Google has launched its competitor to Facebook and with it a new iOS app, Google+. If you are using Google’s new social network, you can use the app to view your circles, upload pictures, and so on. Updates should be coming quickly to this new service and app, including an update to better support the iPad at some point. We’re still waiting for Facebook to do the same.
If you didn’t get a chance to play Sid Meier’s Pirates! on another gaming platform before, now is your chance. And if you have, you know that it is probably worth it to get this iPad version too. This is a great game that combines lots of elements and fun gameplay. You get to live the life of a pirate and chart your own course — no following a strict storyline. The game is deep with lots of new things to discover as you go along. You really get to make your own decisions and your own story, so you can play it several times.
Sure, there are plenty of app games that show you how to kill zombies. But what about one that gives you the task of keeping one alive. Or, undead. Or whatever zombies are. In My Pet Zombie you awaken your zombie and feed him. You can also dress him and make him dance. There are even mini games.
Another web-based game makes its way to the iPhone and seems like it must have been originally meant for it. Shift!2 is gamer’s puzzle game. You must move your character through seemingly impossible situations that require you to shift spaces — walls become open space and open space become walls. Its disorienting and pleasing at the same time.
I’ve been using an iPhone for years now and I still can’t type text messages very quickly on the screen. But with HeyTell I don’t have it. I can speak messages and send them to someone else who also has HeyTell. Then they can just hear my voice. If we both have the app open, it works like a walkie-talkie. You can even send your location and it works over 3G, so it is like walkie-talkies with unlimited range.
So many of the games in the app store are imitations of the arcade games of the 70s and 80s. So why not play the originals? With the free Atari’s Greatest Hits app comes with Missile Command, and you can buy many different games at 99 cents for groups of four including some of my favorites like Battle Zone and Star Raiders.
DropBox and services like it have become very important to Mac and PC users. If you have an iPhone or iPad, you can get the free DropBox app and have access to your files on your iOS device as well. You can view documents, of course. But you can also upload photos and even save email attachments.
Pages is great for creating and formatting documents. But when you just want to write — and really concentrate on the writing — many writers turn to a simpler plain text editor. iA Writer is that app for the iPad. You can sync with Dropbox, and there is even a special keyboard with buttons more suited for writing.
Another classic board game comes to iOS with The Game of Life For iPad and The Game of Life Classic Edition for iPhone. Both build upon the old game, and if anything are more fun because you don’t have to set up and clean up or manage all of that paper game money.
There are a lot of musical instrument apps for the iPad, but what about the most fun musical instrument of all? Ukulele HD has just about every virtual instrument mode you can imagine. You can press buttons to play chords or finger the chords yourself in several ways. You can play individual notes too.
Sometimes an app idea can seem ridiculous, but after trying it, you feel compelled to use it again later. Then again. Then the next thing you know it is one of your top apps. Foursquare is a location game. You “check in” at a restaurant, park, airport or wherever and get points for your check-ins. You link up with friends and compete against them to see who gets around more. You can also share notes, tips and pictures of places with friends and the whole world. It goes without saying that this isn’t for someone concerned about privacy. With the right group of friends, you can have fun and discover new places.
Its fun to have a lot of your music on your iPhone and to be able to jump from song to song at a party, in the car or wherever. But when you want to do something better than cutting off one song to go to another, look into some of the cheap live mixing apps like djay. With this you can fade one song into another, match beats, play with loops and scratching, and so on. Lots of fun with your iPod music library. There’s even an automatic mode that is a better way to listen to your playlists and shuffle than the built-in iPod app.
Doodle God is a strange game of discovery. You start by combining two elements to make a new element, like earth and fire make lava. Then you continue to combine elements to build new ones until you end up with complex creations. Oddly addictive, definitely different.
I often use my iPhone to take pictures of pages or documents. It is easier than writing notes, or bringing a scanner with me. The different between using the Camera app and Genius Scan+ is that Genius Scan+ will usually recognize the border of the document and adjusts the perspective to make the document flat, as if it was scanned, even if I took the picture at an angle. Even when it doesn’t get it right, it allows me to adjust the corners so I can make it better. You can export single pages as jpeg images, and multiple pages as PDFs. You can send to services like Dropbox, Google Docs and Evernote too.
You’ve probably heard of, or played, this game before. It has been around for the Wii, Windows and Mac since 2008. You build structures out of goo to reach a goal. Very inventive and fun. The iPad version of World of Goo has been around for a few months, and now there is an iPhone version as well.
Spring is here and so is baseball. If you are looking for some action on your iPhone, check out Flick Baseball Pro. While it has a few bugs here and there, it is a pretty deep game that does just enough to put you in the action, while not making the interface overly complex. A lot of fun to play.
I’m surprised there aren’t more good trivia games for the iPhone. They are the perfect time-filler to have in your pocket. One of my favorite party games has made the transformation to the iPhone. Scene It? Movies Is better than a typical question-and-answer trivia game, with creative ways to present questions.
Remember when MapQuest was synonymous with web-based maps. Heck, it almost became a dictionary word. Well MapQuest is relevant again, but this time as a free GPS turn-by-turn iPhone app. The MapQuest 4 Mobile app beats Google Maps easily because it will speak the directions to you just like one of the expensive GPS devices.
I’ve never found mind-mapping to be particularly useful, but I’ve started to use them here and there since getting the MindNode iPad App. Something about combining this type of application and the large touch screen of the iPad makes sense. There is also an iPhone version but I don’t know if it will work on the small screen as well.
Here’s another turn-based strategy game. Highborn has great gameplay and graphics, but what really sets it apart is a sense of humor. Finally a tutorial campaign that if fun to play! There is also Highborn HD for the iPad.
