project ‘TippedOff’.

In the main window that opens,select TippedOff in the left list, thenhighlight ‘TippedOffAppDelegate.h’in the file list. This document listsvariables, interface functions and othercomponents. At present, it contains asingle controller, which is automaticallynamed after the project name youentered – in this case, ‘TippedOffAppDelegate’. Remove all the text betweenthe curly brackets within this documentand enter the following in its place:

float bill;float people;float tip;float split;IBOutlet UIWindow *window;IBOutlet UITextField *bill_enter;IBOutlet UILabel *bill_label,*people_label, *tip_label, *split_label,*split_result;IBOutlet UISlider *people_slider,*tip_slider;

Note the semicolon ending each line.The first four lines of code define our

Join themobile software gold rush by assembling a tip calculator using the free iPhone SDK

WHAT YOU’LL NEED● Mac OS X 10.5 or 10.6: The

iPhone development suite isavailable only for the latest MacOS.Your computer should alsohave an Intel processor.

● iPhone SDK: Apple’s freedownload provides all the toolsand templates required todevelop an iPhone application.Get it at developer.apple.com.


Makeanapp DEVELOP

Tools for iPhone developersApple’s own website is aformidable resource for would-beiPhone developers. The iOS DevCenter (developer.apple.com/iphone) provides overview videos,in-depth documents and samplecode to study. If you need morehelp, Xcode’s documentationsystem, available via the Helpmenu, enables you to downloadan iPhone reference manual.

Independent help is alsoavailable via Erica Sadun’s iPhoneDeveloper’s Cookbook, which takesyou through the basics of a well-rounded development regime. Itexplains concepts such as viewsand tables, then walks you through

accessing the Internet anddisplaying media. iPhoneApplication Development,meanwhile, is a free course fromStanford University, available viaiTunes U in the iTunes Store.

If you’d prefer sample code,then visit Apps Amuck (www.appsamuck.com), which offers over30 pieces of sample code to study.And if you want to get acquaintedwith the iPhone SDK’s foundations,Stephen Kochan’s comprehensivebook Programming in Objective-Cis regarded as one of the bestintroductions to the language.An updated third edition is duein November 2010.

HELPING HANDWith videos and sample code,iPhone developers have lots of places to turn

BUILD IT Using Apple’s free iPhone software development kit, you can build and test applications that take advantageof the iPhone’s advanced hardware, then upload them to the App Store to offer them tomillions of iPhone users

InstrumentsIncluded with the Xcodedevelopment suite,Instruments is used in thelater stages of developingan iPhone app. It helps youimprove performance byproviding real-timefeedback on how your appaffects the hardware. Youcan use this data tooptimise your code.

four variables – bill, people, tip andsplit – as floating-point numbers. Theremaining lines set up a series ofinterface elements, which are definedthrough the UI descriptions. TheIBOutlet tag defines the elementsas usable within Xcode’s companionprogram Interface Builder, whichyou’ll use later on.

Next, you’ll set property declarationsto store the current status of eachinterface element. In your document,delete the existing line that starts ‘@property’. In its place, copy and pastethe four ‘IBOutlet’ lines you enteredearlier. On each of these copied lines,exchange ‘IBOutlet’with ‘@property(nonatomic, retain)’, keeping the

element names that follow. The firstline, for example, should read:

‘@property (nonatomic, retain)UIWindow *window;

‘nonatomic’ aids multithreadingefficiency, while ‘retain’prevents theproperty value from being erasedwithout your approval.

Next, name the three functions thatthe application uses as ‘peopleSlider’,‘tipSlider’ and ‘splitResult’. Below thefour ‘@property lines’, enter:

- (IBAction)peopleSlider:(id)sender;- (IBAction)tipSlider:(id)sender;- (IBAction)splitResult:(id)sender;

Again, ‘IBAction’ is a cue for InterfaceBuilder, while the sender parameteridentifies the source of a piece of data.

