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Now, I keep trying to put this review off until after Need For Speed is released, but as much as this game keeps getting pushed back, it seems I’ve got a better chance of seeing a black man become president than I do of getting to speed past NFS cops on my iPhone anytime soon. And now that I’ve made that comment, I want you set your facial expressions to ‘awesome’, and get ready for this super fast, super awesome, super ultimate, iPhone 3D racing review. Join me, long time iPhone modder/blogger, as I weave in and out of traffic and human skulls on my quest to find the ultimate 3D racer. After all, everyone has to have at least one good racer on their iPhone, right?
Now I must make a few things clear before we get started. I decided on the four games chosen for this review based on popularity at the App Store, realistic 3D style and graphics, multiple racing modes, and then probably just personal preference. I am aware that there are more racing games for the iPhone, and feel free to chime in on the comments section about your personal favorites, but for all intents and purposes of this article, these are the games I chose.
We have a quick game on our hands. So quick that you can launch the game and be racing within 9 seconds (I timed it!) It seems like Polarbit had the best intentions of this game, but a lot of aspects seemed to fall short. Let me tell you the things I like about it before I tell you the things I don’t.
I like that it has a multiplayer mode, but it seems like I’m never close enough to someone else with an iPhone and this game, wanting to play multiplayer, to try it out. I also like that it lets you save player profiles. The quickness is also very important to me. I can’t stand when, say, your waiting at the dentist office to be called. You wanna kill some time with a little iPhone gaming. You launch a game, and after 3 splash screens, a demo video, and a handful of settings, you might get to race around the first corner before you hear your name called out. This is definately not the case here, as the quick play mode picks your car and track, and starts almost instantly.
Now for the things I didn’t quite enjoy. The auto accelerator (so you don’t have to do anything to make the car go) is a neat idea, and really gives the game an arcade feel, and adds to the overall “pick-up-and-play-ability” of this game, but I’m just not a fan. I like that its an option, as I’m definitely more of a speed up, slow down type of person, especially around corners. And finally, the steering seemed a bit too sensitive, which made for a very jerky driving experience when mixed in with the auto accelerator. It seemed as though a small tilt in either direction resulted in immediate detours off the track. The graphics, I can’t say yay or nay about. Of course they’re stunning for a cell phone game, but didn’t seem as sharp as the other racers in the review. Raging Thunder [iTunes Link] is overall a descent game, and could be a great game with some fine tuning. If you can get a handle on the racing controls, it is definitely worth your $2.99.
ShowDown Rank - 4th
Gameplay: 2
Visuals: 2
User interface: 3
Price: $2.99
The first thing you’ll notice is that it loads in seconds. No cool 3D rendered videos, no clicking through several developer splash screens, just straight to the game and the main menu. The user interface in FastLane [iTunes Link] is extremely simple and easy to use.
Menu hopping has never been such a breeze as you switch from either easy or hard, pick what type of race you’d like to run, and then pick your car. You can choose from arcade, challenge, and time trial races. The absence of multiplayer and career modes are noticeable, but not devestating, as you’ll be plenty busy racing and completing challenges, trying to unlock more beautiful tracks and cars. Which brings us to the next element of the game, the graphics. Everything from the landscapes, to the shine of the cars you catch during replays, look great, and will easily impress your friends who are now embarrased of their 2D versions of Bejewled on their Blackberrys.
Finally, and most importantly, the gameplay. You can make a game look good, but if playing it makes you want to throw your iPhone in the Potomac, theres probably something wrong. Controls in FastLane, are handled by a gas pedal by your right thumb, and a brake by your left (landscape style), and of course the accelerometer deals with the twist in turns. This method actually works very well, as the pedals are large enough where I never miss them, and the accelerometer is sensitive enough where small tilts in either direction are enough to turn your vehicle. With no big name licenses for the cars and the absence of a full career mode, don’t expect this to rival Forza. But for those of you looking for an easy to use 3D racer that you can pick up and play anywhere, this might just be your cup of tea.
ShowDown Rank - 3rd
Gameplay: 3
Visuals: 3
User interface: 4
Price: $3.99
If you’ve played Asphalt 4: Elite Racing, then you’ve play Ferrari GT Evolution [iTunes Link], well sort of. Since both are made by Gameloft, both are very much alike. Ferrari GT Evolution is kind of like a Ferrari edition of Asphalt 4, and includes a lot of features and fixes that gameloft missed with Elite Racing.
