Along with a new iPhone and a new iPod touch, September’s Apple event brought with it a new iPod nano, the first in two years. (2011 saw a notable software update for the 2010 model, but no new hardware.) As has been the case with so many iPod nano models over the years, the iPod nano (7th generation) is a dramatic re-imagining of Apple’s most-popular traditional iPod. But unlike the sixth-generation iPod nano, this one is mostly an improvement over its predecessor. In fact, for most uses, it just may be the best nano yet.

Something old, something new

When I reviewed 2010’s iPod nano (sixth generation) (3.5 out of 5 rating), I was in many ways disappointed by the direction Apple had taken the iPod nano line. That model had its share of fans—indeed, thanks to its built-in clip and watch-sized body, an entire industry sprung up around the idea of using the 2010 nano as a wristwatch. But its tiny screen meant its iOS-like Multi-Touch interface was difficult to use and a step backward from physical buttons. If I were rating it today, after a couple years of use, I might give it an even lower rating than I did back in 2010.

Did Apple get similar feedback from users? The company will never tell, but the 2012 iPod nano, available only in a 16GB capacity for $149, ditches the tiny-square-with-a-clip design in favor of one closer to that of the fifth-generation model: At 3.0 inches tall, 1.6 inches wide, and an incredible two tenths of an inch thick—thinner than the plug on a 30-pin dock-connector cable—the new model is essentially as tall and wide as two sixth-generation nano models stacked on top of one another, but half as thick. At 30 grams, the new nano is 8 grams heavier than last year’s model—barely noticeable in everyday use.

In that larger expanse Apple has fit a 2.5-inch (diagonal) Multi-Touch display, nearly an inch larger than the one found on the previous nano. (In terms of pixels, this year’s screen is 240 by 432 pixels, compared to 240 by 240 on the previous model.) The pixel density is slightly lower this time around, at 202 pixels per inch compared to 220 for the 2010 nano, and it doesn’t match the Retina displays on Apple’s iOS devices, but the new display is still clear and easy to read, even for small type.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Waking up is an intensely personal experience: Some prefer to be awakened gently by the sound of music; others opt for the morning news; and still others want their iPad or iPhone within easy reach to check the latest news and tweets. The $200 iHome iA100 has something for all of those folks, plus plenty more bells and whistles, to boot.

The iA100 is a Bluetooth-enabled alarm clock with a dock connector that accommodates not just iPhone or iPod touch models, but also the iPad (original or iPad 2). Measuring in at 11.1 inches wide, 6.7 inches deep, and 3.2 inches tall, the iA100 is a bit larger than most of the alarm clocks I’ve tested, thanks in no small part to its iPad support.

The front of the iA100 features a big, easy-to-read LCD display flanked by a pair of speakers. You’ll find most of the built-in controls on the unit’s top: Volume Up and Down, End and Talk buttons for the built-in speakerphone, Bedtime and Wakeup buttons, a Snooze/Dimmer control, Previous and Next, Play/Pause, and buttons for input switching, the DPS audio enhancement feature, and Power. The Previous and Next buttons double as tuning buttons for the radio, and you can access and set radio-station presets using the Play/Pause button.

There are a few additional buttons on the unit’s rear: Clock Adjust, EQ, Pairing, Nap, and Alarm 1 and Alarm 2 controls. There’s also an AC-adapter jack, a standard 1/8-inch line-in jack (for connecting an additional audio source), and the wire for the built-in FM antenna. (The system doesn’t support AM radio frequencies.)

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The iMainGo X is the latest in Portable Sound Laboratories’ line of "speaker cases" for the iPhone and iPod. The iMainGo X is more versatile than the company's iMainGo 2, ( ) while offering a similar combination of protection and good sound.

Since the original iMainGo, released back in 2007, Portable Sound Laboratories hasn’t strayed much from the initial design of its product. The iMainGo X still uses a two-part, clamshell case that zips closed. One half houses the amplifier, speakers, and battery, while the other half holds your device. (You connect the iMainGo X's audio cable to your iPod or iPhone's headphone jack, adjusting volume with your player's own volume control.) When closed, the iMainGo X measures 5.7 inches long, 3.8 inches across, and 2.4 inches thick; it weighs 1.5 pounds.

