Android – Iphone – Applications

Sevens, from developer Nigel Hanbury,  is a spin on the wildly popular Sudoku number puzzler, of which there are several variations in the App Store.

Just in case you’ve never played Sudoku before: The playing field consists of a 3 x 3 grid of squares. Each of the nine squares consists of yet another 3 x 3 grid.Your job is to fill in missing numbers from 1 to 9 in rows and columns without using the same number more than once in all the  rows and columns.  Depending on the difficulty of the level you’re attempting to play, some numbers already will be filled in to help you get started. It’s not like arithmetic; it’s more a process of elimination or fill-in-the-blanks.

Most people find it challenging, although some weirdos like my daughter and wife can knock these games out like a pro bowler knocks over pins in championship play. Me, I’ve never managed to complete an entire puzzle before giving up in frustration.

So, when I set out to review Sevens, “I’m thinking, hey, this has to be easier than Sudoku. It’s only one grid, 7 x 7, and and not 3 x 3 squares within a 3 x 3 grid. How hard can it be to compared to regular Sudoku?”

But here’s the catch: Sevens requires that you fill in the numbers in each row and square, using only the number 1 through 7. At the same time, you must insert the correct numbers into a color group that also must have only a unique number from 1 to 7. If you look at the screen capture on the left, you’ll see exactly what I mean. It’s almost like doing two games, one on top of the other.

Sevens also pits you against the clock and when I discovered that extra challenge, I knew I was pretty much sunk. This is a tough game for guys like me whose brains are stuffed with bits of junk that tend to get in the way of logic and rational thought processing.

Sevens has 3 levels and 200 puzzles in each, so anyone playing this app will find it will keep him or her busy from now until infinity, at least.

I’ve been working on Sevens off and on for the past week and I haven’t made much progress. I tried to interest my wife into taking on the game but she’s been too busy. I hope I get a chance to see how well normal people do with Sevens.

One thing I will say: Seven looks a heck of a lot better than any Sudoku games I’ve tried on paper and online. Its graphics are polished; game play is smooth; and I didn’t encounter any glitches or other weirdness

I don’t even know why I’m mentioning this, but in an update, I’d like to see the option of being able to play head-to-head over a network. I don’t know if my ego would be able to handle Sevens at that level, but I’m willing to give it a shot.

• rating: 9/10
• price: $.99
• app_name: Sevens

written by Duy Phong \\ tags: App, Apple, Game, Iphone, ITunes, OS

After a wait of 4 days, FedEx plopped my new iPhone 3GS on my doorstep yesterday. After hearing all the stories about how difficult it was to get one – Apple sold 1 million 3GS phones in the first 3 days alone – I went online and bought it from the AT&T store and figured that I would wait it out.

To my surprise and delight, I ordered it on Thursday and it arrived on Monday. Not bad at all, especially with the intervening weekend to slow things down. I received a black one, which is what I wanted, although I didn’t have the option to order it in white. Word is that Apple will make the 3GS available in other colors once the buying frenzy subsides.

I bought my 2G with 8GB the day after Apple dropped the price on that model from $600 to $400. Although my 2-year contract had a few more months to run, I was able to upgrade for $18, so I jumped on board.

After lovingly unpacking the box, which in itself is an object d’art,  I plugged the phone in for about an hour to make sure I had a fully charged battery (it was already partially charged). Then, I fired up iTunes to activate the phone with Apple and transfer my existing apps and music to my new phone. The entire process took about an hour, which is less than I expected because I also had heard horror stories about Apple having problems handling activation requests.

Once that was done, I went online to activate the iPhone with AT&T, which took all of about 15 minutes, again a pleasant surprise.

The first thing I noticed was everything was speedier — apps loaded faster and I was able to move icons from one screen to the other with a zipadeedoodah. I launched Free Memory, after about an hour of toying around and saw that I had 81.77 MB room left to play with. With my 2G, if I had say, 22 MB, it was a big deal.

I fired up Speed Test-iNetwork to see what kind of download speeds and latency I was getting off 3G and EDGE networks. It was no contest, as you would expect. Now, I’m looking at getting downloads speeds that are almost twice as fast. “You can’t beat that with a stick,” as my friend Howie used to say.

This phone sounds better too. The familiar click, for example, was replaced by one that is “meatier,” which is about the only way I can describe it. The phone is louder for the same setting as my 2G and the ring tone seems more full. All this is purely subjective, I admit, but all I can say is that it rings with quality.

The headphone jack is no longer proprietary like it is on my 2G. Listening to music with a high-quality pair of Sennheiser headphones was a revelation compared to everyday earphones like the one Apple includes with the iPhone and iP touch.

It’s still early, so please give me a little time to poke around with the hardware and report in.

Next up: I’ll answer the question that everyone wants to know: Should I upgrade to the new iPhone 3GS?

written by Duy Phong \\ tags: 3G, App, Apple, Download, Free, Iphone, ITunes, OS

If you ever played battleship as a kid, then no doubt you can appreciate Battleship by Pen. Created by RedMadRobot, Battleship by Pen gets bonus points from me for originality in design. An app that appears to have been drawn entirely by hand on graph paper with a blue Bic pen, Battleship by Pen is the same concept as the original board game, but with some original features of it’s own.

Players choose where to place their battleships, which are really just groups of squares outlined in pen with Xs inside, and deploy their fleet onto the graph paper grid to begin.

