Category: iPhone

The 20 Best iPhone Games of 2011

20. Backstab

Backstab ($6.99) is an adventure game that plays much like Assassin’s Creed except set in the Pirates of the Caribbean. You control Henry Blake, a British military officer who gets caught on the wrong side of a frame up. His life ruined, Henry sets out for some bloody justice. Along the way you’ll run your sword through quiet a few chests and leap across many rooftops. The game also throws quiet a few bizarre twists at you, including fights with zombies, performing tasks for the favors of large-breasted women, and curing diseases. It’s an epic game with professional voice acting and 3D world environments.

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19. Final Fantasy III

Final Fantasy III ($15.99) is the updated 2006 Nintendo DS version of the RPG classic ported beautifully to the iPhone. Control a 4-member party as they, what else, attempt to save the world from a great evil. FFIII’s gameplay is unique in that you can switch the class of any character during the game (once the switch feature is unlocked). There are over 20 classes to choose from, starting at the typical warrior and mage and including more rare D&D classes like bards and sages. This is an RPG by the masters of RPG game design. Be warned though, Final Fantasy III is an immensely challenging game.

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18. Icebreaker Hockey

Icebreaker Hockey ($0.99) is a game dedicated to the breakaway in hockey, meaning you control a player on perpetual offense trying to put the puck in goal and achieve style points by scoring from within certain zones. You can even score points for the occasional showboating. How are your air guitar skills? The game is fast-paced sports fun and filled with achievements that add replay value. If you liked Homerun Battle 3D, you’ll like this one as well. The simplistic control scheme is perfect for casual gameplay.

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17. First Touch Soccer

First Touch Soccer ($1.99) is not only the best-looking soccer game on the iPhone, it’s also the best realism-based soccer iPhone game period. The game allows you to select from over 250 club teams and play in 30 competitions and 7 different game modes. A Dream Team mode allows you to earn cash from victories and assemble a dream team of players from the present and the past. The game’s excellent AI keeps thing challenging over time. The replay system lets you rewatch your best moves and even upload them to YouTube.

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16. Zombie Gunship

Zombie Gunship

Zombie Gunship ($0.99) puts you in the gunner’s chair of an AC-130 military plane as it attempts to prevent waves of zombies from reaching a bunker. If one zombie makes it, the bunker door automatically closes, and it’s game over. You view the scenery below via night vision goggles that supply the black-and-white visuals and which add an element of challenge. You can upgrade your weapons over time to improve your zombie blasting abilities, just don’t take out too many civilians as well, or you’ll be forced to abort your mission.

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15. Legendary Wars

Legendary Wars ($0.99) sets two castles against each other. The object is to build and send forth troops from your castle in an attempt to destroy the other castle while also protecting yours. Castle defense is a popular genre in the App Store, and Legendary Wars distinguishes itself with a three-lane battlefield system that requires a level of micromanagement that keeps things challenging. Things get even more complex when the variety of troops available increases. The game’s sense of humor never lets things get too serious though.

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14. NBA Jam

NBA Jam ($0.99) is the classic arcade sports title that works surprisingly well on the iPhone. Its over-the-top actions don’t require the precise control of a physical joystick, and its less-than-serious tone fits perfect with the iPhone’s casual-gaming strengths. Each team features several NBA players, so you can substitute Joakim Noah for Carlos Boozer to start alongside Derrick Rose, if you so choose. A campaign mode allows you to unlock players from the past and introduce new style uniforms and basketballs to the game.

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13. Death Rally

Death Rally ($0.99) is a top-down racer with heavy elements of combat. As you race, you shoot at fellow racers with a machine gun and a second weapon of your choice. Prize money is earned for each race depending on how high in the rankings you finish and by how many cars you destroy and other factors. The cash can be used to upgrade the various attributes of your car. Along the way, you’ll also unlock new cars and weapons. The game features sharp graphics that take advantage of the Retina Display. The developer promises to add online multiplayer soon.

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12. Tiny Tower

Tiny Tower (free) lets you build a skyscraper floor by floor and direct the lives of the people who live in it. The charm of the game comes with the tenants who occupy the various floors. Each has a distinct personality that you must try to match with a dream job at a business in the building. There are dozens of businesses you can create for your tenants, including laundromats, soda fountains, arcades, sushi restaurants, etc. It’s a freemium title, so the developers try to encourage you to spend real money to speed up otherwise slow tasks like building new floors, but you don’t have to spend money to have fun. Like other popular freemium titles, this is a game to be enjoyed over time as you watch the fruits of your labor grow.