The biggest difference between the iMainGo X and its predecessors is that the iMainGo X uses a rechargeable, Lithium-ion battery instead of four AA batteries. Portable Sound Laboratories says the battery can last up to 12 hours; in my testing, the battery lasted 11 hours, 40 minutes with my MacBook Pro's volume set halfway between minimum and maximum. The iMainGo X's battery powers only the speakers—unlike docking speaker systems, the iMainGo does not charge your iPod or iPhone's battery.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

[Editors' note: This model of iPod touch, released in fall 2010, remains the current model available in stores as of fall 2011. The only change to this generation of iPod touch was the addition of a white option in the fall of 2011.]

You know the story by now. For many, the iPod touch is the iPhone without the phone and GPS features—no cellular voice calls, no texting, and no EDGE or 3G wireless service. The remaining features that the two have in common (or lack) is often how the iPod touch is judged. In the case of the fourth-generation (4G) iPod touch—available in 8GB ($229), 32 GB ($299), and 64GB ($399) capacities—the two come closer to feature parity than ever before. (Even more so this time around as all three iPod touch models have the same features, unlike with the previous generation of touches.) This, for many people, makes for a compelling iPod. It does for us as well.

Similarities and differences

Thin as the iPhone 4 is, the 4G iPod touch is thinner still—two sandwiched 4G iPod touches come very close to the thickness of the iPhone 4. It’s also a little less wide and lighter than the third-generation iPod touch ( ) that preceded it. Its edges are also more angled. This angling is sharp enough that owners of iPhones and previous iPod touches will have to train themselves to search for the volume and Sleep/Wake buttons near the back edge of the iPod rather than the side and top, respectively.

Unlike previous iPod touches, the 4G iPod touch lacks the small black plastic patch on the back’s top-left corner that covered the Wi-Fi antenna. That corner now holds the iPod’s built-in omni-directional microphone and its high-definition rear-facing camera (like the iPhone 4, the 4G iPod touch also has a standard-definition front-facing camera).

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

No iPod model has received as many makeovers—both minor and dramatic—as the iPod nano. (Perhaps not coincidentally, no other iPod model has sold as well.) The original nano was simply a scaled-down version of the standard iPod—tall and thin with a shiny, steel back and a white-plastic front, but the first revision gave the nano an all-aluminum body. The third version brought a short-and-wide shape, but the nano returned to tall and thin in the fourth go-round. The the most-recent nano, the fifth in as many years, got a larger screen and a video camera. But one thing all nano models have had in common is the traditional iPod design: a screen at the top with Apple’s iconic Click Wheel below.

No longer. With the release of the sixth-generation (6G) iPod nano, the line has received its most dramatic redesign yet, and the Click Wheel is nowhere to be found. In its place you’ll find a Multi-Touch screen similar to—but much smaller than—the one on Apple’s iOS devices.

Hip to be square

The new nano, available in the same 8GB and 16GB capacities as before but in seven new colors, still wears an aluminum shell, but it now takes a considerably smaller shape: Instead of rectangular, it’s nearly square at just 1.5 inches tall and 1.6 inches wide. But the 6G nano is also the thickest nano yet—0.35 inches—thanks to a built-in, spring-loaded clip, a la the iPod shuffle. The clip is grippy enough to keep the nano attached to your shirt sleeve during moderate activity, though the nano is heavy enough that you’ll want to clip it somewhere safer during vigorous exercise.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

I’m on the record somewhere as saying that my favorite iPod of all time is the second-generation (2G) iPod shuffle. There was just something about that little guy, with its clip-on body and its circle of easy-to-navigate control buttons, that I found irresistible. I still have a battered old silver one that I take on trips and use when I’m mowing the lawn.

On the other hand, the third-generation (3G) iPod shuffle introduced in March 2009 was an example of Apple’s design language taken to an extreme. Gone were the onboard controls of previous models: the 3G shuffle was a little metal nub with a headphone jack and a power switch, and not much else. Though it added support for multiple playlists and a nifty spoken navigation system, it also forced users to rely on a set of three-button headphones (a clicker, plus volume up and down buttons) to control the thing. I hated it.