You’ll notice a gorgeous 3D rendered video again at startup. You’ll see similar load times and then a very similar main menu. You still have career, mulitplayer, and quick race options. You also have an ‘options’ option which contains way more options than it’s twin brother Asphalt. Auto accelerator can be turned off and steering sensitivity can be adjusted which makes for a much more realistic and pleasant driving experience. You are limited to Ferrari brand only cars, but there is a whopping 32 of them and they are all gorgeous. I haven’t yet seen the ability to upgrade car parts, or customize any further than the color, but I may be missing something.
For me, it’s mostly about the game play anyway, that kinda stuff gets tedious after a while. Game play is great! With the welcome edition of sensitivity control and auto accelerator off, the steering wheel by the left thumb and gas and brake by the right thumb work surprisingly well. Mix that in with a color coded path your car should follow that is green when your on track and turns red when you’ve veered to far away from it make for a very realistic racing experience. The graphics are just as gorgeous as our #1 pick and at times might look even better. The menu system seems to have been tightened up since Asphalt, as things do seem quicker and smoother, but it may be because there are not as many features in this game.
With longer load times, and tons of options to tweak, if you are looking for a quick pick up game, this may not be the one for you. But if you are going for ultimate mobile racing experience, this one, also, will not dissapoint. At $5.99, you may have a hard time deciding which Gameloft game to go with, and even though Asphalt is taking home the trophy, I might recommend you try this one if your torn, it just seems a little more refined.
ShowDown Rank - 2nd
Gameplay: 4
Visuals: 4
User interface: 4
Price: $5.99
If girls were impressed by how sweet games looked on your iPhone, you’d probably want to show them Asphalt 4: Elite Racing [iTunes Link]. This thing screams adrenaline, as launching the application opens a gorgeously rendered 3D video of a Buggatti Veyron, a Ferrari Enzo, and several other cars racing through New York, and you realize this ain’t no ordinary racing game (bad grammar intended for effect).
After a bit of loading time (that’s right, loading time), a menu fit for a console game opens up. You can scroll through an insane amount of high end, brand name cars (licensed!) including Ferrari, Buggatti, Nissan, BMW, etc, even motorcycles! Next, check out which city you want to race in, New York, Paris, L.A., the world is your playground. Tweak your car if you’ve earned some money racing, by switching up wheels, changing paint jobs, upgrading engine parts, almost everything on the car is customizable. Play in or host a mulitplayer game, or start a career on the racing circuit, and see if you can earn enough money to buy an Aston Martin or a Ferrari Enzo.
Sounds like a lot to take in, hopefully its got a good, easy to use interface. Well, the menus are great looking but at times feel sluggish and disorganized, definately needs a good lesson from the FastLane folks. The in-game graphics look great, and animations are nice and smooth (loading times weren’t for nothin’). You have 3 choices when it comes to gameplay. You can use the accelerometer to tilt left and right, you can use a small steering wheel, operated by your thumb, or you can touch left or right of the car when you want it to turn. The accelerometer choice would be nice, but I found myself tilting it so far over it’d go into portrait mode out of landscape mode, and that was rather frustrating. I’ll be honest, I didn’t give the touch steering method much of a chance, it just felt wrong. The steering wheel was cool, but was very sensitive, and I could not find an option to tweak that.
Overall, I wasn’t fond of their controls, but like all racing games, it takes a while to get used to, and before long I was constantly coming in top 3. This game is definitely the mammoth of the 4 and almost the winner by default. It just offers too much content, even at $5.99, it’s a steal. If you are looking for the ultimate racer, I’d have to say this will not disappoint.
ShowDown Rank - 1st
Gameplay: 5
Visuals: 5
User iface: 4
Price: $5.99
That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Hope I didn’t blow your minds too much with that crazy review. Let me know about your ifs, ands, and buts in the comments.
Netflix 360
Well sort of. Between searching for new wallpapers on a daily basis, the alarm clock, Cydia, App Store, remotely controlling my computer, music, movies, and not to mention writing this article, you’d think I’d eventually run out of new uses for my iPhone, right? Wrong! With Flash and Sling mobile on the horizon for the #1 best selling phone of 2008, the iPhone platform is very hot right now and the list of cool and useful apps is hard to keep up with. Well, maybe I can help. At least I know I can help all of you Netflix users out there, even more so, you Xbox 360 users of that crowd.
