So, how do you enter?

1. Purchase any of their apps, they are all $0.99 today & tomorrow! (any Free app will do as well)

2. Follow @Readdle on  Twitter

3. Tweet the following: Readdle turns 3: Follow @readdle, RT to win an #iPad. $0.99 for any app (48 hours sale) http://readdle.com/3years

That’s it! On August 10th, they’ll pick 3 winners!

About the apps:

Readdledocs, for iPad & iPhone, is one of our favorite apps (and one of our most highly recommended apps) here at TiPAB. and you can have both apps for under $2!

The long awaited iPad app from Appigo has finally been released – Todo for iPad.

Appigo Todo for iPad Takes Advantage of the iPad’s Large Screen by Presenting a Planner-like Interface for Managing To-do Lists and Tasks. Todo for iPad is Now Available on the iPad App Store at a Special Introductory Price – $4.99

Let’s face it the iPad screams productivity(to some). Persoanlly we love productivity apps – anything that makes our life a little easier to manage. Oh yes, did we forget to mention the colored paper/themes you can change in the app?

Join Matt & Brie May 4th, 2010 as they discuss some of the latest applications in the App Store and answer questions about iPhone & iPad applications!

Just go here and listen in. Don’t forget, our toll-free number will also be open to take questions, just call 1-877-338-2524!

Bullypix is celebrating the game’s upcoming content update and the impeding release of the game on iPad.

Mobile phone gamers looking for some great puzzle action can do so now that Saving Private Sheep is on sale…

The game:

Help the woollen warrior conquer enemy territory by leading it into the secure zone.
To do this, you will need just one weapon: your finger!
Destroy the obstacles in the surrounding area to enable the sheep to achieve its objective in total safety.
Increasingly complex structures and special blocks (indestructible, explosive etc.) coming in a variety of shapes and with different actions will make your mission harder

[Get via iTunes]

GrooveMaker Club (for iPhone & iPod) is on sale for $2.99 until April 30th. IK Multimedia is celebrating their launch of their contest “Be A GrooveMaker” they are giving away a 16GB WiFi iPad to the winner. Take a look at their website for more details on the contest.

[Download GrooveMaker Club via iTunes]

So many apps, so little time. USA TODAY’s Marco R. della Cava asked Matt Sawyers, who along with a few Texas-based tech friends started TheiPhoneAppBlog.com, to list five largely iPhone-centric apps that really rocked his world — and five he wishes never existed:

BEST IN CLASS

• Waze (Waze, free), a community-based turn-by-turn navigation system. A clever way to get real-time traffic alerts based on input from others using the same app. “Every now and then an app wows us, and this is one,” Sawyers says.

• The Oregon Trail (Gameloft, $4.99), a pioneering adventure game that mixes the mundane with history. Although usually not a big app game fan, Sawyer says the combination of myriad games-within-games and amazing graphics “will keep you entertained for a long time.”

• What’s on TV? (Napkin Studio, free), a handy entertainment guide in your pocket. Providing everything from TV listings to movie times to information about your favorite actors, this app “can even send you updates about the latest buzz in the entertainment industry,” Sawyers says.

• Grocery iQ (Coupons Inc.,99 cents), which can make that penciled-out grocery list a thing of the past. Putting together a shopping list is as easy as using your phone to scan the bar codes off items you’re running low on at home. “This app even has a sharing feature that takes an item off your partner’s list as soon as you do, so you never buy doubles,” Sawyers says.

• Photoshop Mobile (Photoshop, free), which lets you touch up your iPhotos with a mobile darkroom. For anyone “wanting to make small adjustments to their phone photos on the go, this is a great app,” Sawyers says. He notes that photos can be cropped, rotated, flipped and color-adjusted with just a few finger swipes.

FORGETTABLE

• Accurate Scale (SolarEclipseSoft,99 cents), the iPhone as micro-scale. “If you need a scale, buy a scale,” says Sawyers, who adds that items need to be dropped from a few inches. “We got different results each time,” he says — not to mention a dinged screen.