Now here’s the $49 fourth-generation (4G) iPod shuffle model, or (if you prefer) the second generation of the 2G shuffle. From outside appearances it’s been designed as if that entire 3G shuffle had fallen into a crack in time, erasing its entire existence from our collective memories. This new shuffle is a little guy with a clip-on body and a circle of easy-to-navigate control buttons. While the 2G shuffle was rectangular, this new shuffle is almost perfectly square, shaving off a third of that past model’s size.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Here’s an overview of what’s new and different in iTunes 10.

Ping me if you like music

The flagship feature in iTunes 10 is Ping, Apple’s new “music-oriented social network,” which lets you follow friends and artists, and share your musical tastes. Naturally, this is tightly linked with the iTunes Store, so any music you like shows up with links for your friends to buy that music immediately. Users of Facebook or other social networks will grasp this pretty quickly, and, while there aren’t many artists on it at launch time, it’s clear that many bands and singers will use this to try and drive sales.

To access Ping, click the Ping link in the iTunes sidebar, below the iTunes Store, or click the Ping button in the toolbar when in the iTunes Store. Most of what you need to do is self-explanatory, but we’ll take an in-depth look at Ping soon.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

[Editor's Note: This review assesses version 3.6.1 of Star Walk. Version 4.0 was released after this review was published.]

I have a soft spot for any science-related app out there, but my favorite thing about owning an iPhone and iPod touch is playing with all the astronomy-themed apps from the App Store. I have a few of them on my phone, including some I’ve reviewed. There are so many things to explore in our universe, and many apps can help you get started.

One such app is the $3 Star Walk, an educational planetarium app from Vito Technologies aimed at both kids and adults. The app launches with the Sky Live screen, which shows you the Sun, the Moon, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The screen shows when the Sun and each of those planets rises and sets, as well as the elevation angle of each of those objects. For the Moon, it shows the current phase. Tap on one of the arrow buttons on the bottom left or right of the screen, and the date in the upper right corner changes to the previous or next day, depending on which direction you choose. As you cycle through the days, you can see the Moon phases change and the information for the other objects featured on the screen change as well.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

I was looking forward to getting a chance to play Super Tilt-Baseball, a baseball-themed pinball game. Sadly, however, the games kept getting called on account of rain. Or to put it more accurately, bugs—which in the games of iPhone and iPod touch games, is actually more annoying than rain.

Developed by Eizon, Super-Tilt Baseball shouldn’t be compared to the likes of Monster Pinball or Wild West Pinball, where the object is to rack up as many points as possible by banging a ball off assorted bumpers, flippers, and targets. Rather, Super-Tilt Baseball looks to recreate the classic baseball pinball machine games you’d find in an old-time pinball hall (or, if you’re lucky to live close enough to one, a pinball museum specializing in vintage games). Instead of points, you’re looking to tally up hits—and runs—by using a bat-shaped paddle to send the pinball flying around a baseball diamond-shaped surface. You tap anywhere on the screen to swing the bat. But be careful—the field is littered with holes, and if the ball drops into one, you’ve just made an out. In a nod to a specific feature of the iPhone platform, the game encourages you to help direct the ball by tilting your iPhone or iPod left or right—the “tilt” in “Super-Tilt Baseball,” as it were.

You can play one-, six-, or nine-inning games of pinball with one or two players. (You’ll have to pass your iPhone back and forth if you go the multiplayer route.) The game also lets you play best-of-five and best-of-seven “playoff” series, keeping a running tally of each game’s final score.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Rogue Planet from Gameloft is a turn based strategy game that seeks to take the crown as king of the genre for the iPhone and iPod Touch. With it’s involving story line, strategic gameplay and upcoming online play, Gameloft may have succeeded.

You and the crew of the spaceship Nimah have returned to Earth after a thirty-five-year long voyage exploring space only to find it seemingly devoid of human life. That’s not to say there’s no welcome party waiting for you—it’s just not human. Hostile robots have overtaken the earth and it’s your mission to try to take it back.