Netflix is the largest online movie rental site, and you can rent either DVDs that are mailed out to you or stream them live on your PC, Xbox 360, or other Netflix compatible box. The library of titles you can stream instantly is smaller than that of DVDs you can have mailed to you but still very much worth the $8.95 monthly fee. You can only watch 1 at a time, but you can have up to 6 titles queued up and ready to go on your machine. Watch each one as long as you want, with no late fees, you just can not move on to the next movie until you have returned the previous.
Now, I told you that story, to tell you this one. I recently decided to give Netflix a try and knew I had seen iPhone applications in the App Store for the online rental service. There are actually a few of them that fit the description.
I knew I needed an app that would search movies available for my ‘instant queue’ or instant streaming, because for the most part I want to watch the movie right away. As I mentioned before, there are only a certain amount of movies available for instant streaming. Not all Netflix apps did that or made it easy to do. Instant Queue Add for Netflix [iTunes Link] did only that, but still didn’t do it that well. This app only deals with movies available for instant streaming, but the interface is horrible. I could either choose from a list of popular choices, or do a search by name for a movie I wanted to watch. For the longest time I was thinking Netflix’s library for instant streaming movies was ridiculously small, until I stumbled across a “see more like this” button, that unearthed a lot of movies that couldn’t be viewed from the original ‘popular’ list.
Other options are Queuetastic [iTunes Link] by Timothy Schmitz and iPhlix [iTunes Link] by Brent Jensen. Both provide smoother interfaces with instant streaming video search options. iPhlix is a little more expensive at $2.99, rather than $0.99 like the others I tried out, but still worth it to me as I search for movies to rent on my iPhone at a red light on my way home from work. I choose 6 movies of 6 different genres and they are on my Xbox 360 when I get home. Out of those 6, my girlfriend looks at front and back case covers, reads synopsis and reviews, and decides on a movie, that is immediately available to watch on our big screen with complete playback controls. Playback is seamless a majority of the time. I did though, experience internet lag at one point, and a screen popped up that said “Your internet has slowed down, adjusting playback quality so you will not experience any more interruptions.” Took 10 seconds, and I didn’t encounter it again.
I have yet to try out Apple’s rental service, or any other for that matter, but after watching 8 movies in 3 days, the Netflix service has already paid for itself. It does play in full screen across my 65″ DLP, and the quality is quite good (for non HD). If you are a movie buff with an iPhone and the ability to stream video to a TV or computer in your house, the free trial from Netflix and one of the above mentioned iPhone apps will not disappoint. We plan on cancelling our 20$ cable movie package (were planning on anyways to save money), and hopefully this can take the place of those annoying trips to the video store at 11 o’clock at night.
I’m not an employee of nor was I paid by Netflix in any way. Always skeptical of the 1-3 wait periods for DVD delivery, I never thought twice about the service, but when my girlfriend told me about their instant streaming video, my ears perked up. Being able to browse and choose movies from virtually anywhere on my iPhone is also largely convenient, as it surely beats walking aimlessly around a BlockBuster. Even sitting on my couch in our movie room, it proved itself worthy. Additions and changes show up almost instantly, from my iPhone to my Queue screen on my Xbox 360.
It’s funny because tonight when asked by little Brianna, who is just 8 years old and in search of answers, “How does the movie you pick on your phone, end up on our TV?” I had no idea how to respond. It was such a simple question, yet I did not know what to say. How do I play music off my iPhone through the car speakers? How do I play creepy sounds in the basement from upstairs to scare your brother? How do I pay bills, order Chinese food, and race high performance sports cars, all from my phone?
The truth is, I just can, because I own an iPhone. Because Apple re-invented the mobile phone. I know that because I saw the flurry of touch screen phones hit the market, shortly after the iPhone was announced. I know that because the iPhone made the Stylus an unattractive and unnecessary accessory of the past. I know that because Verizon, Blackberry, Google, and Amazon have all announced plans for mobile platform application stores, very similar to the App Store. I know that because, even at a base price of $199.99, the iPhone took over the #1 best selling cell phone of 2008, beating out the Motorola Razor that carriers were practically giving away. I know all of this, and my best answer for her was, “My iPhone talks to my 360.” That’s the best way I could explain it.
With tons of apps being released daily, it really is hard to keep up with the good stuff. If you are like me, and are fairly picky about what ends up on your spring board, check in a few times a week, and I will let you in on those rare apps that might make life a little bit easier, and are worth more than the “Check out what my phone can do” titles, that loose their appeal after a few well timed demonstrations.