As a separate line, enter:

- (void)calculate;

This declaration of the ‘calculate’function is needed here, even thoughit’s undefined, because later functionsinvoke it as part of their operation.

Building the applicationNow you can start to build the app’smechanics, which enable the functionsyou’ve defined to work together. Beginby copying the four ‘@property’ linesyou created earlier, then switch to thedocument ‘TippedOffAppDelegate.m’.

In this document, delete the line thatopens with ‘@ synthesize’ and paste thefour ‘@ property’ lines into the positionthat line had occupied. For each ofthese copied lines, replace ‘@property(nonatomic, retain)’with ‘@synthesize’,which is an instruction for yoursoftware compiling program. Next,remove the UI describers in each ofthese lines, as well as the asteriskspreceding each function.

Several functions that handleapplication start-up and shut-downtasks are already set up. Any furtherfunctions are entered between theseand the ‘@end’ line. The first sectionof code initialises the values of a fewof the variables:

- init {if (self = [super init]) {bill = 0;people = 2;tip = 15;split = 0;}return self;}


DEVELOP Makeanapp

Extend your iPhone application

Given that you can code your own tipcalculator in under an hour, it’s hardlysurprising that many are available todownload via the App Store. Thismakes a gratuity calculator a greatearly development project: there’splenty of opportunities for studyinghow other developers approachedthe challenge of turning a simpleidea into a compelling application.

Graphics are an importantconsideration. Tipulator (www.

sophiestication.de/iphone) wraps itssimple tools in an elegant package,while iTip (www.gabcas.net) usesicons to offer a clear workflow anda clean look. But CheckPlease (www.catamount.com) looks crowded, withtoo much graphical sheen added to abusy interface.

Also think about how you shouldenter the bill and tip figures.Tipulator employs dials – a standardSDK element – for entering all

figures. It’s convenient for changingthe tip, but more unwieldy forentering the bill amount. Conversely,TipStar (sites.google.com/site/tipstariphone) divides the calculationinto separate pages, using the spaceto provide buttons for the mostcommon options – this way it onlytakes a few seconds to enter detailsand get a result.

What will really set your app apartfrom its rivals, though, is an extra

feature that adds genuine benefits.CheckPlease, for example, is able toexport each restaurant transactionto its sister finance packagePocketMoney. International TipCalculator (www.vault13studios.com/Vault13/itip.html) enables youto choose which currency to use,and suggests the level of tip that’sappropriate for the country you’re in.See what distinctive twist you candevise fo your own iPhone apps…

NICE TIP A huge variety of tip calculators can be found on the App Store, each with its own approach. Study a few that catch your eye for inspiration on how tomake your own iPhone tip calculator stand out from the crowd

CODEMASTERS Xcodemanages your development project and provides an Objective-C programming environment with helpful debugging features

The next piece of code watchesfor users who enter text into thetop-right text field, linked to the‘bill_enter’parameter:

- (BOOL)textFieldShouldReturn:(UITextField *)theTextField {[bill_enter resignFirstResponder];return YES;}

After new text is entered, the nextfragment updates the text field displayand converts numerical text into a truenumber. The calculate function is theninvoked to update the ‘bill split’ total.

- (void)textFieldDidEndEditing:(UITextField *)theTextField {bill = bill_enter.text.floatValue;theTextField.text = [NSStringstringWithFormat:@”%1.2f”,theTextField.text.floatValue];[self calculate];}

Next, you create two Slider objects.The first is peopleSlider, which sets thenumber of people in the group. The firstline echoes the naming instructions inthe previous document. The secondline enables the position of thepeopleSlider control to set the valuefor the variable ‘people’, turning thenumber into an integer. The third linechanges the control’s accompanyinglabel according to the value of the‘people’ variable.