Rogue Planet has three modes of play to choose from—story mode, quick play and local multi-player (WIFI or Bluetooth). Quick play is a skirmish mode where you can play as either human or robot in any of the battles you have unlocked in story mode as well as 15 extra maps available by default. The local multi-player mode requires you to be in the vicinity of another iPhone with the game, but luckily the next update is reported to add an online option. Story mode has 19 levels and is where you’ll be spending most of your time (at least until the online option is added). Between battles you make your way around the different areas of the ship talking to people until you’re sent into the next fight. The story is revealed through these conversation cut scenes and serves to propel you through the game and keep things interesting instead of just having you fighting meaningless battles.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Document viewers for the iPhone and iPod touch have, in general, become increasingly sophisticated. With sophistication comes complexity, and iSilo’s approach, which assumes a fairly high level of user capability, is a valid one. You can do many things with iSilo, but only a few of them come easy.

Offered by DC & Co., iSilo enables you to download and read documents in iSilo, Palm Doc, plain text, PDF, HTML, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint formats. You can place the files in folders, but moving them between folders does not seem possible—a real drawback if you like to stay organized.

The app offers many options for document viewing—you can select a font, type size, and color. You also can choose among options for “tap” behavior—if you tap on the center of the screen once, you can have the document advance one line or a page, for example. iSilo also offers a slew of options for operating within documents, including bookmarking, sophisticated search, options to return to the first or last page of the document, or to resume where you left off.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Touch Carrom by Zentity brings the tabletop game of carrom to the iPhone or iPod touch. Carrom is a cross between billiards and shuffleboard that has gained popularity throughout the world. Now Zentity hopes to translate the game's popularity to a new market of gamers.

Touch Carrom faithfully replicates an official carrom board on your iPhone—albeit much smaller than your standard tabletop version. On the board are two sets of nine carrom-men, the queen, and a striker for the active player. Your objective is to pocket or “pot” your carrom-men into one of four corner pockets using your striker before your computer controlled opponent does. Each carrom-man you pocket earns you a point, and the queen counts as three points. Like billiards, you alternate turns unless you pot a carrom-man on your turn.

Lining up a shot can be tricky with the small pieces. Use you finger to slide your striker along a line and set up your shot. Adjust the angle and velocity and let it fly. It takes a bit of practice, but before long you can get proficient making shots you actually planned instead of just relying on luck.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

It takes a brave developer to launch an app called Epic Fail. Reviewers like me— full of smarminess and fans of easy word play—are all too eager to turn their subject’s name against it. Fortunately for Epic Fail, it isn’t one—though it’s far from perfect.

The free app from StuckPixel is a never-ending slideshow of those LOL-inducing images showcasing various depictions of failure made popular by sites like Fail Blog. You launch the app, choose whether to browse recent, popular, or random images, and then go to town.

The pictures are hit or miss, but often funny, culled from (and credited to) a variety of blogs that purvey such content.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

With the introduction of support for stereo Bluetooth via the Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP) in iPhone OS 3.0, owners of an iPhone 3G or 3GS, or a second-generation iPod touch, can enjoy music without wires. Like the company’s Sportsband model ( ), Jaybird’s $130 JB-200 Freedom Bluetooth Headphones Iets you wirelessly listen to music from your iPhone and many other Bluetooth-compatible devices, including all recent Macs.

(Because Apple hasn’t yet implemented the Audio/Video Remote Control Profile [AVRCP] on the iPhone, neither headset can directly skip tracks on that device, which is frustrating. In this modern era of oft-shuffled music, track navigation is a frequent necessity, and my biggest hope for iPhone OS 4.0 is that AVRCP will finally arrive. Jaybird mentions that you can use Voice Control, triggered from the headset, to change tracks. That’s factually accurate, but brutally painful: It takes a few seconds to get the headset to start Voice Control, and a few more seconds for the iPhone to be ready to listen. Skipping one track can take 10 seconds from start to finish. It’s a nice idea, but it just doesn’t work that well at all. When you listen to your Mac’s audio using the JB-200 headphones, the track-skipping controls work great, so I’ve tried not to hold it against the headset itself that it can’t navigate tracks on the iPhone.)

The JB-200 is an earbud-style headset with loops that fit snugly over your ears; the wire that connects the two earpieces is meant to run behind your head. The product manual stresses repeatedly, and in all-capital letters, the care one must take in putting on the JB-200: IT’S VERY IMPORTANT TO HAVE THE HEADSET SNUG AGAINST YOUR HEAD. The manual goes as far as urging you to learn to put the headset on in front of a mirror.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Sold under the tagline “Notes and Images, together at last,” NoteMaster is yet another note-editing app for the iPhone. What separates Kabuki Vision’s app from the note-taking crowd is NoteMaster’s focus on more power-user features such as Google Docs syncing, folder organization, and in-line image support.