• fishFart (ilovelava, 99 cents), where you can enjoy a moment of fish bliss. “Do we really need to explain?” Sawyers asks. Animation of red bubbles in green water — accompanied by a loop of a bubbling sound — does not a great app make.

• iWarmer (Kooapps, $1.99), where you can warm up by the glow of the screen. You get a variety of “hot” objects to stare at, so the warming is purely psychological. “Laugh at apps like this when they come by,” Sawyers says. “We do.”

• FatBurner 2K (DailyBurn, 99 cents), where you supposedly lose weight by burning fat through vibrations. “Do. Not. Want,” Sawyers says. “One of the worst apps in the store, and one of us was a sucker and purchased it.”

• Evil Oven (Roman Pfneudl,99 cents), the first mobile stovetop for your iPhone. Now off the market, this one set the bar for “the pointless and worst-app-ever category,” Sawyers says. On screen, you simply see the fading in and out of an orange stovetop. “Glad no one else will get burned by this app.”

While these apps (particularly the Noteable ones) were picked with USA Today’s audience in mind, we can’t say they are absolutly the BEST in the App Store. We recommend reading the whole article & let us know what you think!

Join the forum discussion on this post - (1) Posts

Which games?

-Earthworm Jim

-Blades of Fury

-Skater Nation

-Dungeon Hunter

-Real Soccer 2010

Also within the forums, in the post editor, several of the buttons are missing, again we are working quickly on this. We want to have the best iPhone app review community on the Internet and we want you guys right there with us. Let us know if there is anything else no going the way it should.

With the new layout, you can:

• Browse reviews and their summaries
• Quick access to our “Picks of the week”
• View our 10 top rated apps (and what others think of it)
• comment on reviews without having to first register
• View our review index
• View reviews by category
• View video related to the review
• View more info about the application
• See “Apps you may also like…”
• Submit your own rating for an app reviewed
• Play or download our super cool podcast
• Read news about application.
• Contact form- an easier way to contact us. Of course you can still e-mail (or even call us )
• View reviews on your iPhone
• View video reviews right on your iPhone (currently being implemented)

Our Forums (Opening soon):

• Discuss applications we have reviewed, get help with levels in games you cannot get through! (Registration will open shortly)

Our Podcast:

• This is probably one of our favorite new features and we don’t think anyone else is doing it! Every Tuesday night, we will hold a live 1-hour show where we will take calls & answer questions about iPhone applications, discuss some cool apps we have found or even interview developers!
• As for calling in, you have several options – you can call in any time & leave us a message with your first name, state you’re from and your question & we will mention you on our show. You can of course call in during our show & ask a question live, as well.

We hope to add more features in the future and if you have any cool ideas, please share them with us. We hope you like the new site!

~The TiPAB Team

IK Multimedia has released the Trance & Techno versions of GrooveMaker, in addition to the other four already in the App Store. Read below to find out how you can get a hold of one of these apps for FREE!

The GrooveMaker Apps are a new way of creating great music on the go. Intermediate users of electronic music creation will find this app on top of their best music creation apps for the iPhone.

The new GrooveMaker Techno gives you the raw energy of early techno, the monobeats of yore with a touch of gritty, eerie cyberfunk. These are
beats straight from the roots of electronic music, so you have all the tools to move the dance floor. Includes 4 songs, plus 1 FREE song by registering, and a total of 315 loops in 140-150-160-180 BPM ranges for 228 MB of samples.

New GrooveMaker Trance allows you to immerse yourself in a total state of trance with anathematic bass lines, progressive structures and lead melodies; a hypnotic journey with no interruption! Includes 4 songs, plus 1 FREE song by registering, and a total of 315 loops in 140-150 BPM for 230 MB of samples.

Find out all the really cool things that this app can do by taking a look at the in-depth review here.
And listen here of a LIVE recording of me using the Hip-Hop version (recorded via Audacity).

