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iPad Only App FREE! Our Review By Jennifer Allen on December 7th, 2011 Rating: :: FUN GEAR Not the prettiest of racing games but a fun way of completing some ridiculous stunts. Developer: Price: $0.99 Version Reviewed: 1.3 Device Reviewed On: iPad 2 Graphics / Sound Rating: Game Controls Rating: Gameplay Rating: Replay Value Rating: Overall Rating: Much like the TV show it’s based on, Top Gear: Stunt School HD is a little rough and ready. It’s quite reminiscient of games such as Trials 2 HD with its physics based car challenges but there’s also a hint of normality with being able to upgrade cars. Even if those cars do happen to be standard templates of regular cars with names like ‘mini car’ or ‘Sport-coupe’. Mostly though, Top Gear: Stunt School HD simply captures the spirit of the TV show providing a plethora of ridiculous challenges such as driving a car towards a dartboard to score points. In all, there are 60 challenges ranging from driving carefully around a minefield style area with explosives strapped to the car to smashing up caravans. Just the kind of silly fun that people have come to expect from the TV show. The physics engine behind such spectacles is pretty effective with two control methods available to enforce it. Accelerometer controls start out quite slow and in need of some exaggerated movements, fortunately there’s an option for making it more sensitive. Touch based controls work well but I found myself preferring the more tactile experience of the accelerometer despite my initial apprehension. Graphics within Top Gear: Stunt School HD are nothing to be impressed by but they’re functional and do the job just fine. Besides the many challenges, there’s a mode that enables players to compete against the Stig with their vehicle. Customization options are also available with the option to add silly extras such as jet engines or huge monster truck tires. For the most part though, the fun comes from the challenges so it’s good to see that they’re excellent fun. In-app purchases are available to further extend the amount of challenges but it’s not really needed as for $0.99, there’s plenty of fun to be had. Just make sure to bump up the accelerometer sensitivity. Review disclosure: note that the product reviewed on this page may have been provided to us by the developer for the purposes of this review. Note that Read More

Looking for a new app this weekend?  Here are ten great new apps for the iPhone and iPad that you may want to check out! Like Apple’s own forthcoming Cards app, but a little cheaper and for postcards.  The app is free to download and each postcard costs $1.99 or equivalent, and can be posted to UK and US addresses.  Images come from your camera and you can add you own message too.  Free. Another postcard app, this time with the chance to create them yourself, add locations and text and even tag friends, then send them through email.  Free. An iPad only book where the history of the universe can be visualized through 300 images along with animations and videos.  $7.99/£5.49. Konami celebrates Frogger’s 30th anniversary with this Frogger/pinball mashup, with three stages, a story and challenge mode plus Game Center support.  It’s also a universal app for the iPhone and iPad.  $1.99/£1.49. Develop your ideas for songs with this intuitive beat sketch pad, complete with sampling, an extensive library and 16 pads for playing drums and samples.  Other sets can be purchased in the app.  $4.99/£2.99. Using the Unreal Engine, this beautiful fairytale-style adventure game has one of the most amazing worlds you’ll see on an iOS device.  It’s universal for the iPhone and iPad, and has Game Center support.  $5.99/£3.99. An app which reads tweets out to you, or broadcast them to another source using AirPlay.  $2.99/£1.99. Add effects to your pictures, edit them using rotations and flips, then export them via email or share them via social networking.  Interesting SLR interface.  $2.99/£1.99. The latest from BBC Good Food, with 160 recipes using more than 50 seasonal favorite ingredients, including vegetarian dishes, one-pot dishes and cakes.  $2.99/£1.99. The sequel to the first Jaws game has three new worlds, 30 levels, shark upgrades and simple controls.  It also works on your iPhone and iPad along with offering Game Center support.  $0.99/£0.69. Read More