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11. Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer

Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer ($4.99, universal) is a fantasy-based card game that, in turn, is based on a real-life card game of the same name. The basics work like this: players start with the same 10 cards, and as the game progresses, resources are strategically spent on new cards. Cards are used to battle against creatures, and with victory comes victory points. Whoever has the most victory points at the end of the game wins. Because the game has existed as a real card game for a while, there is a lot of help available online on how to play.

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10. 9mm

9mm ($6.99) is a violent third-person shooter game. It has a rare age-restriction of 17+ in the App Store for sexual content, violence, and drugs and alcohol—all the good things in life! You play Jon Kannon, a detective gone bad who is battling local gangs. It’s not a complete open-world game like Grand Theft Auto, rather you are guided through the game via missions. 9mm features several hours of gameplay in all, including several difficulty levels, which add replay value. With nice cut scenes, plenty of guns, and even an online multiplayer mode (take on up to 12 strangers in an all-out gang ware), 9mm is an excellent adults-only crime game.

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9. Angry Birds Rio

Angry Birds Rio ($0.99) is a sequel to what has become not just a game but a cultural phenomenon. Rio contains 135 levels split into 4 episodes. The classic gameplay is preserved here— you’re still launching birds to knockdown structures, except this time you’re trying to break fellow birds out of cages instead of destroying evil pigs within the structures. There is a tie-in with the movie Rio where once you defeat the initial set of stages, you unlock two macaws who were characters in the movie. As you progress to new episodes, the games throws new twists at you like interfering monkeys and even boss battles. There is also a ton of hidden content to find and/or unlock, which gives the game replay value. With Rio, the Angry Birds franchise continues its roll.

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8. Reckless Getaway

Reckless Getaway

Reckless Getaway ($2.99, universal) is a fun, fast-paced driving game with loose physics. The object of the game is to evade police pursuit all the way through 16 levels. There is no brake or gas pedal, so your only task is to steer the car through the various obstacles. Besides dodging and outrunning the police cars, your other goal is to earn points by collecting coins, performing jumps scattered about the courses, and completing other various tasks. As you gain points, you fill up 4 stars that measure your performance for each level. While surviving the police pursuit is the somewhat easy part of the game, it’s the earning of the 4 stars that gives the game a lot of replay value.

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7. World of Goo

World of Goo ($4.99) is a quirky physics puzzler that has been a hit across many different platforms. The object is to stretch pieces of goo and build elastic structures so that the goo can travel along it and into a pipe. Other obstacles like balloons and windmills need to be factored in order to solve each level. Experimenting with the gooey physics and seeing what the limitations of the pieces are is part of the fun and vital to the problem solving. The game achieves that perfect balance of not-too-hard, not-to-easy puzzle difficulty that makes it assessable to everyone.

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6. The King of Fighters-i 002

The King of Fighters

The King of Fighters-i 002 ($4.99) is a popular arcade fighting game in the same vein as Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. Choose from 14 playable characters (6 more will be available in an update coming in October) to fight with. The game features 4 single-player modes of play, including a traditional arcade mode with 3 vs 3 team battles (this is the most popular mode), a regular 1 vs 1 fighting mode, endless mode, and a training mode. Special attack moves are simplified for the touchscreen, making the game a frustration-free experience. Currently, King of Fighters really is the king of iOS fighting games.

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5. Cut the Rope: Experiments

Cut the Rope: Experiments ($0.99) is a sequel to the now-classic iPhone puzzle game. If you’re unfamiliar with one of the best iPhone games ever, the basic premise is to manipulate a piece of candy across the screen so that it falls (or flies) into the adorable Om Nom’s mouth. You accomplish this by, yes, cutting ropes (as the title suggests) but also by utilizing other methods like whoopee cushions and suction cups. Experiments features 75 new levels to play through. While the basics remain the same, there are a few new gadgets and game twists to entertain even veteran players.

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4. Superbrothers: Sword & Sworcery EP

Superbrothers: Sword & Sorcery EP ($4.99) is a game like none other you’ve played before. The game’s storyline is that you are a warrior seeking to find the Megatome in order to destroy an evil force called the Gogolithic. The controls are essentially of the point-and-click adventure variety, but from that framework, the game frequently departs from the familiar with never-seen-before gaming twists, a few that border on the ridiculous. It’s amazing how the developers were able to wring such beautiful graphics out of what is essentially a clichéd use of 8-bit blocky pixels. And the haunting soundtrack by Jim Guthrie lifts the game to a new level. Overall, it’s a unique gaming experience.