App Giveaway: IK Multimedia has graciously given us some promo codes to share. We have ones for the Techno, Trance, Hip-Hop, Club & House versions. In the comments tell us who your favorite Techno or Trance artist is and why. Winners for the comments will be chosen by 10/09/09 @ 10pm CST. To get the Techno, Trance or House versions – first comment will receive a promo code, the other two will be randomly selected from the comments. Get even more apps by following us on Twitter (@iphoneappblog) and watch for our tweet on how you could get the Hip-Hop or Club versions for free!

Make sure when you post a comment you put some way to get a hold of you – Twitter, website, etc.

[...] what some consumers might not know is that many companies pay reviewers for their write-ups [...]

And this is true even in the iPhone app world. We have heard from developers that some site actually charge for a review, some upwards of $150 for a “professional review.” In my opinion that’s just awful.

In the past we have not done this (yes, some of the reviews here, emerged from a promo code.) And I am not sure why I haven’t thought of doing it. However, we want our readers to understand that even though we received applications for free, we still use the some of the same standards for when we purchase apps, asking ourselves “Is this app really worth it?” as well as being harsher in giving stars to the rank to compensate for any bias. Personally we can only purchase so many apps per month, so the promo code usage, is helpful to us in providing reviews for readers.

You might notice that there are not any ads on this website (except in the iPhone version, but I can’t help that at the moment;) this is because I am not here to make money from app reviews nor readers, I simply created this blog so that others like me – wanting to know in-depth information about apps & how they function (like analyzing the pixelzation of graphics in the background) could get the information that other sites do not provide. We only review applications that we can relate to, we have even turned down requests to review an application. Why? Because I simply didn’t have the knowledge to evaluate it (a law study guide app).

So in all disclosure, we will have two identifiers at the top of our app reviews – First, if we have received the app via a promo code, “via promo code” will display. If we requested a promo code, “requested promo code” will display and finally, if we have purchased the app, there will be no reference. If an app is “purchased” for free thought the App Store, there will also not be any reference either These references will begin immediately and will also be incorporated into older posts over the next month or so. Also for app reviews that evolved from beta testing an app, the apps must come from the developers & cannot be purchased through the iTunes App Store, therefore; this will also be noted in first setence of the review when the word “Beta” is mentioned.

If you have any question or would like to make a feature suggestion, please leave us a comment.

Link to article.

Update: The ad also seems to appear after about every 10 searches.

It has recently come to our attention that NapkingStudio’s What’s On? application has been updated to 2.01 . This version, while it does fix some bugs, it also integrates a fullscreen, 5 second ad upon starting the app. (Note: Others have have stated that there are other areas where this occurs; however, I cannot confirm it.) While the app is free, I have no issue with developers placing ads within the app itself; however, where I disagree with this action, is the fact that people have paid for the application previously (I originally paid $1.99) and are now being “penalized for it.”

Quite frankly, it infuriates me. If a developer wants to add ads to their app that’s free – fine. But don’t penalize others that have paid for the “premium” to help that developer. The developer should highly consider removing the ads from the current version and have people pay for it. Then create a free, “lite” version of the app with ads. If the app stays the way it is now, the rating for this application are going to plummet drastically.

Due to this decision, I drop its previous ranking of 5/5 to a now 2.5/5

A button in the upper-right-hand corner will appear named “monocle” tap on it and move your the iPhone around to view the labels spinning around you. Realize this only works on the iPhone 3GS.

Have fun!

