You know in sci-fi movies where they use little handheld devices to translate spoken language? Well the future may be here. The SayHi Translate app comes pretty close. Choose two languages and press one, then speak. The words you speak are translated into the other language and then spoken. The text appears on the screen so you know if it understood what you said first, and then you can see the translated result as well. This could become a must-have for travelers. It works like Siri in that it communicates with a server over the Internet for the heavy lifting.
Cubemen is an interesting cross between a tower defense game and real-time strategy. With different levels and scenarios you can deploy the same units as your enemy for a more balanced battle. There is an iPad version and a Mac version.
With 162 games in a baseball season it is hard to catch them all in the stands or on TV. For those times baseball fans need to be away from the action the MLB.com At Bat is the app of all apps. You’ll get up-to-the-pitch scores and play-by-play, stats and video highlights while the game is in progress. This free app asks you for a serious $15/season in-app purchase to get all of the features, but that’s less than the price of a 3rd-deck right field ticket.
When the iPad first came out I couldn’t help thinking that the old Mac game Spaceward Ho! would be a great app for it. And here it is: Spaceward Ho! for the iPad. The is just as fun and addictive as always. The iPad version seems a bit rushed, with lots of interface glitches. But nothing to get in the way of playing the game, and I’m sure future updates will add some polish. This is a great space strategy game with just enough controls to make it interesting, but not so much that it bogs down gameplay.
Looking for an adventure game app with great graphics and immersive gameplay? Well how about using your imagination and playing Frotz instead? This app brings just about every text-based adventure game from the “old days” to your iPhone and iPad. It comes with a few freely available titles, like the original Zork. But you can search right inside the app for more, like the classic Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy game.
Check out this promising new space strategy game, Astra Itinera. You move your fleet through space and battle for galactic domination. The interface is simple, but the game play is deep. Reminds me of some of the great turn-based strategy games of the 80s and 90s.
The new iPhoto app is more than just another way to edit and adjust photos. It is your link to the new iCloud photo journals feature. This lets you post pages of pictures on the web to share with others.
Here’s another one for the strategy game fans. Modern War is a pretty decent war strategy simulation. I still think someone will eventually figure out how to make a really good strategy game for the iPad, but until then games like this are worth a try.
We’ve certainly seen many new ways to move characters around in games with iPhone touch screen and accelerometers. Here’s a new one: in Beat Sneak Bandit you tap to the beat. The character moves only if you hit the beat right, and you can guide the character by deciding when to move and when to skip a beat. Add in some very cool artwork and you’ve got a nice game.
You can view your Gmail email through the built-in Mail app, and you can also use Safari to access it through the web. But the best way to use Gmail is through Google’s free Gmail App. This lets you get notifications, read threaded conversations, label messages the Gmail way and use special Gmail features like priority inbox.
Paper Monsters is a beautiful side-scrolling platform game. The controls are very natural and the gameplay is pretty deep. Give it a try.
If it is possible for an app to already be a classic, then High Noon would be it. The idea is based on a lot of the gunslinger games that predate it on computers and consoles. But with your iPhone you have to holster and then draw — you actually have to hold the device by your side and draw to start a duel. Then you need to move your iPhone around to target your opponent. This makes it much more challenging than point-and-click game.
A fun puzzle game is Where’s My Water? by Disney. Each level has you slashing at the ground to let water drain into a pipe to feed an alligator’s shower. While that metaphor is quite a stretch, the result is some good puzzle gameplay and nice graphics.
Ever want to drop a meteor or fire a missile at someone? Well, now you can do it, at least on video, with the Action Movie FX app. You shoot a few seconds of video and then it applies a dramatic special effect to it. Works surprisingly well and is at least worth checking out even if you don’t upgrade from the free effects that are included.
Another decent Texas Holdem poker game out there is the popular Zynga Poker. This is actually better known for being a Facebook app, but playing on your iPhone or iPad actually puts you in the same pool of people, I believe. You never know what you are going to get in terms of player styles and conversation, so be warned. But it is sometimes good to practice in this just-for-fun poker game.
Remember the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Art, when Indiana Jones runs away from the temple after stealing the gold idol? That’s basically the idea behind the very addictive and free Temple Run for iPhone and iPad. You run down a path jumping, sliding and dodging obstacles to see how far you can get before you trip up. A fun, quick play.
Skitch has long been a favorite on the Mac for snapping and annotating screen captures. Now there is a version of Skitch for the iPad and it’s free. While it can’t take screen captures, it can grab them from your Camera Roll and allow you to annotate them and post or email them. You can do the same with any photo on your iPad, or take new ones if you have an iPad 2. One cool feature is the ability to create and annotate a map right inside the app. Very handy.
The talk of the App world these last few weeks has been Waze. A social networking app for drivers. To begin with it is a free GPS navigation app with voice directions. But it also links you to others on the road and past history of the road. So you can also know about that accident or speed trap up ahead.