Unfortunately, some of these features work hastily. For one, Google Docs syncing only works by using a sub-folder of your main Google Docs account; you cannot sync multiple folders.

As a matter of fact, many of NoteMaster’s features seem to involve too many unnecessary complications. For instance, to e-mail a note, you must enter all of your e-mail account information, instead of having NoteMaster interact with the built-in Mail app on your iPhone or iPod touch.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

140 Characters from DollarApp is an app that positions itself as a “style guide for the short form.” The short form in question is Twitter, where each message is limited to—you guessed it—140 characters. The app’s author, Dom Sagolla, was involved with Twitter from its infancy, co-creating the microblogging service.

140 Characters covers the basics of Twitter usage, while spending the most time concentrating on how to get your message across in such a limited amount of space. Sagolla breaks up his suggestions into chapters, and covers areas such as adding value, simplifying your thoughts to fit the format, things to avoid, and how to cultivate followers. Each topic is discussed at length, and highlighted by a variety of examples that fit the points being made.

140 Characters is the companion app to the book of the same name by Sagolla. The app acts primarily as the electronic version of the book, which makes it easy to jump from chapter to chapter and follow links within the built-in browser. You’re also provided with links to online clips of the author discussing Twitter, as well a mini Twitter reader that shows updated tweets by many of the people that are discussed in the book.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Throw a zombie across the screen. Then, drop a cement block on some of his friends. You can shoot, throw, and yes, smash a variety of undead monsters in ZombieSmash! a new game by Gamedoctors. Despite a surplus of zombie and defense games on the App Store, “ZombieSmash!” remains a refreshingly unique and unbelievably fun game. Full of memorable weapons, a great physics engine, and some genuinely funny moments, ZombieSmash! is a must-have app.

With the help of gravity, and an arsenal of weapons that would thrill even the most jaded zombie hunter, the player assists our unseen hero Joey in the violent defense of his farmhouse. You’ll have wrecking balls, guns, land mines, falling rocks and many other unconventional weapons at your disposal. The “splatter-engine” developed for this game lets the player dispose of the undead using some of the best working touch-screen controls I’ve played with. You can lift, throw and smash zombies into the ground with just a flick of the finger.

The rag-doll physics and detachable body-parts of the zombies makes killing a ton of fun, the outrageous weapons add another layer of greatness. You can use your fingers to flick the zombies across the screen and watch limbs fly as they are then blown to pieces by landmines or shotgun blasts. Shoot off a zombie’s leg, and these persistent monsters will crawl after you.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Wires? They’re so last century. Since iPhone OS 3.0 introduced support for stereo Bluetooth via the Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP), owners of an iPhone 3G or 3GS, or a second-generation iPod touch, can choose to rock out to their favorite playlists with nary a cable in sight. Jaybird’s $89 Sportsband Bluetooth Headphones SB1 is one such way to wirelessly listen to music from your iPhone and many other Bluetooth-compatible devices, including all recent Macs.

(Because Apple hasn’t yet implemented the Audio/Video Remote Control Profile [AVRCP] on the iPhone, neither headset can directly skip tracks on that device, which is frustrating. In this modern era of oft-shuffled music, track navigation is a frequent necessity, and my biggest hope for iPhone OS 4.0 is that AVRCP will finally arrive. Jaybird mentions that you can use Voice Control, triggered from the headset, to change tracks. That’s factually accurate, but brutally painful: It takes a few seconds to get the headset to start Voice Control, and a few more seconds for the iPhone to be ready to listen. Skipping one track can take 10 seconds from start to finish. It’s a nice idea, but it just doesn’t work that well at all. When you listen to your Mac’s audio using the SB1 headphones, the track-skipping controls work great, so I’ve tried not to hold it against the headset itself that it can’t navigate tracks on the iPhone.)