- (IBAction)peopleSlider:(id)sender; {people = rintf(people_slider.value);people_label.text = [NSStringstringWithFormat:@”%1.0f people”,people];[self calculate];}

The tipSlider function is a little different:it doesn’t need to be changed to aninteger and the variable part of thelabel is set to ‘%1.1’ rather than ‘%1.0’.This means that a single decimal pointis displayed:

- (IBAction)tipSlider:(id)sender; {tip = tip_slider.value;tip_label.text = [NSString stringWithFormat:@”%1.1f%% tip”, tip];[self calculate];}

The final code for this documentdefines the calculate function, whichupdates the ‘bill split’ figure wheneverthe app use adjusts a control:

- (void)calculate {split = ((bill * tip / 100) + bill) / people;split_result.text = [NSStringstringWithFormat:@”%1.2f”, split];}

With the various functions definedas code, you can now assemble theapplication itself with the SDK’sgraphical Interface Builder.

Add some controlDouble-click ‘MainWindow.xib’ in theTippedOff file list to open both a blankinterface window and a separatewindow holding objects to link toyour interface parts.

Select Tools ➜ Library to open upa list of objects that you can drag onto the interface window. Place a Labelobject in the top-left corner and a TextField object in the top-right. Placementguidelines appear as you move objects,enabling you to line up components.

Below these two objects, add twopairs of Label and Slider objects. Stretchthe Slider objects so that they go acrossthe screen’s width. Next, add two Labelobjects in the bottom-left and bottom-right corners. Adjust the bottom-rightLabel’s Layout Alignment to ‘right’ tomake it look a bit neater.

To change the text inside theLabels, select Tools ➜ AttributesInspector, then click on each Label inturn and change its ‘Text’ value. Fromthe top, rename the Labels as ‘Bill’,‘2 people’ and ‘15.0% tip’. Rename thebottom two Labels as ‘Split’ and ‘0.00’.Some Labels will change values as thecontrols are adjusted: what you’veentered here represents the defaultsthat a user will see when theapplication is launched.

Next, you’ll link the interface partsto controllers so that the user’sadjustments affect the variables thatyou’ve established. Hold Ctrl and dragfrom the TippedOffAppDelegate objectto the Bill Label. From the pop-up menuthat appears, select the ‘bill_label’Outlet. Similarly, link the ‘people_label’Outlet to the ‘2 people’ Label; ‘tip_label’to the ‘15.0% tip’ Label; ‘split_label’ tothe ‘Split’ Label; and ‘split_result’ to the‘0.00’ Label.

Now hold down Ctrl and again dragfrom TippedOffAppDelegate to the TextField object, and link ‘bill_enter’whenprompted. Then link ‘people_slider’to the higher Slider object and ‘tip_slider’ to the lower Slider object.

You also need to link some Outlets inthe opposite direction. Ctrl-drag fromthe Text Field object to TippedOffAppDelegate and select ‘delegate’. Similarly,link up peopleSlider and tipSlider tothe higher and lower Sliders.

The final operations to complete inInterface Builder tighten the controls’behaviour. Select the Text Field object.In the Attributes Inspector’s Text field,enter ‘0.00’ as the default value, thenchange Alignment to centred. Makesure that ‘ClearWhen Editing Begins’is ticked. Under Text Input Traits, setKeyboard to ‘Numbers & Punctuation’so the user doesn’t have to switch overfrom the default keyboard. ChangeReturn Key to‘Done’ and tick‘Auto-enableReturn Key’.

Now selectthe higher Sliderobject, whichsets the number of people in the dininggroup. For Values, set Minimum to‘2’ (you don’t need to use the app towork out the split if you’re eating alone)and Maximum to ‘20’. Set Initial to ‘2’ aswell: this matches the default Label forthis Slider that you created earlier. Forthe lower Slider, which is used to set thetip percentage, set Minimum to ‘0’ andMaximum to ‘25’, then set Initial to ‘15’ –again matching the default Label objectyou’ve defined for that Slider.

Your tip calculator is now ready touse. To try it out, return to Xcode andpress ‘Build and Run’ in the toolbar.Xcode compiles the code and bundlesit into an application, triggering iPhoneSimulator to present the result. You cannow use the app as you would on aniPhone, dragging sliders and enteringthe bill total in the top-right text field.