P.S: Sebastien was right, the “Oh shit!” “What?!” “I forgot to shave!” gag while whipping out the iPhone with virtual electric razor on it is classic.
Let’s see, in EA’s version of the all time best selling board game, there aren’t hundreds of pieces to clean up, in fact there’s none. There’s also no uncle Jerry pretending to pay for park place, but secretly only slipping in 200$. And forget about someone taking the car, you can be the car anytime you want. Uh yeah, monopoly for the iphone is way better.
For $7.99 you can now take the fun, family favorite with you, wherever you go. It’s the updated Here & Now, World Edition, so if you haven’t played one of the newer versions yet, this is the perfect way to try it.
After downloading, and launching, the app quickly loads to a beautiful, yet simple menu screen. This will stay the theme of the entire game, gorgeous graphics, simple controls. If you’re not hooking up to play with your buddies on wifi, or checking high scores, your gonna hit play game and decide whether to play against the computer, or up to 3 friends in play and pass style.
From here on out it’s smooth sailing. Obviously I’m not going to walk you through monopoly step by step, but this game is a twin in gameplay to it’s card board counter part.
The experience is so pleasant. You shake the iphone to roll the dice, it moves your piece for you, and always asks you if you want to buy the property you land on if it’s available. And if not, it automatically pays out your debts, making game times significantly slower than the board game. My only small complaint in an otherwise flawless execution would be that the roll dice/transaction/menu buttons at the bottom could be a tad bit larger so my chubby fingers don’t have any problems hitting them every time.
But nonetheless tremendous stability and speed coupled with great graphics and animations make this game a for sure keeper to any fans of the genre.
You can pick up and play for a while, leave, and come back and pick up right where you left off. It’s the perfect time killer.
It looks like Electronic Arts has done it again, and has made Monopoly Here & Now, World Edition a great addition to anyone’s exclusive springboard collection.
Many of us remember back to the days of Yore. When first person shooter games like Wolf 3D and Doom were taking the PC market by storm. These games completely changed the video game market and have been reproduced on nearly every gaming platform there is. It’s funny to think how Doom in particular was so revolutionary for its time, and continues to be that way to this day as it makes its way onto the iPhone via always groundbreaking Cydia. Now, groundbreaking usually means stability issues, which those who have read previous articles of mine know how much I despise, but I decided to give it a run.
After a quick splash screen, I’m thrust in the middle of a dark, alien crowded room. Simple, but different on screen controls, make for easy maneuvering. At first it seems as though the game has you in continuous forward motion, then you’ll notice if you tilt your phone towards you, it uses the iPhone’s accelerometer to stop or move backwards. After trying to laugh off an awkwardly dumb moment, I decided it was time to kick some monster butt. Negative. It took several minutes to locate my first monster. The motion sensing seems off, and that tends to make for a frustrating time (maybe it’s something you have to get used to). Combine that with an already boring and hard-to-distinguish-objects, 2D graphics, and it makes for an overall negative experience. Now ZodTTD did get a few things right. The game was actually extremely stable for an iPhone port, didn’t crash on me once. And the control system is one of the better ones I’ve seen, with large left and right arrows placed perfectly for your thumbs.
Maybe it would be better if there was a different way you could move forwards and backwards. Maybe the actual playing screen needs to be larger with smoother graphics. Maybe old school ports like this just aren’t my cup of tea. I’m sure many of our readers love this game. ZodTTD is definitely one of the most respected guys in the community, and I’m sure that Doom will continue to evolve. Is this game going to be deleted from my springboard due to low level of playability? Yes. Does that mean it’s doomed? No. I will continue to watch for future updates and hopefully some things will have been revamped.
Update: I always try and make sure to cover all the bases when posting opinions on software people work really hard on. Upon submitting this article, I stumbled across a ‘mouse sensitivity’ setting in the ‘Options’ category of my Doom menu, I know, who woulda thunk it. This did improve some of my movement issues, however be cautious when tweaking your settings, as this caused my once crash-free app to well, crash. Bottom line, it still did not change my opinion of the game, but as I stated before these old school ports really aren’t my bag.
After reviewing the 2 previous voice recognition iPhone apps by Excuse me Services rather harshly, I knew Google’s new voice recognition option in their mobile app was up against a wall of skepticism. But, of course, you can never underestimate Google, who have literally taken the software industry by storm in the last 8 years.