Here at The iPhone App Blog, we found it too hard to be constantly attempting to copy and paste all the URLs that we wanted to shorten, so we have found a shortcut for you to create shortened, user-authenticated URLs:

1. First create a bookmark by tapping on the “+” at the bottom of your screen in safari and tapping on Save.

2. Copy the following text:

javascript:var%20d=document,w=window,enc=encodeURIComponent,e=w.getSelection,k=d.getSelection,x=d.selection,s=(e?e():(k)?k():(x?x.createRange().text:0)),s2=((s.toString()==”)?s:(‘%22′+enc(s)+’%22′)),f=’http://m.bit.ly/’,l=d.location,p=’?v=3&u=’+enc(l.href)%20+’&s=’+enc(d.title)+’%20′+s2,u=f+p;try{if(!/^(.*\.)?tumblrzzz[^.]*$/.test(l.host))throw(0);tstbklt();}catch(z){a%20=function(){if(!w.open(u))l.href=u;};if(/Firefox/.test(navigator.userAgent))setTimeout(a,0);else%20a();}void(0)

3. Open up you bookmarks and find the bookmark you just created, edit it. You can charge the the Title as you wish, we used “SHORTEN.” Then you are going to want to edit the URL. Tap on it, then tap on the ‘x’ to clear the area and paste the above code. Now just save everything & exit out of your bookmarks.

4. Give it a try! Navigate to a website, tap on the bookmarklet & viola! the URL will be shortened for you (Note: you might have to sign in at least once into bit.ly on your iPhone, if you have not done so in the past.)

Sources: The above code is an altered version of the code for the bookmarklet found here.

A little bit on Daily Burn: Daily Burn is one of the best (actually the best, in my opinion) fitness and nutrition tracking websites. Daily Burn also recently changed their name from Gyminee. So if you heard of Gyminee, then you have “heard” of DailyBurn.

Here are some of the anticipated features (note: photos have been obtained from the Daily Burn blog, so accuracy of screen shots is unknown.)

While Daily Burn actually has a mobile website for the iPhone, it won’t do you any good if you cannot get a signal at your gym. So the application will allow you to do offline logging of your workouts. You’ll also have the ability to view your stats & graphs and search for foods.

The application will be free for poth free & pro Daily Burn accounts. We will post a review as soon as it comes out in the App Store! Happy Tracking!

Sources:
http://blog.dailyburn.com/native-iphone-app-sneak-peek-1/
http://blog.dailyburn.com/native-iphone-app-sneak-peek-2/

What’s New:

New 15 day forecast

New 7 day mini-chart including :
- Temperature
- Precipitation
- Rainfall
- Humidity
- Wind

We also noticed a brief start up screen, we think this really helps the app in “cutting down” on weather-load time. Whether it actually does or not, we have seen a noticeable speed difference in loading the weather data. [$5.99 - iTunes Link]

Back on Friday, we told you that you had the chance of winning an “Ice Road Truckers’ TV Show DVD by telling us about a scary driving experience. now we are giving you a second chance to win – via Twitter!

Tweet:

Win an “Ice Road Truckers” DVD. http://bit.ly/ALtiu Re-tweet to enter. Get the iPhone app here- http://bit.ly/HkqXE (via @iphoneappblog)

That’s all there is to it, so get a Tweetin’

]]> http://www.theiphoneappblog.com/tipab-giveaway-win-ice-road-truckers-tv-show-dvd-2/feed/ 0 http://www.theiphoneappblog.com/we-cheap-now-knights-onrush-topple-2-realsoccer09/ http://www.theiphoneappblog.com/we-cheap-now-knights-onrush-topple-2-realsoccer09/#comments Fri, 26 Jun 2009 19:08:00 +0000 Matt Sawyers http://66.147.244.179/~theipho4/?p=103

Here are some Apps to get you started for the weekend! $0.99 for a limited time! Grab them while you can!

Knights Onrush – A “tower defense” game where, YOU are the tower! The game has incredibly addicting game play. On Sale for the next 36 hours! [$0.99 - iTunes link]

Topple 2 -How ma shapes can you balance one-on-top-of-another? [$0.99 - iTunes link]

Real Soccer 2009 – This game has some of the best graphics I have seen! Especially with the ability to replay and change the camera angles. You can also play multiplayer on this one! [$0.99 - iTunes link]

1. Continue playing while iPhone is locked – Settings >  General > Home > iPod Controls “ON” – If you have had some music that you were play and have since paused, you can continue playing it by pushing the Home button twice. This will bring up the play/pause, forward/backward buttons along with the volume slider. This seems to work even if the iPhone is passcoded.

