When the iPhone initially launched in 2007, the much anticipated iPhone OS required an arsenal of jailbroken apps to perform even the mildest tasks such as MMS and video recording. But through product refreshes and several software updates, that list of apps is shrinking and the iPhone OS is now considered among the industries top mobile platforms.

Now that functions such as copy/paste and video recording are available in the stock OS, jailbroken applications like Clippy and Cycorder are no longer necessities. Now I know your thinking, “So what are you saying Cody, I no longer ‘need’ to jailbreak my iPhone?” Not even close.

As long as Apple continues to disable users from customizing their springboard backgrounds and their icons, and of course forcing them to remain with AT&T even though other carriers get far better coverage in their home area, and continue to ignore several other missing features, iPhone users will have a reason to jailbreak. One app I continue to jailbreak for, because you can only get it from Cydia, is SBSettings.

Now let me explain.  The feature I think Apple continues to miss the boat on is shortcuts. If I want to turn my bluetooth on, it is a 4 step process, 5 if you count the unlock screen. Same with changing the brightness, it’s a 4 or 5 step process. Other mobile platform developers have addressed the need for shortcuts to commonly used functions in the form of widgets or shortcuts in an always on screen task bar, but for some reason Apple resists.

Enter SBSettings By Big Boss. A simple, skinnable device manager that’s actually been around for quite a while. The application and themes for it can be searched for and downloaded from the Cydia App Store, so of course it’s available to jailbreakers only.

The first thing you’ll notice about SBSettings is how easily and quickly it launches once installed. Requiring nothing more than a finger slide across the top banner, the application drops down in the form of a window with several icons. Now the default theme is gaudy but I found it was easy to install downloaded themes by clicking the ‘more’ icon you see in the image below.

The theme I use is ‘iPhone Congruency’ and I love it because it looks stock, like it is supposed to be there. Once you got it looking good, again from the ‘more’ icon, you need to decide which ‘toggle’ icons are showing. If you don’t see a toggle you want, more can be downloaded through Cydia, and can be added in this same ‘toggle’ screen once downloaded.

I personally like the ‘processes’ toggle. Although the iPhone isn’t known for having great multitasking capabilities, the phone can still get bogged down with Mail, SMS, iPod, and Safari apps all open at once. The ‘processes’ toggle lets you shut these apps down and give your iPhone a quick boost in recovered RAM.

With toggles to turn bluetooth and wifi off and on with one touch, this app is definitely a time saver. It also gives you other great features like a quick launch App dock to launch apps from instead of scrolling through all of your icon-loaded spring boards, and the ability to re spring (or restart your iPhone, once again with one or 2 touches instead of 5 and 6 touches.

Between the time saving shortcuts, ease of use, and the fact that I can make it blend in with the rest of the phone’s GUI with a quick skin download, this free app from BIG BOSS available from Cydia is a must have in my opinion.

Hopefully Apple will stumble across this little gem at some point and really take the idea of ‘widgets’ and  ’shortcuts’ more seriously. It would really be nice to see some sort of implementation of Apple’s popular dashboard widget screen get ported to their mobile devices. But for right now we must use the tools we have in front of us, and with apps floating around like SBSettings, maybe thats not such a bad thing. ;op

Any iPhone totin’ PS3 users out there? You might want to turn your bluetooths up, the folks over at Deluxe Digital Studios have a killer app for your 2 favorite gadgets. It’s called Pocket Blu, a lovely little client application that talks to any internet capable Blu-ray player (PS3) that happens to be playing a BLU capable DVD.

Awesome thing is, it turns your iPhone into a Blu-ray remote for your PS3. Not so awesome thing is that it doesn’t work on all Blu-rays, just ones that are BLU capable, which judging by their library isn’t too many.

The app also has some special features for the movies like lost scenes, interviews with the actors, even live reviews from other Pocket Blu users, of the movie you’re watching. Debbie Downer told me that it requires a wifi connection to the PS3, but I have a feeling that’s not a huge problem for most of our readers.