I’m going to make this review short and sweet, like my experience with the app. After of course downloading from the App Store, I was ready to give this thing a shot. Needless to say I was anxious to see if it was going to live up to all the hype.
You’re first greeted with a search screen, here you can type in any question, any address, any search query, and Google’s advanced search engine goes to work, bringing you the most accurate results. To search via voice, you just hold the phone up to your ear like you are talking on the phone, and say whatever question or search topic you would like to google. The software senses the phone is rotated in the ‘talk’ position, and beeps, to alert you it is ready to receive your voice instructions. Using your voice or typing, both prove to be quick and effortless. Voice recognition is on par with similar applications, and at times is a lot better.
And that’s about it. Google’s mobile app is easy to use whether you are talking or typing, and with only 1 screen, (a settings screen and a screen with links to google’s other softwares) proves to be the least tedious of the other search softwares that recognized user voices.
I would like to see the speakerphone voice recognition be more accurate, handset recognition is almost dead on. I would also like to see voice commands for other applications. But that may defeat the application’s ’simple’ purpose. Although maybe not living up to quite all of the hype, this application does prove to be the best in its class, and that Google is still cutting edge when it comes to software development.
Well, since I haven’t quite figured out how to make money being a gadget nerd, I’m forced to keep my day job. Unfortunately for me, that day job requires that I be up to date on all state-required licenses, and wouldn’t you know it, its time for renewal. So with a week or so before exam date, I’m given study material and some time off.
“I’m screwed,” I thought, staring at the 300 page study guide with intimidation. After about half an hour of highlighting the same sentence over and over, my trusty iPhone came to the rescue. To the App Store! I knew I had come across a flash card application on there that might be just what I needed to keep focused. Sure enough, gWhiz mobile’s gFlash+ [iTunes Link] showed up in my search and better yet, was available for free.
The application is about as simple as it gets. It comes with 3 sample topics, showing off the app’s ability to offer flash cards in standard Q&A form, True or False form, and even multiple choice. After browsing the small catalog of flash card topics, it was obvious I was going to have to make my own. This is also fairly simple, as long as you have some sort of google account (iGoogle, Gmail, documents, etc.) because the program depends upon google documents’ spreadsheet application. Here you put your question in column A, and your answer directly beside it in column B, and this will make up the front and back of your flash card.
After making all your flash cards, you’ll need to download them onto your iPhone. I know it seems like I’m being repetitive but this, too, is extremely simple. From the main menu you choose the ‘download your own data’ option, and after a quick google sign in (you’ll only have to do this once), you’re looking at all downloadable data in your google documents folder. Of course, you’ll select the spreadsheet you just devised, and it’ll take a second to download.
I myself made about 100 flash cards of vocabulary words and definitions. The first card shows up with the word, and after I answer, I touch the card to turn it over and reveal the correct answer. The program does keep track of your progress by allowing you to press a check mark or an x depending on if you got the questions right or not. It is optional for you to have your total correct answers display at the top of the screen.
Over all this program is extremely functional and easy to use, it definitely served its purpose. I can study anywhere, anytime I want. I can do a few vocab words, or the whole 100, it’s fantastic. As an iPhone application, though, it’s held to high standards. The GUI could be dressed up a bit, and if anyone from gWhiz is listening, how about a full screen view, with actual note card backgrounds. And as long as we’re throwing out ideas here, how about voice recognition ability that can tell if you answered correctly or not. Well, for now, let’s just work on making this software more reliable.
Anyone who has read my reviews in the past, knows how much I hate crashing, and this one tended to do it more than I wanted it to. But gFlash+ is nonetheless great at what it does, and it has helped me out tremendously, being able to take my studying with me wherever I go. A note should also be made that this software is also available for blackberry/treo phones, and while not as cool as the 3G, it enables my co workers to download my license exam review from the gWhiz website for their cell phones. Guess who the most popular guy at the office is?
P.S.
Another hi tech studying tip is recording yourself reading material you have to study/remember with a recording app on your iPhone. Now when you go to sleep tonight, pop in your head phones, and put the recording you made earlier on loop. I’m not promising you’ll wake up in the morning with a head full of knowledge, but at least you are increasing your exposure to the material. Thank you, thank you, hold your applause. ;op
Now when I get the urge to try a new app that I see on the App Store, or maybe hear about in Cydia, I always go in with the same 3 questions. Is it easy to use? Is it something that I’ll use? And is it stable? There are tons of other things I look at, but these are the 3 I focus on. So with that in mind lets take a look at Mcleaner, a new application available in Cydia, via the iSpazio’s repo.