2. Double-push the Home button to… – Settings >  General > Home > [Choose] – This initially used to only be a shortcut for the iPod, Home, or your favorites, now the range has broaden to include Camera & Search. (I personally use it for the Camera)

3. Accurately scrub your music – before, when you tried to get to a certain point in you music, it jumped around; however, now you can scrub at different speed. After touch the round marker move your finger vertically along the screen to change the speed in which you scrub. The lower on the screen, the the more accuracy you have.

4. Limit your search & rearrange – Settings >  General > Home > Search Results > [Choose]
- You should have noticed by now that there is the spotlight search, this option allows you to limit what appears in your search results. If you don’t want the spotlight to search your e-mails (after all there is a search in each Inbox) then you can un-check it and your iPhone will ignore the Mail results. You also can view the order in which, which category appears in what order.

5. Restrictions – Settings > General > Restrictions – While we all know Junior uses Twitter and other social networking apps, as a parent, you might not want him downloading applications with certain ratings  (or downloading them at all) or allowing apps to use his exact location. There are quite a number of restrictions that can be utilized. The restrictions are protected by the 4-digit passcode you set. If you do not want Junior using certain applications, they simply disappear (if only this worked with the all the apps, maybe we could hide the stocks.app or others…).

6. How many Apps do I have? – If you have a lot of apps (like I do) then you have probably counted them up at one point or another. In the Settings > General > About, it will tell you just how many apps you actually have.

7. Check your  AT&T Services (I assume other carriers are also included) – Settings > Phone > AT&T Services – You can view your bill balance, Pay your bill, view you minutes, use voice connect (Don’t recommend, use a free app to do this), use directory assistance (also don’t recommend – use 800-FREE-411 or the Google App) or view “My AT&T account” (uses Safari).

8. Kill the message tone! -  Settings > Messages > Repeat Alert “OFF” – when a message comes in, your iPhone is locked and you don’t check it, it will alert you twice more. If you find this annoying, it can be turned off.

9. Where’s that e-mail? – Search your Inbox. If you are in your e-mail, scroll all the way to the top (will auto-hide if it looks like your at the top) and search from there.

10. E-mail a contact! – Your friend asks you if you have Joe Blow’s number. You do, and  you can send them the info very easily, that is, if they have an iPhone of want to pick it up via a computer. Within you Contacts, find the person you are looking for and at the bottom of all their information, you’ll see a “Share this Contact” button. Ta it and it will open your Mail.app and all you have to do is enter their e-mail address and away it goes! If you receive the contact file, then it is very easy to add to your address book.

11. Wait…What’s my number? – Settings > Phone > My Number – I am usually surprised when someone tells me they don’t know their own phone number and they ask “can you look into your address book and tell me what my phone number is? I never call myself…” Apparently Apple felt the need to add your number to the top of your Contact list, sort of. The only way you can view it, is by tapping on the Phone.app, then tapping on Contacts. (If you just tap on the Contacts.app from your home screen, then it will not appear). If you scroll all the way to the top of your Contacts list (above the search) you’ll see your number. If I remember correctly you might have to call a friend and ask them what your number is at least once, as you’ll have to enter it to start with.

12. Zoom Zoom! – While you have always been ale to zoom in Safari, you haven’t been able to do it in the Mail.app. Well that’s changed now, so Zoom away…!

13. Open in New Page – Within Safari, by tapping and holding on a link, a menu will pop up asking you if you would like to open, open in new page or copy link.

14. Add an extension to a phone number -  I am not completely sure this is to 3.0 and that’s also why I am adding it to the end of the list. When entering a phone number in for a contact in your address book, you can allow for a pause by tapping the “+,*,#” button in the bottom left-hand corner, then tap on pause, then tap in the extension number. Viola! No more having to mesmerize the extension number, unless you like doing that sort of thing…
*Note: you might have to enter a few pauses if you want it to hold off longer before it enters the extension number.