Heads up, Whovians, because the Doctor has landed on the iPhone! In case you didn’t know, Doctor Who is one of the longest running and most beloved British television shows, and Doctor Who: The Mazes of Time is an officially licensed app for the iPhone and iPod Touch put out by the BBC featuring the Eleventh Doctor and his lovely companion, Amy Pond. Unfortunately, while fans may be excited for this time traveling romp, others will find themselves disappointed by the lackluster controls and largely bland gameplay. This 3-D action-adventure puzzler features the Doctor and Amy caught up in yet another twisted plot where they must save the day. Surprised? Of course not, but moving right along! Anyway, our dynamic duo must work together, tag-team style, to solve puzzles, avoid danger, vanquish evil, and repair all of that wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff they do so well. Puzzles mostly consist of crawling around labyrinthine structures in search of vital components to collect and various important looking switches to activate. There are dozens of puzzles, but initial ones are very basic, and while they do get a little harder eventually,it’s not by a lot. The general structure of a level goes something like this: “Move Doctor to switch. Swap controls to Amy. Move Amy over deactivated spikes to other switch. Swap back to Doctor and move him over spikes. Move both to exit.” Hooray! Don’t you feel so accomplished? Of course, as you progress, things do get a bit more interesting. The Doctor and Amy have different strengths and weaknesses that you have to take into account for later puzzles, and classic Doctor Who baddies like the Cybermen show up to add an element of danger, but even then, it’s really not much of a challenge for Time Lord or human intellects. The only thing that makes the puzzles particularly challenging are the sub-par controls. Occasionally puzzles will rely on split-second timing or deft maneuvering, and that’s rather difficult when using the virtual joystick is like swimming through mud. Slow, fickle, and just fussy all around, the controls were terribly disappointing for such a high profile app. Thankfully, the writing is surprisingly good, capturing some of the show’s brilliant humor in the zippy banter that accompanies the puzzles. It doesn’t quite make up for the molasses slow controls and unmotivated puzzles, but it soothes the pain a bit, as do the app’s Read More

Britain’s royal family is getting its first official mobile application later this week. Not surprising, the “Royal App” will focus on seven weddings and will cover the 1840 nuptials of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert as well as the 1981 star-studded wedding of Prince Charles to Princess Diana. The last nuptials included in the group of seven is the marriage of Prince Charles to Camilla in 2005. The application includes information on each union as well as images of the dresses, jewelry and gifts given to the married couple. The app will land in the Apple App Store and the Android Market on April 18th and will be available for £1.79. The application will serve to get fans excited for the upcoming wedding of Prince William to Kate Middleton planned for April 29th and is one of many public outreaches by the royal family. Recently, the royal family has launched a Twitter account, a Facebook page, and a YouTube account for its friends and fans around the world. This app may also one of many to showcase the upcoming royal wedding. Recent wedding-themed additions include the Royal Wedding Insider from the BBC and the Royal Wedding app from media company 2 For Life. Kelly spent the last three years covering mobile technology at places like BGR, Gizmodo and The Unofficial Apple Weblog. Before writing, she spent a few years working with and teaching others how to use Adobe Flash and Macromedia Director. Even earlier than that, she spent six years working on my Ph.D in Microbiology. When she's not writing, she can be found fishing the lakes and hiking the mountains of Western Maine with her husband and children. Read More

iPad Only App FREE! Our Review By Kyle Flanigan on March 8th, 2011 Rating: :: SIMPLY DESIGNED BBC's Good Food application is the electronic version of the popular printed magazine, featuring a number of recipes and features for your reading pleasure. Developer: Price: FREE Version: 1.1.0 Design Rating: Features Rating: Integration Rating: Overall Rating: In the midst of electronic whisks, microwaves and ferociously hot ovens, I’m surprised that some form of a personal computer has not become mainstream within a kitchen. After all, it is a place where ingredients collude to create good food. But we all know – usually from our own experiences – that food is not just the sum of its parts. You can have the finest ingredients in the land, but with no recipe or plan, you are not likely to create a fine meal. And this is where BBC’s Good Food application comes in. Free as an application to download, consumers can enjoy a free preview of what they can expect in Good Food, and then decide whether or not to spend $2.99 per monthly issue (no commitments). If you’re already a Good Food print subscriber, you’ll get access to the magazines free of charge. I’ve reviewed a number of magazine applications, and there’s always one thing in common: there’s never anything in common. From different layouts to unique finger gestures, no two magazines are ever the same. Although developers should implement their own style, it becomes tedious having to learn gestures over and over again. Which is why Good Food is refreshingly simple. Flick right to the next page – done. There’s a few buttons you’ll need to learn your way around – like the “Flip” which reveals the recipe of a pictured item and the “Cook” icon which reveals step-by-step cooking instructions – but that’s pretty much the height of it. You can read the magazine in order or by section, of which there are four: Everyday (for everyday meals), In Season, Weekend, and Features. Each section is color coded and comes complete with a number of articles to enjoy reading. A focus is placed on clarity, and although the text size is not adjustable, it is of sufficient size to satisfy almost all readers. When the “Cook” button is tapped to reveal cooking instructions, the relevant text becomes even bigger still. The recipes have no double entendres about them – the wording is Read More