The SB1 initially inspired a mixed reaction: The headphones look great, but the earpieces themselves, which sit on your ears (supra-aural) instead of over them, struck me as decidedly retro. Also, the flimsy foam pads were loose on the model I tested—I worried about ripping (or, worse, losing) the square pads completely.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

As you may have noticed, it’s a pretty big Internet out there. Searching all of it from the mobile version of Safari on your iPhone is doable, but not always as efficient as you might like. The App Store now includes several increasingly-competitive mobile search apps that aim to help you find what you’re looking for a bit faster. I checked out two.

Dragon Search is very, very cool. The app, free from the folks at Nuance Communications who make the similarly-stunning Dragon Dictation app, emulates the hippest feature in the Google Mobile App for the iPhone: the ability to search with your voice. Tap a button and start talking; a few seconds later, you’ll see your search results.

Dragon Search shows results from Google, Wikipedia, Twitter, YouTube, and the iTunes Store, all on separate tabs. The implementation is truly brilliant—while you’re scrolling through your Google results, Dragon Search secretly loads results from Wikipedia, Twitter, and the rest in the background. So when you switch between the very slick tabs, the other results are already there, waiting for you. It’s awesome. (I do wish Dragon Search would borrow Google Mobile’s proximity-sensor trick, which listens for your search term simply when you bring the iPhone to your ear.)

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

My Color, developed by Shintarou Kinoshita, is a simple eyedropper tool that allows you to select colors from images and save them.

For images, you can either pick an existing photo or—if you’ve got an iPhone—take one with the built-in camera. Then, touch anywhere on the image to pinpoint a color.

When you touch the screen, a magnified circle appears so you can get a precise selection. The magnified circle is offset above your finger to make it easy to see exactly what you’re pointing at. As you move around the image, My Color updates the color selection, which displays as a swatch as well as RGB and HEX numbers.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

HellKid: Hook & Jump is a Sonic the Hedgehog-ish side-scrolling game for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Though challenging and full of great art, the by-the-book platforming and uninspired level design will likely keep this game in a hellish state of obscurity.

The main character, a little devil named Devi, is interested in becoming human and he believes that he can achieve this feat by collecting a bunch of human souls in Hell. His plan underway, Devi approaches a creepy-looking older devil that warns him to cease his interest in humans. Ominous! Our little HellKid (much smaller than Hellboy) then sets out across the burnt landscape of the underworld doing exactly what his wise elder devils told him not to do.

The gameplay is very elementary: HellKid runs all by himself, so all you need to do is tap once to make him jump and tap again and hold to make him reach out and grab things with his Stretch Armstrong-like limbs. In Hell, the only things you need to jump over are ravines and the only things you can grab onto are giant pillars. The game designers at StudioUFO never meant for HellKid to challenge you mentally, but as the main character increases his speed through the levels, the game does challenge your finger reflexes. The main skill that this game will test is your reaction time, so a screen touch just a millisecond too late can send you cascading down a ravine. Falling becomes frustrating because a little mistake forces you to start all over again. Later in the game, you can unlock a round which allows you to start at a faster speed, but the repetitive rounds to get there can get a bit wearisome.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

I’ve been reading Shakespeare since my high school English teacher first shoved a copy of Julius Caesar into my hands two-plus decades ago. And while I enjoy a good comedy, tragedy, or history as much as the next guy, I willingly make the following confession: There are passages where I have a hard time making heads or tails of what the Bard of Stratford-Upon-Avon is going on about.

It’s not because I’m particularly dim—honest—but rather because Shakespeare wrote his plays in the language of his era. And as evocative as words and phrases like “Jack-a-Lent,” “canker-blossom,” and “kickshaw” might have been around the turn of the century—the 17th century, that is—they don’t tend to come up in conversation these days. And that can make it hard to follow along when Mark Antony is giving Brutus, Claudius, and the rest of the gang what-for.

In fact, when I reviewed Readdle’s free Shakespeare, one of my criticisms of this otherwise solid app was that it didn’t contain any footnotes in its collection of Shakespeare’s plays, poems, and sonnets. So if you wanted to squeeze in some Twelfth Night in between your Twittering or check in on Macbeth after checking your mail, you had to do so without any help in navigating the occasionally obscure turn of phrase.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Paper Boat Race is a novel racing game where you race paper boats around a pool—by blowing into your iPhone’s microphone! Developed by I-Play, this 3-D racing game features adorable paper boats, beachballs, and other trappings of your typical pool. While the game has its moments of nerdy joy, blowing into the microphone while trying to control the boat is hard to do—and there’s really anything else going for the game.