Overall its a pretty sweet little app, easily worth the free download. If you’re a frequent Blu-ray watcher with a PS3, you’ll find some space on your springboard for this guy. Imagine you’re getting ready to watch a movie, you got your snacks, and your drink. You’ve forgotten what you wanted in the kitchen twice already and can’t wait to finally sit down and start the show. You sit in your favorite chair, and just as you go to recline back and start the movie, you realize, you don’t have the PS3 remote. As your left eye starts to twitch, you’ll remember you read this article and you’ll say to yourself “Thank you Cody” and pull out your iPhone.

Hey, your welcome, and here’s hoping we see many more movies become “BLU” capable.

UPDATE: Interestingly enough, there is an extremely similar application is BD Touch Remote by BD Touch LLC. Exact same premise except with “BD Touch” capable blu ray discs. I call this, 2 apps, 1 review.

Any question or comment, please feel free to write us a comment below!

Unlocking is an extremely easy concept to explain, sort of . Unless stated otherwise, cell phones purchased from carrier retail stores are “locked” to that specific carrier. For instance, a Blackberry storm from Verizon won’t work on an AT&T calling plan. The Sprint Palm Pre won’t work on T-mobile. Even your iPhone from AT&T is “locked” to that infamous blue-mapped carrier.

So what do you do if you want to purchase a phone you like but use it with a different carrier, perhaps one that costs less or gets better reception in your area? For most folks I’d say ” eh fa-gettaboutit ! ” (in a pretty sweet Brooklyn/Italian accent might I add). But for those of you lucky enough to have apples on the back of your phones, there are ways to relieve your beloved iPhone from AT&T’s struggling network.

Hardware Unlock Vs. Software Unlock

Technically, there are 2 ways to go about unlocking your iPhone. There is a hardware unlock, which is invasive (you have to open the phone), that I don’t recommend that anyone tries unless they’ve got a pretty extensive background in some kind of electrical engineering.

The 2nd, much easier way, the software unlock, could be done on your lunch break by your 6th grader. Just like jailbreaking, this can be as easy as hooking your iPhone up to the computer and clicking ’start’. However the requirements for unlocking and the rules you must follow are very different.

Things to Consider Before Unlocking

There are guidelines to follow when thinking about unlocking your iPhone.

First off you need to make sure that the carrier you are wishing to go to supports the iPhones technology. I’ll save everyone here stateside some time and just let the cat out of the bag. If you unlock, really your best option is T-Mobile, the other major wireless GSM carrier. Other, smaller CDMA carriers (any centennial wireless users out here??) have had users confirm the unlock to work, but chances are if your reading an article on unlocking, they are referring to T-Mobile (at least here in the states).

Secondly, you need to know your firmware version and modem firmware version (or baseband as its often referred to). This is easily discovered by popping into your iPhone settings and opening the ‘about’ window. Now if you can’t seem to find it, I’m scared for you, but I’m here for you, I’ve provided some pictures below to help you out.

These 2 things are important to know, as they determine whether you can unlock your iPhone or not. If you are even thinking of jailbreaking or unlocking, best practice is to stay away from updating your iTunes or iPhone software, as the war between the Dev Team and Apple rages on, each new update could disable or prevent future unlocks.

I always check http://blog.iphone-dev.org/ to see the latest unlock available. As you can see right now, they have one working for firmware version 3.1.3 and baseband 05.11, but if you have updated your iPhone recently and have the 05.12 baseband, you’re out of luck for the time being. An unlock is in the works but the ETA field is empty so, don’t hold your breath.

Finally if you meet the above requirements and are ready to unlock, you must first jailbreak. Now as you can see from all the hyperlinks in this article, I wrote an article on jailbreaking, and I know Sebastien’s got great tutorials in the blog’s ‘tutorials‘ section, so if you haven’t done that, check that stuff out, meet me back here in 5.

Who Comes Up With Unlocks?

The last part of our segment today on unlocking is software, pioneered by the great Dev Team and the prodigy kid from New Jersey GeoHot. GeoHot, who recently announced hacking the PS3, actually received media attention for his iPhone unlock and was given a new Nissan 350z by the co founder of Certicell, not bad eh.