There’s a glut of such tools on theApp Store, so you can study howdifferent programmers have tackledtheir tips calculators. (See ‘Extend youriPhone application’, opposite.) See if youcan come up with your own approach! ●

GOOD CONNECTIONSTo connect your defined functions to the components you’ve created in Interface Builder, hold downCtrl and drag themouse between relevant objects, select a function that appears when you release themouse button

Releaseyour appAlthough the iPhone SDKis free to anyone whoregisters at www.apple.com/developer, there’s aprice attached to bringingyour new application tomarket. To test yourprogram on hardware,rather than the iPhoneSimulator, and to releaseyour application via theApp Store, you must joinApple’s iOS DeveloperProgram. It costs $99for individuals or smallcompanies, and $299for large companies.

Dislikethe SDK?Third-party developmenttools for the iPhone areemerging. Among theseis Shiva (www.stonetrip.com), a tool for creating3D games and richinteractive applications.The iPhone has beenadded to its list ofsupported platforms,which also includesWindows, Mac OS X andLinux. A free learningedition is available, whilelicences start from €169(approx £132).


Makeanapp DEVELOP

Youcannowusetheapp,draggingslidersandentering thebill total

GUIDED Interface Builder enablesyou to drag and drop UI componentsand use auto-positioning guides

APP MANof applications, and some months havesurpassed what I could even makecontracting. I have been invited to,flown to and been paid to speak atconferences. I have met all manner ofpeople, from grass roots designers toCEOs and presidents of multinationalcorporations. I can pick and choose mycontracts, or just work on my own stufffor a while.

The level of media coverage hasbeen really unexpected; going on alive-to-air BBC TV interview certainlygets the adrenaline pumping.

What’s your background?I’ve been a contract programmer for 10years, building a mixture of interactiveand corporate websites. I startedcoding from a young age but neverthought it would be my career.I thought all kids programmed on their48K ZX Spectrum…Of course, I didother things like skateboarding andradio control cars too.

I studied photography at designschool, got a job in a digital bureau andthen the internet came along. Fromthen on, I taught myself a lot aboutprogramming but also had the benefitof working with very smart people.

Have you always been inventive?Yes. Whether it was modifying myradio control cars growing up orphotography, I was always tinkering ormaking something. It was two yearsago that I got interested in apps, just asApple was releasing the iPhone SDK.I had never programmed a mobileapplication before, and had evenignored things likeWap for mobiles.

Have you had any failed app ideas?I was very nearly there with a TubeExits-style app, and the Tube Exits guysgot the jump on me. It just wasn’tworth completing.

I’ve had other train app ideas too,but getting hold of the data has provedtoo difficult; very little data is made

available to third-party developersat a price that’s affordable, or at all.

Do you think that the simplestideas are the best?Yes, but it’s the execution and polishthat counts. People will never seethe many screens or even wholefeatures that were removed duringdevelopment. They only see the endproduct and then think, “Wow what agreat idea.”The idea happened a longtime ago; what followed was a lot ofhard work and decisions.

This is why I don’t place much valueon ideas; they are a tiny part of what ittakes to make a great app. Apps thatare dead simple on the surface aren’talways so easy to program. The less youbother the user with, the better.

What are your favourite apps?Hipstamatic, Twitter (formerly Tweetie),Reeder, Dropbox and Evernote.

What does the iPad bring to the tablefor developers?Space. It’s quite clear, now that the iPadhas been out for a while, that existingiPhone apps don’t translate well to it.One needs to really take advantage ofwhat the iPad has to offer. It doesn’tnecessarily mean ‘stuff everything intoone screen’, but it does mean you needto take a different approach. For me, it’salmost a rewrite.

Have you actually seen people usingany of your apps?Yes – it’s really cool. I often see peopleusing Tube Deluxe. Strangely, I feelreally shy about saying anythingdirectly to them. People that meetme in social situations are genuinelysurprised to meet me. The fame sidehas been quite an experience.