To play, simply guide your boat along the swimming pool racetrack by blowing into the microphone and using the accelerometer to steer. While this is a really cute idea, it’s unfortunately not as cute when put into practice. Since the iPhone’s mic is located on the bottom of the phone, you have to hold your iPhone parallel to the ground, blow into the mic, and try to look down as you tilt your boat through the course. This is not impossible, but also not terribly easy on the eyes. Luckily, there are alternative controls—you can tap the on-screen buttons to go backward and forward at a fairly steady speed, and if you need a boost you can simply blow once into the mic.

The tracks are marked with flags, and you have to guide your boat between the successive sets of flags in order to complete a lap. A nice touch is that if you miss a set of flags, you can just aim your boat at any other set of flags and you’ll automatically be placed in front of the flags you’re supposed to go through.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Developers Intersog and Dirty Edge seek to redefine the tower defense genre with Hellemental. Unlike traditional tower defense games where the player sets up a slew of strategically placed weapons in hopes of slaughting lemming-like foes in an assembly line fashion, Hellemental instead relies on the magical abilities of a single defender. While this concept may remind iPhone gamers of Archmage Defense, the difference between the games is more than the morality of the protagonist. Unfortunately, Hellemental's twist on the tower defense genre doesn't garner a better gaming experience.

You play as Elija, a wizard in charge of your kingdom's defense in this 3-D fantasy world. Elija is a disturbingly short (hence the tower) wizard who has offered his help to the defenseless people of Norlisk for a fist full of gold. The miniscule magical mercenary is hired by cities which are threatened by Hellementals—creatures who use the elements of earth, fire, wind, and water for evil.

The game plays out with Elija perched on his tower awaiting the troublesome creatures' assault. Instead of setting up strategic defenses, the player merely controls where Elija hurls his magic by tapping on enemies. Different types of weapons can be purchased, however the gold earned per level will not supply you with much ammo. There are seventeen weapon types altogether, four for each element, and one with infinite ammo, in case you run out of the good stuff. The only strategy needed involves deciding which weapon to use against each enemy; for instance, water has the greatest effect against the fire Hellementals, etc. Matching up your weapon with the appropriate enemy type is sadly the deepest strategy gets in Hellemental.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Pocket Informant, a $10 productivity tool from Web Information Solutions, is a beast of an iPhone app—and I mean that in a good way. It’s a dense, feature-rich life management suite that aims to replace the iPhone’s built-in calendar and serve as a task/to-do list manager, too. A free lite version with fewer features is available if you’re not willing to part with the sawbuck.

If the iPhone isn’t your first smartphone, you may have encountered Pocket Informant on a Windows Mobile device. While other versions of the app could be considered true personal information managers (PIMs), the iPhone version doesn’t quite merit that label in my view. That’s because unlike on other platforms, the iPhone version of Pocket Informant doesn’t include notes functionality or an address book. What the app does offer, though, is impressive in scope.

Pocket Informant’s calendar can sync over the Internet with Google Calendar, or with Outlook. Outlook syncing requires a desktop utility for Windows XP and Windows 7 and is still in beta; it will eventually require a one-time fee of $5. As a Google Calendar and Mac user, I didn’t test Pocket Informant with Outlook.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Finally, I can commit felonies from the comfort of my mobile device. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars provides the player with the freedom to rob, kill, illegally race, and of course, steal cars in a gritty urban criminal soap opera. Developed by Rockstar Games, Chinatown Wars is the first title in the infamous series to grace the iPhone and iPod touch. Despite its cartoonish graphics and new platform, Chinatown Wars retains the open-world “sandbox” formula and impressive depth of the previous entries in the GTA series.

The story centers on Huang Lee, a spoiled son of a Triad crime lord, who arrives in Liberty City only to be nearly killed upon his arrival due to an ambush by mobsters. In the process, he loses an important artifact that his uncle Kenny wants him to find to reclaim the family’s honor in the eyes of the Triads. Like all GTA games, you’ll have to take jobs that will require you to commit all sorts of crimes—murder, theft, bribery, drug dealing, and so forth. The cutscenes are done in an animated single cell format that is true to GTA’s unique art style. There’s plenty of dialogue in each mission briefing (which you can skip), and I found it particularly hammy and forced. Without voice actors, it’s hard to understand the tone of the conversation.