If you have found something unusual, lacking or surprising in OS 3.0, sound off in the comments!

Yep, it’s here! And now let the messaging frenzies begin!

This is the point in which we have all been waiting for – the release of applications that utilize the push notification system in 3.0.

While this update include Push, there have also been some other UI updates & performance enhancements!

BeeJiveIM uses the custom tone when a notification comes in. Cool.

If you are using BeeJiveIM or any other application that utilizes the push notification, let us know what you think about it in the comments! [$9.99 - iTunes link]

TweetMic [$0.99 - iTunes link] puts a whole new spin on Tweeting. With TweetMic you are basically able to Twitter small podcasts via this application. What happens when you use TweetMic is you record a message via the iPhone’s built in Mic, you can play it back or post it with a short Twitter message.

Once you “Publish to Twitter” the application uploads the recording to its server and attaches a link to your post, so when your followers receive the tweet, they will see the link and the website it brings up will allow them to play the message via a computer or an iPhone.

Of course having WiFi of 3G will be better than using an EDGE connection when uploading you messages.

If you want to add audio recording to your Tweets, then this is definitely the best option out there. If you check it out, let us know what you think (or record a message for us on Twitter!)

I figure is can’t be hard to create a decent app icon and for some that make multiple apps, it’s nice to change up the icon; otherwise it gets thrown into my worst icon bin. So without further ado, here are the Worst Icon Runner ups:

(Click on Image to Enlarge)

I had several things I took into consideration upon awarding icons the Worst Icon awards:

1. Text on Icon – even worse, unreadable text
2. Generic graphics exe. dollar signs, hearts, etc.
3. Clip art as the icon image
   
4. one color
5. dark image
6. too small graphic to see
7. bad resolution of image within icon
8. bad placement of graphic (a ball sitting in the corner with a bunch of black around it)

So the third place goes to the less than good resolution icon:

Second place goes to this icon & whatever it says…:

And finally FIRST PLACE for Worst iPhone App icon goes to erm… this one… whatever it is:

So Congrats to those app icons. Your prize: an opinion telling you to make you icon better…

Okay so on a better note, lets switch over to the BEST icons of the year. So while doing the opposite of the things I listed above would make the icon creators get their app icon into the “good bin” the items I’ve listed below really help get the icon a “Best” icon award.

1. 3D graphics (use of the Z-axis)
2. Multiple colors used
3. No text or clearly defined text
4. iPhone themed colors, but not copy cat icons
5. Anything with a flame on it (personal favorite…ok this really doesn’t count…)
6. 3D logo of a company, etc.

Here are the runner ups:

(Click on image to enlarge)

Coming in at third place, is:

Convertbot
For is unique concept and creative take on the app. It also represents the app itself uniqely.

Second place, is:

Birdhouse
For is creative & 3D perspective on using Twitter’s bird icon and the z-axis for depth.

And finally the FIRST PLACE WINNER OF THE BEST IPHONE APP ICON goes to….:

Readdledocs
For clearly defining the app as well as using closely themed colors from the standard iPhone apps.
(Yes, I am making an exception to text in the icon – it’s readable)

Congrats to those icons that won the TiPAb BEST APP ICON AWARD, you receive praise by myself…and I’ve purchased the top 3.

If I have not mentioned some of the app names that these icons refer to feel free to tell me in the comments. Also what are some app icon (app names) that you hat or like? Any apps you’ve purchased just because the icon looked cool? or the other way around? Sound off in the comments!

http://twitter.com/iphoneappblog

~Matt

Enjoy Christmas and Happy Holidays!

~Matt

Links to App Review Index (Listed by App Name): A-M & N-Z

I also hope to post other information that I collect regarding the iPhone here.

~Matt (msbaylor)

P.S. Just to clarify, my screen name is pronounced “M. S. Baylor,” as M & S are my initials and Baylor is the college I attend. No I am not Ms. Baylor, unfortunately, my screen name gained reputation before I realized people saw it as “Ms. Baylor.” O well…