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3. Dead Space

Dead Space ($6.99) is a horror-tinged first person shooter filled with lots of sci-fi action and a complete story arc that will leave you satisfied once you’ve made the journey. The setting is a space station invaded by ugly aliens called Necromorphs. Besides the usual big-frigging-gun appeal, the game features unique fighting skills like a cool kinesis talent and zero-gravity combat. Professional voice talent and an excellent soundtrack are the icing on the cake. Combined with the game’s Retina Display graphics, this is one of the best produced games in the App Store.

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2. Order & Chaos Online

Order & Chaos Online ($6.99) is MMORPG in the same vein as World of Warcraft. Or, to put it less nicely, it is essentially a ripoff of WoW, which is a good thing. A very good thing. The control scheme is specifically designed for the iPhone and iPad. Order & Chaos gets all the things that WoW gets right, albeit on a smaller scale. The addictive combination of quests, leveling, and chatting up strangers will soon have you wasting away your free time. I was completely surprised how relatively “bug free” the game was seeing as how many players are running around in this virtual world. Highly recommended if you’re looking for a good online RPG for iOS.

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1. Anomaly: Warzone Earth

Anomaly: Warzone Earth HD ($3.99) puts you in control of a fleet of vehicles as they travel through a war-torn landscape protected by alien war technology. Warzone Earth is a reverse tower defense game where instead of strategically building towers to destroy waves of creeps, you direct the creeps to destroy the towers. Take out towers by flanking them and taking advantage of limited aiming radius or utilize special power-ups to heal your troops. Warzone is one of those rare games that gets every element right, from the controls to graphics to game strategy.

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Here’s a Cool iPhone Camera Concept. So Why Not an iCamera?

Apple already sells the world’s most popular camera in the form of the iPhone 4 (based on the number of images posted to Flickr). But what if you wanted something a bit more traditional, with a wider lens, dedicated shutter button, etc, yet still be able to take advantage of the iPhone’s photography apps? Black Design came up with this sweet concept of a camera that is powered by an iPhone.

I’ve always thought Apple selling a camera would be a natural fit for the company—even more so now that they seem dedicated to improving the iPhone’s camera software and hardware. Make no mistake, the iPhone 4 has an awesome camera. But why not put all that newfound knowledge into a dedicated product?

It’s clear that Apple is making iOS flexible enough to run on different types of hardware.
What is the AppleTV if not a similar concept? It runs iOS and even uses much as the same internal hardware as the iPhone and iPad.

Apple’s stated mission for new products is that they have to be class defining and offer something no one currently does. It’s the huge number of camera and image-editing apps available for the iPhone that would allow Apple to offer a best-in-class camera experience—developers wouldn’t have to do much to their apps for an iOS-based iCamera, if at all. Just think what apps they’d come up with if given SDK access to the equivalent of a Canon EOS Mark II’s hardware.

Check out the gallery below for all of Black Design’s concept images.

Apple Approves Trial Production of Next-Gen A6 Processor

Taiwan Economic News is reporting today that Apple and Taiwanese chip manufacturer TSMC have begun a trial production run of Apple’s next-gen A6 processor. The new processor is scheduled for testing during the first quarter of 2012 and could be unveiled as early as the second quarter of 2012 for use in future Apple devices like the iPhone 6.

According to the report, Apple’s A6 new processor will use several cutting-edge manufacturing technologies, including TSMC’s new 28-nanometer process (Apple’s current-gen A5 chip is built using a 45 nm process). The manufacturing of the A6 will also utilize a new methodology known as silicon interposer, which removes the need for active transistors, allowing the A6 to use less power and produce less heat. The new chip will also be much cheaper to produce thanks to a CuBOL (bump on trace) production technology that requires the use of less substrate material for each chip, lowering costs.

With the iPhone 5 and iPad 3 rumored to be released sometime this fall, it’s likely the A6 chip will not see action in the real world until the release of the following generation of those devices.

Apple’s current A5 chip powers the iPad 2, but rumors of overheating problems for the chip inside Apple’s upcoming iPhone 5 could mean the A5 will be shelved in favor of a dual-core version of Apple’s A4 chip. A single-core version of the A4 powers the current iPhone 4.

Taiwan Economic News notes that Apple’s A6 chip will bring much-needed new business to TSMC, who failed to win business from the iPhone maker in the past due to full bookings of its production lines by companies like NVIDIA and Qualcomm. But the recent economic downturn has left the company scrambling for business.