There are plot twists every few missions and a parade of different characters you shouldn’t get attached to. You get introduced to a character in one mission, find out a twist about them the next, then watch them die in the third. Life is cheap in Liberty City.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

For fans of college basketball, there’s no better time of year than the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. It’s wall-to-wall hoops action, particularly during the tournament’s opening round when 32 games are crammed into two days. All those bracket-busting Cinderellas, buzzer beaters, and memorable moments—it’s really a wonderful thing for sports fans.

Unless you’re nowhere near a TV. Then, it’s kind of a bummer.

But it doesn’t have to be—not if you have an iPhone or iPod touch, at least. Because in one of those “It can’t be too long before they start making flying cars” moments, CBS Interactive offers a $10 app that lets you watch every NCAA tournament game from your mobile device over any kind of network connection. If you live and breathe college basketball, that’s not just a must-have app—that’s grounds for a Nobel Prize.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Have you ever wondered if you have what it takes to be—wait for it—a valet? Well, thanks to Valet Hustle, you can finally live that dream. Test your parking skills and peed in this $1 Diner-Dash-esque app by Factory Games.

Valet Hustle is quite possibly one of the most addictive games I’ve ever played on the iPhone. The premise is basic—it’s a cross between Tetris and Diner Dash in which you have to park cars and then return them to their owners in a timely fashion. You play the role of either Ren or Akira, a Japanese teenager who has been expelled from school and roped into valet-ing for their father’s restaurant and later, his business associates in the US.

Gameplay is simple. As customers roll up, simply tap on their car and tap on a space to park it. As customers exit, their respective cars must be served up on a first-come, first-serve basis. But don’t worry, you don’t have to remember whose car is whose—numbers will appear over each car in the order they must be returned. As the lot gets more crowded, the game gets more difficult—after all, cars cannot move along the same path at the same time, and thus end up getting stuck if you’re not careful. If you're slow in returning a car or parking a new one, you'll lose points in your satisfaction meter. If it runs out, it's game over. Of course, if you do well, you'll earn valets who will park or return cars for you—very handy when things get busy.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Humanity has struggled with the delicate art of waking up forever, so it comes as no surprise that app developers would jump at the opportunity to tap into the iPhone’s capabilities to revolutionize the alarm clock. Melatonin from Orbicule sets out to do that, though in the end, the $1 app falls short as much as it succeeds.

The first thing you’ll notice about Melatonin is that it’s adorable, with graphics that look something like a mural you might paint on a nursery wall and theme choices of a yellow birdy, a penguin, or a crab on the beach. This gentle, soothing motif is the cornerstone of the app, which aims to wake its user up gradually. Unfortunately, these features don’t outweigh the amount of work required to use Melatonin.

After you launch the app, simply click on the window shade to adjust the settings. You program a wake-up time, whether you’d like the app to play theme sounds or music to wake you, and how many minutes before your alarm you’d like “sunrise” to occur. You also program your “sleep” preferences, meaning you select a bedtime soundtrack and how many minutes you’d like to it to play during “sunset.”

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Rafter by Emantras is a beautifully drawn physics-based puzzle game inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci. The point of the game is to strike a red mine. To get there, you'll need to draw circular or rectangular shapes that bounce through the maze-like levels. Rafter may sound easy, but the increasingly difficult 31 levels are a constant trial of geometry, physics, and sketching ability.

Touch and drag to position and size a circle or rectangle along a narrow area at the top of the screen. Once you have released the object, it is in the hands of the physics of the game. If you sketch the right sized object in the right spot it will bounce through the level and strike the red target goal, or you can use multiple objects to reach the mine. You can sketch up to 18 objects before you must start over, and the fewer objects you use to reach the target, the more points you receive.

The drawing area at the top of the screen is a bit restrictive so you’ll have to sketch very carefully to get what you want. The animations are smooth, and the interactions are fun to watch—especially in levels which feature items like swinging platforms and fans. Levels get progressively more difficult to the point where more luck than skill usually gets you to the target. Most players should be able to finish the game very quickly so hopefully more levels will arrive in updates. The version I played had recently been updated to include 31 levels.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here