Now typically this is one of those ones I’d sub consciously pass over. The description said something about blocking SMS messages and phone calls, and I’m thinking, when would I ever use this? But this time it was almost like a little bird was whispering in my ear, “Go ahead Cody, try Mcleaner out, maybe even review it on iphonedownloadblog.com.” He sounded French. Anyways I listened and decided to give it a try.
Wow. That’s not the word I’ll be using at the end of this article, but that’s what I first thought when I opened the App. This looked so well done, especially for a Cydia App. By default you start off in the ‘Working Mode’ profile, but you can create others. Maybe you have a ‘work mode’ and then a ‘church mode’. Then you can setup your whitelist and blacklist. The white list is a list of contact names or phone numbers that you would like allowed on this particular profile. And of course the black list is a list of names and numbers that you wouldn’t like to contact you. You may also schedule profiles to take affect at certain times, for example, ‘work mode’ can be scheduled 8-5 M-F, I though this was pretty cool.
Everything seems to be made so effortless for the user, as you are given several choices when asked to add a contact to a list, add from contacts, input number, add from recents, etc. You may also choose to block unknown and private numbers, perfect if you are constantly getting harassed by telemarketers and the like. The developer definitely gets an A+ in ease of use here. We can go ahead and throw in one for stability as well, I haven’t had any issues, and a quick test block on my girlfriend’s number proved successful.
So Cody, this thing sounds sweet, should I go ahead and download? Ah, ah, ah, this is why there are 3 questions. I have to say, Mcleaner is very well put together, but has a very small target audience. Unless you are wanting to avoid bill collectors, or that creepy guy at the office that always texts “Sup?”, I don’t see any other real use for this application. Now, I’m sure if your attending high stakes meetings on a daily basis, you might find this program very useful. But for the majority of us, well me at least, I’ll stick to the good old mute switch on the side of my iPhone. I generally hit it on my way into the office, and it has served me well. Especially since at the end of the 15 day trial, your asked to pay 11.99. One love.
UPDATE: The Cydia Store is now open! I invite you to read this post for more details.
If you didn’t read the title to this article in the deep voice of the movie previews guy, please go back and do so at this time, just to give you an idea of how huge this is. Now, if you’ve navigated to our blog and are reading this article, hopefully you have some idea of what Cydia and the App Store are. For those of you who don’t, I will provide a brief breakdown of each program before I list their stand out features.
Both programs offer a sizeable library of applications and games that can be downloaded directly onto the phone from virtually anywhere you can get a cell phone or wifi signal. Please no hate mail from Installer fans, as it’s obvious it has not garnered near as much support as Cydia since the iPhone was updated in firmware over the summer. But now to the main event, the Download Showdown. Who will take home the title as the Champion of iPhone applications? Let’s get it on.
You’ve seen the commercials, you’ve seen it in the world-reknowned iTunes software, heck you see the icon everytime you look at your iPhone, it’s the App Store. Riding the coat tails of success of Apple’s enormous online music store, is the online application store that has redefined software distribution for the mobile market. Never before has an online library of mobile software been so accessible, as it can be reached from any mac or pc, or from any iPhone or ipod touch with web connection.
Another reason it is so groundbreaking is the 70/30 deal it has made with iPhone platform developers. That means that Apple keeps 30% of the profit from the software sales, and gives the remaining 70% to the people that make them. On top of attracting big name software companies like EA and THQ, this 70/30 deal has made several independent companies like Tappulous and The Blimp Pilots (koi pond creators) extremely wealthy.
The App Store’s main advantages have got to be it’s stability and ease of use, two of the most important things you can find in any software. I can’t tell you the last time my App Store crashed or froze, and its interface is about as simple as you can get. You’ll also find that most applications fall in the $0.99 - $9.99 price range, keeping purchases from breaking your bank. For the froogle audience, there is also a large FREE section of applications and games that has yet to disappoint me.