Nous vous proposons aujourd'hui le test de Top Gear : Stunt School, jeu quelque peu déjanté de cascades en voiture, avec une partie tuning. Un titre proposé par BBC Worldwide à 2,99 € sur l'App Store. Plus de précision dans la suite de notre article. Vous aimez les voitures avec moteur surgonflé ? Les films tels que Vanishing Point, Macadam à deux voies ou encore Boulevard de la mort ? Ce jeu est fait pour vous. Trois modes de jeu sont proposés. Le premier est un ensemble de défis à débloquer au fur et à mesure que vous pourrez vous offrir des voitures plus puissantes les une que les autres, et donc à difficulté croissante. 60 challenges de ce genre sont annoncés par BBC Worldwide dans la fiche iTunes du jeu. Le mode standard vous permettra de vous faire la main, avec un didacticiel proposé avant chaque manche, sous forme de croquis, pour vous faciliter la tâche. Très vite, on voit l'étendue offerte par le jeu : "saut en longueur", "saut sur cible", "défi avec la gravité", "course contre la montre, chargé de contenu explosif", etc. A chaque victoire ou presque, vous obtenez en récompense des points mais surtout de l'équipement pour personnaliser votre voiture. Autant d'un point de vue design que mécanique. Dans les autres modes de jeu, on retrouve le "Stig Trial". Ce mode permet à Stig d'essayer votre véhicule personnalisé sur la piste d'essai officielle de Top Gear. Il vous défiera ensuite de battre son temps. Le dernier mode est le "Test track". Comme son nom l'indique, ce mode d'entraînement vous permettra de mettre à l'épreuve votre véhicule tuné sur le circuit de Top Gear. Top Gear : Stunt School est disponible pour iPhone/iPod Touch directement sur l'AppStore, à 2,99 € ! Read More

Posted 01/25/2011 at 12:05pm | by The Mac|Life Staff When you’re done playing around with the iPhone’s many great games, consider goofing around with some of these quirky and often silly conversation-starting apps. Whether you’re using the iPhone to modify your voice or photos, or to simply trigger visual or audio gags, these options will keep you and your friends entertained. Big fans of long-running BBC sci-fi series Doctor Who will get a kick out of this free promotional app, which lets you record voice clips and play them back with the familiar robotic tone of the villainous Dalek alien race. Not only will your messages sound considerably more ridiculous with this voice synthesizer, but it’s likely the only place you’ll ever hear the Daleks say silly phrases like, “I’d love a thousand tacos!” It’s a win-win, and even if you’re not a Who junkie, it’s a fun app to keep handy for a quick laugh. From the makers of the shockingly popular FatBooth comes AgingBooth, which lets you take a photo (or use an existing one) and have it be automatically transformed with the horrifying visual signs of aging. With the tap of the screen, your perfect skin and youthful features are cartoonishly replaced with thick wrinkles, discolored skin, and numerous blemishes. It’s great fun among friends -- assuming nobody is terribly thin-skinned or ageist -- but sadly, it doesn’t offer the reverse feature of removing any existing facial flaws. Between its vibrant screen and tilt sensors, the iPhone is perfect for sight gag apps like iBeer, which simply displays one of several beverages -- including beer, mouthwash, milk, and soda -- and lets you tilt the phone to give the impression of drinking the liquid. For such a simple app, iBeer actually offers a lot of different options, including visual and sound effects, as well as the ability to connect to the iBeer Keg app on iPad over Wi-Fi and create the sensation of pouring liquid from one device to the next. You’ve paid untold amounts of money to see some much-anticipated film, and when nature calls, you don’t want to bolt from your seat for fear of missing a crucial plot point. What to do? Consult RunPee, a helpful app that lists multiple cues for most new releases so you know the best time to hit the bathroom without ruining the rest of the film. Each tip offers Read More