In Battleship By Pen you can touch  and drag the ships to position them and tap them to change orientation. When it’s your turn to try to find and destroy your opponent’s battleships, you simply select and tap a square on the screen. If it is a hit, an X will mark the square and if it’s a miss, a small dot serves as a marker. The first player to destroy their opponent’s entire fleet wins.

As I said, I give points for complete originality in the design of Battleship by Pen. Everything right down to the instructions and navigation buttons have the same hand-drawn appearance. It’s obvious the designer was going for casual and the pen and paper graphics combined with the recorded voice sound effects achieves a result somewhere between aloof casual and unintended comedy. The sound effects can’t even be explained in words, except to tell you to ask a ten-year-old what it sounds like when something is blown up by a missile.

Humorous as it is, the sound effects in Battleship by Pen actually got on my nerves after awhile, but not as much as overall stability of the app. While I enjoyed the game immensely despite the eventually nerve-grating sound effects, the single-player mode crashed every time I played. I tried to remedy this with a restart and tested it out on both iPhone with 3.0 OS and iPod touch with 2.2.1 – both yielding the same result. As for the multi-player mode, I didn’t care all that much for it, but the implementation of a wi-fi mode is a great expectation and should prove to be a positive improvement.

Battleship by Pen is a highly creative rendition of a classic game and the developers definitely bring their own unique flair into the mix. It certainly has huge potential, but unless the stability of single player mode is improved and the wi-fi game mode brought to fruition, Battleship by Pen may die a slow, silent death as it sinks into the unknown murky waters of the App Store.

• price: $0.99
• rating: 7/10
• app_name: Battleship by Pen

written by Duy Phong \\ tags: App, Apple, Game, Iphone, ITunes, OS

I smartly downloaded Music iQ before embarking on a four-hour car ride.  Perfect timing!  I entertained myself, the car trip went more quickly, and I discovered I am terrible at remembering the names of songs, even when I recognize a tune.

Music iQ from Phase2 Media is like an iPhone version of “Name That Tune.”  Music iQ plays random songs one-at-a-time from your iPhone’s or iPod touch’s library, and the quicker you guess the songs, the more points you get. The good news is that Music iQ is a multiple choice quiz game, so you are given five options to choose from to help jog your memory.

The music library on my iPhone is small; I keep most of my music solely on my iPod so I don’t use up all my iPhone’s memory.  If you do the same, you might find that Music iQ might be better used with your iPod touch than your iPhone.  The larger your music library is, the more challenging it will be to play Music iQ.

A nice side effect of Music iQ is that it keeps you in touch with all of your music, not just with the artists or albums that you listen to the most.  Along that same line, you can also ban individual songs, albums or artists from showing up when you play Music iQ, for example, an artist whose music you are not in the mood for or a friend’s homemade album whose song names you have listed in your iPhone as “Track 1,” “Track 2,” and so on.

Music iQ functions as described with no problems or quirks.  It is easy to play, and you can pick it up whether you have a few minutes or an hour at your disposal.  Whether you play to pass the time or to test your knowledge, Music iQ is a great app for music lovers.

• price: $0.99
• rating: 8/10
• app_name: Music iQ

written by Duy Phong \\ tags: App, Apple, Download, Game, Iphone, ITunes, OS

Bomberman Touch 2- Volcano Party was originally launched in the US in 1987 and since then has come out in 60 versions for nearly every game platform. Hudson Soft, the developer, says that it has sold more than 10 million copies.

Bomberman Touch 2-Volcano Party for the iPhone and iPod touch is nearly identical to the earlier versions and the object is the same as it ever was:  Strategically place bombs to blow up boulders and grab power ups or other goodies.

This is the second Bomberman Hudson Soft has released into the App Store. The first, Bomberman Touch-The Legend of Mystic Bomb, has been fairly well received although many shoppers have said they were disappointed the game’s quality did not justify the $7.99 asking price (the main issues were the amount of playing time and the weak controls). On a personal level, I thought the controls were fine.

Hudson Soft must have been paying attention, however, because Bomberman Touch 2- Volcano Party is $2.99, yet, has all the features of Bomberman Touch-The Legend of Mystic Bomb. Some of the same complaints about controls are still there as well, unfortunately. I thought the finger-swipe controls worked fine, although I much prefer a virtual keypad.

What makes the two games especially different is the latest iteration features multiplayer controls either against the CPU or against another player via Bluetooth.

Bomberman Touch 2- Volcano Party  features a new Battle Mode for up to four players (including two CPU players), and a Challenge Mode that includes two-player action. In Challenge Mode, the user and other characters cooperate to avoid oozing molten lava and make their way to a labyrinth to defeat the boss waiting inside.

Bomberman Touch 2: Volcano Party will run on iPhone and iPod Touch (second-generation or later) installed with the new OS 3.0.

Bomberman Touch 2-Volcano Party is just okay, in my book. The problem is that I’ve been spoiled by playing the game on other platforms. I agree that it’s hard to move around because your finger blocks your view. The playing field — although graphically well rendered  — is too small to be practical. It’s hard to see what you’re up against, in my opinion. Not every game, even a classic, transfers well to the iPhone’s small screen and this is one that doesn’t make the cut for all but the most ardent fans. The $2.99 price is not bad, though.

• app_name: Bomberman Touch 2- Volcano Party
• price: $2.99
• rating: 7/10

written by Duy Phong \\ tags: App, Apple, Bluetooth, Game, Iphone, ITunes, OS