What’s next?An iPad app for Greater London travel,and more features to take advantageof the new iOS 4. ●

Contract programmer MalcolmBarclay was facing the familiarperils of having to navigate home

on the London Underground when hedecided to make his first app. TubeStatus simply displays live informationabout any Tube line suffering delays.It’s been such a success that he nowdevelops apps full time.We visited hisoffice – his kitchen in east London – tofind out how apps changed his life.

WhyTube Status?I was caught out by a Northern Lineclosure on my way home one night.It seemed obvious to me that thisinformation should be easily availableas an app on my first-generationiPhone. I didn’t even think the idea wasparticularly inventive, so I thought:“Make it yourself, make it fast andmake it work.”

Having worked on and off with Macs,I set about teaching myself Objective-C[programming language] and wroteTube Status, a simple free app thatquickly gives you the status of allLondon Underground lines.

Was it an instant success?I submitted it to the App Store; it took amonth to approve and it had 10,000downloads in the first week. Requestsfor a map, journey planning, timetables,departures and everything else youcould think of came flooding into theinbox, so I licensed the map fromTransport for London and set aboutwriting Tube Deluxe. I charged £1.79 inthe first month it went live, did 10,000downloads and thought “maybe I couldmake a living off this.” It now sells for59p and has had no fewer than fivemonths’development work put into it.I’ve since introduced other travel appsthat have also been successful: LondonBus, NextBuses & Traveline S&E.

How has it changed your life?It pays the full rent and then some.I make a very healthy living off my suite


DEVELOP Interview

Wracked by commutermisery, MalcolmBarclay developed an iPhone appto help himself and others keep track of delays. Now it pays his rent…

RICHARDGRASSIE

Interview DEVELOP


1112 Chapters 1&2 1401Password 1101Shoot 383DVIAMobile 40

AAce Combat Xi 153AIM 84Air Mouse Pro 107Air Sharing 108AirPhones 83AmazonMobile UK 76AmpliTube 22Angry Birds 125Animation Creator 44AquaMoto Racing 148Argon 53Articles 94Artisan 46Assassin’s Creed II 141Astro Ranch 143Atomic Clock 21Attic 90AutoStitch Panorama 39Awards 80

BBalcassa 131Balloonimals 95Band 52Bathomatic 19Battleship 121Bebot 49Bejeweled 2 128Beneath a Steel Sky 139Bento 102Billings Touch 104Birdhouse 85Bistromath 77Black andWhite 123bleep!Synth 53Bloom 47Broken Sword: Director’s Cut 139Brothers in Arms:

Hour of Heroes 151Business Card Reader 104

CCalcbot 105Camera Dialer 107CameraMagic Effects 40CameraBag 18Car Jack Streets 146Cardiograph 23Chaos Rings 141Chordmaster 57Civilization Revolution 143Classics 93Cogs 132Color Expert 43Comic Touch 41Commodore 64 124Concise OED 94ConvertBot 78CoPilot Live 62Crash Bandicoot 147Critter Crunch 128Cro-Mag Rally 148CrunchFu 75Cue Play DJ 56

DDarkSlide Premium 92DataCase 108De Blob 134Delivery Status touch 76Documents To Go 101Domino’s 23Doom Resurrection 149

EeBayMobile & eBay Selling 76Ego 109Email ’n Walk 112Enigmo 131eReader 93eScrap App 80Euphonics 48Evernote 101EyeTV 88

FFaceMelter 41Facebook 86FatBooth 41FileMagnet 108Final Fantasy 142Fishing Kings 155Flare Scratch 56Flickr 93Flight Control 145Flipbook 44FlipTime 82Fluid FX 46For All Seasons 46Frenzic 127Fring 84

GGeared 132Gliss 48Google Earth 69Grand Theft Auto:

ChinatownWars 146Groceries 76Guitar Hero 124Guitar Toolkit 57

HHappening 86

II Love Katamari 137iBlast Moki 135iDrum 51iFractal 46iGOMyWay 2009 62iHandy Carpenter 18iHome+Sleep 82iMovie 45InstantDrummer 51International Athletics 155iPlayer 17IronMan: Aerial Assault 153iShred 51iStat 111iTalk Recorder 104iTracer 44