Soccer Superstars 2011 iPhone Game Now Available for Free

Soccer Superstars 2011 iPhone Game

Developer Gamevil has released a free full version of their Soccer Superstars 2011 game into the App Store. It’s an excellent soccer game similar in style to their beloved Baseball Superstars games.

Soccer Superstars 2011 is a full-featured soccer game with 6 modes of play, including Exhibition, My League, Season, Cup, Dramatic, and Match Mode. There is extensive gameplay tweaking, including the ability to create teams and players and upgrade player skills over time. There’s also a fun cartoon element with superplayers and superskills.

Like many app developers these days, Gamevil is introducing the freemium business model to many of their games, as they’ve done here with Soccer Superstars. The company sells “G-Points” via in-app purchases that can help upgrade your teams and players. There are also alternative ways to earn G-points without purchasing them via the App Store. Gamevil has introduced similar models in their free but full versions of Zenonia 3 and Baseball Superstars 2011. Again, you don’t need to buy the points to experience the full game.

Gamevil’s motivation for offering free full versions of their games most likely derives from a recent study that showed freemium iPhone games are making more money than paid games in the App Store.

Despite a few minor bugs in the game’s tutorial, this is a great soccer game, especially for the price of zero.

Put Your Friend’s Head in a Jar With the New Futurama iPhone App

Futurama Head in a Jar Generator

Why suffer the uncertainty of death when you can live forever by preserving your head in a jar? The Futurama Head in a Jar app (free) offers just that: immortality.

The app lets you design heads to resemble yourself or friends by letting you choose various eyes, noses, hair styles, skin color, etc. Then you can place your friend’s name on the jar’s nameplate just in case your message is unclear. Their head, in a jar, forever.

My favorite feature is that you can quickly assign your head-in-a-jar to any iPhone contact using the app. The next time your friend calls, their head-in-a-jar will appear. You can also save them to the iPhone’s Photos library or share on Facebook and Twitter via the app.

And just in case you’re wondering, the preserving liquid inside the jar is drinkable and some even enjoy the taste.

Dubious iPhone 4GS Images Posted on Chinese Social Network

UPDATED: Article updated to reflect there are several different sources of photos. More photos added to article.

Several users on the Chinese social network Weibo have posted images of what they claim to be iPhone 4S prototypes. The images, however, offer scant evidence to back up his claims other than the curious software the iPhone is running.

iPhone 4GS prototype

The photos show a device that is identical to the current iPhone 4 in every way except one, it appears to be running Apple’s special diagnostic software used in factories to quality test iPhone hardware. When run, the software confirms that the iPhone’s various features are working properly (bluetooth, Wifi, the accelerometer, etc). The diagnostic software has been found on previous iPhones before and is not limited to use on prototype devices. The video below shows similar diagnostic software running on a first-gen iPhone:
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WSJ: Apple to Introduce Wireless Charging for iPhone 6?

Powermat Wireless iPhone Charger

The Wall Street Journal has updated yesterday’s report on the impending iPhone 5 to add additional info on what Apple is working on for the iPhone 6. While WSJ’s sources expect the iPhone 5 to be a minor update similar in form to the iPhone 4, Apple has much bigger plans for the iPhone 6, including a major refresh that could include wireless charging:

Investors expect a bigger boost to Apple’s phone business next year. People briefed on Apple’s plans said the company is planning a major iPhone revamp then, with one person saying the company has been experimenting with features such as a new way of charging the phone.

Wireless charging is not a new technology. The Palm Pre, released in 2009, had the feature built in and could charge wirelessly via an electromagnetic induction charging dock, the Touchstone Charger. Even current iPhone’s can be charged wirelessly via third-party hardware like the Powermat.

Cutting the cord could be a new theme for Apple. Its upcoming iOS 5 software update will allow iPhones to be updated wirelessly over WiFi—in other words, software updates and backups can be done without plugging them into computers. iPhones will still require a wall plug and USB cord to charge. Wireless charging could be the next step. Knowing Apple CEO Steve Job’s love for simplicity, the idea of not having to mess around with a cord to charge your iPhone seems like a likely upcoming feature.

iPhone Will Be As Fast As Xbox 360 in 18 Months, Chipmaker ARM Says

iPhone chipmaker ARM says that its latest Mali GPU chip, due out in 18 months, will allow mobile devices to equal the power of current-gen gaming consoles like the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. But its long-term plans involve increased interaction between the CPU and GPU for future performance gains.