But the backbone of the jailbreak/unlock community, the Dev Team, have been the steady frontrunners ever since. Their software QuickPwn, RedSn0w, and PwnageTool have been staples in the iPhone hacking community for years.

Generally when you’re using these programs to jailbreak they ask you if you’d like to unlock in one of the steps it takes you through. Here lately though, 1 task programs like UltraSnow have been relevant, also done by the Dev Team, also available in our downloads section.

Conclusion

Well that’s unlocking in 10 minutes or less, the key really is what version your firmware/modem firmware you’re running, and understanding there’s no unlock for 3.1.3 firmware if you have 05.12 modem firmware (baseband).

The model of your iPhone matters as well, whether it is the iPhone 3G , 3GS, or original version. Model compatibility for any unlock software is generally noted in the description of the download. And if I haven’t completely crushed your dreams yet, there’s no way to downgrade your baseband (let us know if you get Fuzzyband to work, we hear the bootloader’s to high). What am I talking about bootloaders, basebands, you guys should probably get out of here before things get really crazy.

Make sure to hit us up with any questions or comments.

What Does Jailbreaking Mean?

Jailbreaking, or “hacking” is giving a user read/write access to otherwise locked OS files on your iPhone.

It allows you to “unlock” your iPhone and activate it on another GSM carrier that doesn’t have bad Luke Wilson commercials. It gives you access to app stores like Cydia that offer programs that you won’t see in Apple’s popular counterpart. It’ll even give you the ability to customize the background of your home screen and change the look of your icons and menu colors.

Starting in early fall after the summer 2007 release of the original iPhone, jailbreaking began as a fairly complicated multi-step process. Things have definitely evolved over the last few years and the online jailbreaking community for iPhones is estimated in the millions (if you’re reading this article on this site, that number shouldn’t surprise you) with hundreds of blogs and forums scattered throughout the web dedicated to this crazy thing called jailbreaking.

What Are the Benefits of Jailbreaking?

Up until recently, if you wanted to shoot video with your iPhone, you had to jailbreak and download an app called Cycorder from Cydia that would let you shoot and save video, because your iPhone out of box couldn’t do it. Same with cut/copy/paste, MMS, all only available if you had jailbroken your iPhone.

Your probably wondering well then what in the heck do I need to do it for now? Well I jailbreak mine so I can have the application Backgrounder from Cydia, it allows you to multitask and do things like listen to Pandora while writing emails, something you can’t do with your run-of-the-mill iPhone and iPod Touch.

I also have apps like Winterboard from Cydia that allow me to customize my home screen, change the look of my lock screen, and change the overall theme of my iPhone. I can make my iPhone look completely different than the way it does when you open the box for the first time. So much to the point where people will ask me what kind of phone I’ve got when it’s in an unmarked silicon case.

Another good reason I would say to go for it is that it is easier than ever to jailbreak. In fact, programs such as BlackRa1n by GeoHot make jailbreaking as easy as plug and click.

What Are the Risks of Jailbreaking?

Now, although jailbreaking has become increasingly easier, there are still very complicated risks that go with it. If you have a newer iPod Touch or iPhone 3GS, or if you plan on unlocking your new device, remember what I am about to tell you…

An underground group of programmers known as the Dev Team, for the most part, spearheads all this jailbreak technology more or less without Apple’s permission. Think of the Dev Team as the LA SWAT team with huge awesome guns trying to get into a barricaded building, which is the jailbroken iPhone software.

Every time they find a way in, Apple comes along and puts another barricade up with a software update that closes the entrance they had. Then they have to find another way in. They are currently working on jailbreaks for 3GS and iPod Touch software version 3.1.3, so if you upgrade to the newest version of the firmware, you will lose the ability to jailbreak at this time.

So it’s just a best practice to check the latest firmware version jailbroken (see the Dev Team blog) versus your own (go to Settings > General > Status). Aside from the above mentioned risks, there’s always the chance of your iPhone “bricking” or getting stuck in a non working state.