JJasuto Pro 54

KKineo 44

LLabyrinth 2 133Last.fm 91Layers 42Leaf Trombone 50Lightsaber Unleashed 18Limits 81Liquid Scale 40LogMeIn Ignition 107London Tube 67LuxGallery 93

MMad ’o’ Ball 3D 127Measures 17

Meebo 84Melodica 50Met Office Weather 69Metal Gear Solid Touch 150Mill Colour 43Mobile Maps 63MobileMe iDisk 109Modern Combat: Sandstorm 151Momento 86Mondo Solitaire 121Monster Pinball 124MotionX Dice 22Music Studio 55Myst 140

NNational Trust 68NavigonMobile

Navigator Europe 65NetNewsWire 113NOVA 152NumberKey 105

OOcado 23Ocarina 50Occasions 81OldBooth Premium 41OmniFocus 102On This Day 94Opera Mini 112Orbital 129

PPang 126Pastebot 105Pennies 79Photo fx 39PhotoKeys 42Photoshop Express 39PianoFly 54Postman 87Prey Invasion 152Pro Evolution Soccer 2010 154PullupFu 75Pulsar 47PushupFu 75

QQ*Bert International 126Qik VideoCamera 38QuadCamera 38Quickoffice 100Quiz Quiz Quiz 123

RRadio Times 89Ragdoll Cannon! 127ReaddleDocs 109ReBirth 55RedLaser 83Reeder 112ReelDirector 45Remote 83Rimote 19RjDj 56Rolando 136RunKeeper 75

SSally Park 67SAS Survival Guide 68Seismometer 22Shazam 91SketchBookMobile 42skobbler UK/Ireland 66Sky Mobile TV News & Sports 89Sky+ 83Skype 87SlingPlayer Mobile 88

Soccer Manager 154Sol Free Solitaire 120SolarQuest 137Sonic The Hedgehog 135Spawn Illuminati 47Spirit 129Spoke 48Spore Origins 137Spotify 91Squareball 130SquatFu 75Stage Hand 103Stanza 17Starbucks 68Storyboard Composer 45Super Monkey Ball 2 133Sway 136Sygic Mobile Maps UK & Ireland 65

TTabToolkit 57Talking Carl 95Talking Phrasebook 69Tap Tap Revenge 125technoBox 54TED 89Texas Hold’Em 122The Cat in the Hat 95The Package 130The Secret of Monkey

Island: SE 138The Sims 3World Adventures 144TheWarlock of

FiretopMountain 140Thereminator 50Tilt to Live 129TimeTuner 82Tipulator 77Tom Tom 63TomTomWestern Europe 64Touch DJ 56Touch Grind 155TouchPad 106Tozzle 95Trails 66Trails GPS Tracker 63Trism 128Trope 48Truphone 22TuneIn Radio 90Tuner Internet Radio 90Twitter 85Twitterrific Premium 85

UUK Cinema Times 77UK Train Times 67Units 78UniWar 145Up There 125

VVector Tanks 153Vicinity 66Virtuoso Piano 51Vocalia 106

WWagamamaWallet 110WeightBot 78WhatTheFont 43WiScale 20Wolfenstein 3D 150Wurdle 123

Y /ZYears 81Yell.com 23Zen Bound 131


the 20112011 theYOUR ESSENTIAL GUIDE TO THE VERY BEST iPHONE APPS

We showcase the very best apps for youriPhone and iPod touch, from top gamesto photo editors and shopping apps

CreateLearn a musical instrument, editphotos and even paint a picture

ExploreUse your iPhone as a sat nav, findlocal attractions or check the weather

EnjoyImprove your social life, get radio andTV on your iPhone and much more

WorkBoost your productivity with our pickof home and business applications

PlayDiscover the games that are settingthe iPhone user’s world alight