By Chris Nitz on December 24th, 2010 Just a normal day of pinching pennies and saving the world. Devil Hunter X:Humankind has once again gone and gotten itself in quite a pickle. This time, devils have risen up and taken over the happy place of Alunt. It is up to you great Devil Hunter to send the four fiends back to the hell from which they came. Will you rise to the task, or are the devils to much for you in this great looking side-scrolling adventure? $1.99 iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad Released: 2010-12-21 :: Category: Games Makin’ Bacon:Slicing fruit and veggies ninja style is far too….healthy. Makin’ Bacon turns the slicing game into something far more mouth watering. Swipe your finger across a pig to turn it into sausage. Hack the sausage into yummy bacon. No bacon entre is complete without eggs, though. Slice chickens into eggs, and eggs into fried eggs. It is all fun and games until the chef’s cat shows up. Take a break from all that healthy slicing for something fattening and mouth watering. $0.99 iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad Released: 2010-12-22 :: Category: Games Top Gear: Where’s Stig?The Stig has apparently finally had enough with all his fame and fortune over on the BBC television program Top Gear. It is now up to you to hunt him down across 11 different puzzles. Finding The Stig is not the only object, though, as the puzzles are full of little nuggets of humor and fanfare. Any fan of the BBC series will instantly feel at home. The Stig may reign supreme on the race tracks, but he is not a master of disguise. Besides, finding that red and white striped freak Waldo is so 1990! $1.99 iPhone App - Designed for the iPhone, compatible with the iPad Released: 2010-12-21 :: Category: Games $2.99 iPad Only App - Designed for the iPad Released: 2010-12-21 :: Category: Games Pay Off Debt:Managing money is one of the most popular New Year’s resolutions people make. Those of you who want to get down and dirty with your debt do not have to do this alone. Pay Off Debt will help you prioritize debts, estimate payoff times, record payments, and view just how great you are doing in your debt free mission. A password protection system help keep your Read More

Welcome to a special Christmas app list, where we’ve gathered together ten festive applications for the iPhone and iPad, all of which should be great for a quiet Christmas Day afternoon. An iPad collection of 12 festive, educational games for children.  $0.99/£0.59. Help Santa defeat evil elves who have stolen all the presents.  Game Center support.  $0.99/£0.59. Change the subject of your photo into Santa, a snowman, an elf of even Rudolph.  This free version features ads, but you can pay $0.99/£0.59 for an ad-free version.  Free. An interactive storybook featuring the classic Christmas tale.  It’s a universal app for the iPhone and iPad.  $1.99/£1.19. A gift tracker so you remember what you got from who, all ready to write your thank you letters after Christmas.  $0.99/£0.59. Great hand drawn graphics feature in this festive game, where your cat must catch falling presents.  An iPad HD version is also available.  $0.99/£0.59. This interactive children’s storybook can be viewed in 2D or in 3D with a pair of stereoscopic glasses.  iPad only.  $1.99/£1.19. A Christmas variation on the classic line-drawing strategy game, where you must guide Santa’s sleigh to ensure all the children get their presents!  $1.99/£1.19. A BBC app featuring more than 160 recipes for Christmas and the New Year, complete with instructions, pictures and videos.  $1.99/£1.19. Also available for the iPad, this is an educational app where Dora the Explorer learns about the spirit of Christmas.  $2.99/£1.79. Also, don’t forget there are a couple of free Christmas editions of several games out at the moment, with Cut the Rope: Holiday Gift and Kiko: Xmas Edition being two of our favorites. Read More

The Huffington Post has just released version 2.0 of its popular iPad app. The release is a complete overhaul and revamp of the previous app. Gone is the huge drop-down menu that you used to navigate through the Post's various sections. It has now been replaced by an always-there Huff Post NewsGlide menu that allows you to quickly switch between sections with the tap of your finger. Each NewsGlide section is divided into ordered news, blogs, slideshows and popular sub-sections. The slideshow sub-sections are particularly well laid out to take advantage of the iPad's "flick through your photos" navigation. Tap on an article and a window slides onto the screen containing the exact page you would view if you were browsing the Huffington Post through Safari or Chrome. That means the articles window contains all the comments -- and the ability to comment -- directly in the app. Overall, the new app is an improvement upon the old one. However, I think the new menu navigation takes some getting used to. The old app had a very newspaper-like feel to it as far as navigation goes. The new app seems to be the love child that would result if the BBC for iPad and Twitter apps hooked up. Personally, I like my newspaper apps to have the layout of newspapers. If you feel the same way, you'll be consoled to know that the Huffington Post team has placed a "feedback" button on the top of the new menu. The Huffington Post for iPad is a free download. Read More