Finally, the fact that Apple, is the company behind the App store has its ups and downs. For example, Apple pre screens all apps submitted to the App Store, minimizing malicious code and low quality software epedimics. This also prevents very good software from reaching the App Store due to opinions held by Apple (see R.I.P article). Downloading is also kept very quick and simple by Apple, as typing in your iTunes password, ok’s any download, free or not. You also don’t have to jailbreak or “hack” your iPhone to access the App Store, how charming. So bottom line here is that the App Store is easy to use, extremely reliable, has a huge library of free and non-free applications, and it’s not against AT&T’s TOS (terms of service) to access.
Now for the challenger. A product of James Freeman, or Saurik, Cydia has been around since the original jailbreaking days of Ziphone and iBrickr. Originally, Cydia stood in the shadow of the Installer application by the Dev Team, which did the exact same thing (offered 3rd party downloads). Now, thanks to its I-got-to-firmware-2.1-before-you-did attitude, Cydia is flourishing.
But these guys [devteam, Saurik, Spazio, etc.] really opened the eyes of the world to the possibilities of the iPhone, and let users unlock their iPhone’s potential with 3rd party applications, a touchy subject in the beginning of the life of the iPhone due to Apple’s lack of 3rd party support.
Enough history, how does it stack up today against the colussal App Store. Size? Nope. The size of Cydia’s library of software doesn’t hold a candle to Apple’s App Store. Price? Nope. While a majority of Cydia downloads are free, some are only trial versions that demand paypal payments to continue using them. So then why in the world would you even want Cydia? Exclusivity. Boom. Cydia is the only place to download applications like Winterboard and Cycorder, software that goes against Apple’s guidelines for App Store approval. I couldn’t have a see-through dock with a customized icon set without Cydia. I couldn’t have recorded a video of my dog doing cart wheels without Cycorder, and it’s only available through Cydia. Is VIP access to cool customizeables enough to make this underdog a Champ? Let’s review.
It seems on paper Apple’s App Store should win by a landslide. Thousands of more software titles, the technical and customer support of a Fortune 500 company, and its overall ease of use should give Apple the belt hands down. But you can’t forget about the little guy. If a firmware update prevented the downloading of Cydia or a similar program, how many users would be devastated? How many would avoid updating? If you’re like me, chances are you have App Store, Cydia, and Installer (at least the first 2) icons sitting on your springboard right now, and aren’t likely to delete any of them any time soon. I like having all 3 for the simple fact that if I read about an application and want to download, I know I am covered, and can find it in one of the 3 libraries.
It looks like a split decision here, but I am going to give the nod to Apple’s App Store for a number of reasons I already listed. Once again in an ideal world we could have a united application that would offer the best of both worlds. For now, it seems the App Store will hold the download Showdown title. Thanks for reading, this article is a treasure, so digg it!
If you have been looking for a free alternative to the mobile iTune’s store, or just wanted an easy to use free music downloading application, look no further. From that crazy world of Cydia comes one of Apple iTune’s worst nightmares, MewSeek, a P2P client and Pwn Player, a playback software for your iPhone. (more…)
So here we go, from the same people who brought you the application Say Where?, comes another decent attempt at voice recognition software. Or is it?
The idea is quite simple. It allow users to dial their contacts by speaking their name. Always interested in shortening lengthy tasks, I downloaded this application to see if I could eliminate the 4 step manual dialing process (press phone, go to contacts or recent calls, scroll to find number, and press call).
At first glance it seemed as though this application might find its way into an exclusive spot on my springboard. Clicking the icon opens up a single screen that has a large square button to press when you are ready to speak a contact’s name. Well that’s only 2 steps, so Say Who wins, right?
Wrong. It’s 2 steps to get to your first attempt at dialing a contact. While the previous app I reviewed from Excuse Me Services shined in the voice recognition department, this one fell flat on it’s face. Both voice dialing and speaking the contact’s name returned horrible results. Sure, in exact silence, using perfect diction, I was able to get a few right answers.
But I don’t live in solitary confinement, I live in the real world, and the real world has background noise in it. Especially when traveling in my car, which is where I would find this app most useful anyways.
Maybe if they were to combine this with their Say Where application with more accurate voice recognition, it’d be worthwhile to download. It would also be advantageous to continue to run in the background, or at least when the screen is locked (once again in my car dock). We continue to see innovative software from these guys, but unless you’re accustomed to yelling obscenities at your iPhone driving down the turnpike, I suggest you stay away.
This one definitely falls in the “look-what-my-phone-can-do” category, but may throw you under the bus when trying to demonstrate to your friends. “Call Randy” , “Calling Mom.” “No I swear it usually gets it on the first try, watch!”