ARM told the Inquirer it has laid out its roadmap for the next 5 years and realized it can’t rely on Moore’s Law alone to meet the low-power/high-performance demands of next-gen mobile devices. Only by combining the power of the CPU with a GPU can future mobile devices deliver performance gains in gaming and other popular mobile tasks like computational photography. The iPhone 4 recently became the most-used camera on Flickr.

Battery power is also a big concern for any next-gen mobile chip. ARM told the Inquirer:

Battery technology doesn’t have that [Moore’s Law] sort of growth” and that shrinking the process node does not necessarily solve the power problem. [A] combination of technologies is needed, such as very aggressive power management and multiple GPUs that can power up as required.

There may be one hitch in getting ARM’s chips into a future iPhone: Samsung. ARM said that, in terms of going from prototype chip to real-word mass manufacturing, nobody does it faster than Samsung. But Apple and Samsung are currently entangled in a legal battle over mobile phone patents. Apple’s latest A5 chip, found in the iPad 2, is manufactured by Samsung. The legal dispute could complicate their relationship in the future, although some analysts feel that Samsung could be willing to compartmentalize the dispute to maintain its profitable manufacturing business with Apple, which brings in billions in revenue every year. ARM’s latest chip, the Mali-400MP, powers Samsung’s newest flagship phone, the Samsung Galaxy S II.

In terms of the near future, ARM’s latest chip design, the Mali-T604, is being tested in prototype devices and set to appear on the market in 2012. ARM’s chips also power the Apple TV and other media devices. For that growing market, the chipmaker told website Techeye that its Mali chips will appear in a “large section of the digital TV market” toward the end of the year. The rumored Apple HDTV, perhaps?

iPhone 5 Enters Final Testing Stage

The rumored iPhone 5 with slightly larger, edge-to-edge screen.

Website 9to5Mac is citing a “previously accurate Apple source” in stating that the iPhone 5 has entered the final testing stage before it’s approved for mass production and release in the fall of this year. In April 2011, Reuters cited sources in claiming the next iPhone would go into production in July, then go on sale in September. Reuters also claimed the iPhone 5 would come with a faster processor, likely Apple’s A5 chip that is in the iPad 2, which 9to5Mac confirms.

9to5Mac also discovered hidden references for two new models of iPhone in the recently released iOS 5 SDK. The two new models were labeled “N94” and “N93.” Apple previously labeled the original iPhone 4 “N90” and the Verizon CDMA version “N92.” The use of two models instead of one is a bit of mystery in itself, as Apple had been rumored to be combining the separate GSM (AT&T) and CDMA (Verizon) iPhones into one using a new universal chipset. Could the second model be the smaller, cheaper iPhone that the Wall Street Journal reported back in February?

Digging around some more inside the SDK, 9to5Mac also discovered that the next iPhone will keep the same 5-megapixel camera sensor as the current iPhone. Previous rumors had the iPhone 5 receiving an upgraded 8 megapixel camera.

Steve Jobs to Introduce Next Gen iPhone Software and iCloud Service at WWDC


Apple today announced they will be revealing iOS 5, the next generation of software for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch, along with iCloud, Apple’s upcoming cloud service, The new software will be announced on Monday, June 6, at 10:00 am PT during the keynote of its Worldwide Developers Conference. CEO Steve Jobs will deliver the keynote and will be joined onstage by a team of Apple executives. Apple will also introduce Lion, the next version of its OSX software for Macs.

Apple’s press release serves as the first official confirmation of iCloud, a service that is rumored to let users stream their iTunes music library from a server without having to upload each song. Instead, Apple will scan user’s iTunes library to confirm ownership of music, then allow for high-quality streaming of that music. The lack of the need to upload gigabytes of music to online “lockers” is what will differentiate iCloud from similar announced services, Amazon’s Cloud Player and Google’s Music Beta.

One rumored feature of Apple’s iOS 5 is a new deeply integrated voice command interface that stems from Apple’s acquisition last year of Siri, a voice-commanded personal assistant service (and awesome iPhone app). The new interface could allow users to launch and close apps and input text inside of apps without the need for use of the touchscreen.

Other rumored features for iOS 5 include a redesigned notifications system and widgets, according to sources speaking to Techcrunch.

The announcement of iOS 5 at this time of year seems to confirm that the next iPhone will arrive in the fall. Apple has previously announced the next-generation of iPhone software several months before the release of new iPhone hardware in order to give developers time to plan for and get acquainted with the new OS. For example, iOS4 was announced in April 2010, with the iPhone 4 arriving a few months later on June 24, 2010.