Several times during jailbreaks, mine would be stuck in phone purgatory for hours. Take just a few moments to browse any iPhone forum with jailbreaking topics and you’re sure to find several comments along the lines of “help! I tried to jailbreak my iPhone and now it’s been stuck on the Apple logo for hours, help!” or “Please help me, after jailbreaking my iPhone my GPS won’t work.”

So things definitely can go wrong, but generally it’s user error. Usually plugging in your iPhone to your computer, starting iTunes, and holding power for 5 seconds, power and menu button for 10 seconds, and then just menu for 20 seconds, tells iTunes your phones fried and it will do a fresh install of your most recent iPhone software. For more information on getting your iPhone out of the constant reboot cycle, read this article.

Is Jailbreaking Legal?

Now you’re probably wondering if it’s legal. Um… yes and no! The fact of the matter is that Apple has verbally announced that they believed jailbreaking to be illegal and an infringement on their copyrights by way of complaint to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, or EFF last January.

But, the EFF sided with the consumer and stated that the “reverse engineering is a fair use when done for purposes of fostering interoperability with independently created software,” saying that yes, even though jailbreakers are using Apple’s copyrighted code, they are doing so in a way that allows them functionality that Apple doesn’t provide access to on their own.

On top of that, Apple’s legal team is probably too busy dealing with Nokia, Fujitsu, and Psystar to chase after people who are trying to customize their home screens.

To be honest with you I’m sure Steve Jobs and company have sat down and gone over the risk/threat of jailbreakers and have discovered how much it really fuels iPhone/iPod touch sales. Don’t believe me? Run a 24 hour poll on your blog and ask if users would still purchase iPhones if they couldn’t be jailbroken in any way.

What to Keep in Mind

But the cat and mouse game with Apple shows no sign of stopping as the Dev Team is furiously at work to break into the latest iPhone software to release to the public. Jailbreaking gives you complete control over your iPhone from customizing to 3rd party apps that didn’t for one reason or another end up on Apple’s App Store.

In fact the Cydia store is home to a lot of misfit apps that fell victim to Apple’s ever popular App screening process. Well, now that you’ve heard some background on jailbreaking, you’ve learned some of the benefits and risks, you may now make the choice, to jailbreak or not to jailbreak, that is the question.

If you decide to jailbreak, generally any app by the Dev Team such as PwnageTool or RedSnow is a safe bet, as long as the versions are compatible with your iPhone or iPod Touch firmware.

Lately BlackRa1n has been working well for me. It was literally a plug into usb port, launch program, click the button. I know Sebastien’s got some great tutorials on how to jailbreak as well as BlackRa1n and other downloads that will get you started.

Still completely lost? Drop a comment or a tweet and myself or Sebastien can lend a hand.

Dev Team member MuscleNerd confirmed earlier today what we reported yesterday: a jailbreak for iPhone 3GS 3.1 coming soon.

It seems that there is a bit of confusion around this and people aren’t sure whether they will be able to jailbreak or unlock their iPhone 3GS.

From what I understand, here is the situation (note that I might be wrong, in which case, please correct me by adding a comment):

• if you are still on 3.0 or 3.0.1 and your baseband is still 04.26.08, then there is no problem at all for you. You will be able to jailbreak and unlock by using PwnageTool and creating a custom firmware that will not update your baseband.
• if your iPhone 3GS is already on 3.1, you won’t be able to jailbreak or unlock yet but the Dev Team is working on your case.

As usual in this case, we will be spreading the news as it becomes available.

For the latest information about the iPhone 3GS jailbreak and unlock, please refer to the following articles:

• jailbreak iPhone 3.1
• unlock iPhone 3.1

Please leave a comment should you have any question or concern.

UPDATE: I wrote a tutorial on how to jailbreak the iPhone 3GS 3.1 with PwnageTool.

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.

RAGING THUNDER

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

FASTLANE STREET RACING

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

FERRARI GT: EVOLUTION

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

ASPHALT 4: ELITE RACING

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.

Download Monopoly on iTunes

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.